Bio-individuality in Street Dance: A guide to injury prevention and performance enhancement

Class Description: This course will explore how your past and present dance experiences have influenced your posture and affected your freedom of movement in dance, eventually causing injury. We will identify some patterns of weakness and strength that have restricted your movement and provide corrective exercises to re- align and restore your body’s natural bio-individuality.

BIO: Paula Webster PT is a registered physical therapist specializing in adolescents, young adult, and adult athletes and dancers since 2004. She is currently the Director at Canton Physical Therapy in 3 locations. She established the DANSE Approach program in 2014 which focuses on dynamic and static posture and how it improves movement, conserves energy during performance and utilizes a kinetic chain approach to injury prevention. Dance medicine program incorporates a bio-individual plan to create more stable results in performance. She has been successful in treating Connecticut dancers at the high school, college, and professional level to improve performance consistency. Paula ‘s experience as a clinician led her to educating physical therapy students at the college level in the areas of research, adolescent strength, and conditioning with focus on the unique developmental conditions in the adolescent dancer.

In Connecticut she has worked with dancers from Earl Mosely Institute of the Arts (EMIA) for their summer intensive in Kent from 2011-2018 and virtually in 2020, Nutmeg Conservatory and Valley Ballet. At EMIA, she managed a program for injury prevention and performance enhancement using dynamic alignment concepts and muscle re-education. Dancers treated in the program were students at Boston ballet, Boston University, Joffrey, Alvin Ailey, New York City Ballet, Pennsylvania Ballet, and Pilobolus.

She worked closely with Earl Mosely, Meredith Rainey, Rennie Harris, Deborah Winegart, and Juan Carlos Penuela who supported the program. Paula conducted education modules on the care of the foot, pelvic and hip alignment, breathing techniques for relaxation, trunk stability and shoulder care. In New York she has worked with dancers at Manhattan Movement and Arts Center in NYC, workshops for Hearts of Men at Alvin Ailey for body awareness and performance enhancement. Paula has conducted workshops for Rennie Harris (Pure Movement) in Philadelphia and is currently involved in the Rennie Harris University hip-hop and street dance certification program. She has been collaborating with Dr. Harris on the importance of self-assessment for dancers to prevent injury. The certification program is offered to dancers all over the United States. Educational cyphers have been

held in Boulder Colorado and Miami Florida in 2021-2022.