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Un centre de santé pour danseurs ouvre
ses portes à Los Angeles
Les blessures font partie intégrante de la vie et
de la carrière de bon nombre de danseurs. Pour répondre à leurs
besoins spécifiques en matière de traitement
et de prévention, un nouveau centre de santé pour
danseurs vient d’ouvrir ses portes à Los Angeles.
Pour en apprendre davantage sur ce modèle qui donne à réfléchir,
nous vous proposons un article de Lynne Heffley, paru dans
le Los Angeles Times, le 19 mars 2007.
New center for 'dance medicine'
Cedars-Sinai facility is among just a few offering comprehensive
treatment in this realm.
Young dancers sprain ankles.
Aging dancers face knee and hip replacements. And along
with the wear and tear — the
fractures, ruptures, strains and bruises that can threaten
a dancer's career and well-being — comes an ever
greater need for customized treatment.
Today, though, brings
a new option for worn-down members of the local dance community:
the opening at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center of a facility
specializing in dance medicine.
The first of its kind in
Los Angeles, the Cedars-Sinai/USC Dance Medicine Center
will offer comprehensive injury treatment, rehabilitation
and preventive care tailored to professional and recreational
dancers.
It joins the Harkness Center for Dance Injuries
in New York and the recently announced Institute for Dance
Medicine at the University of Washington in Seattle as
one of only a handful of such facilities in the country.
The
center, in Cedars-Sinai's Mark Goodson Building, came about
through the collaborative efforts of Cedars-Sinai orthopedic
surgeon Glenn Pfeffer and dancer Margo Apostolos, director
of USC's Dance and Movement Program. Under their direction,
the center will address a broad spectrum of dance- and
movement-related injuries.
"We want to treat dancers
of all areas and all ages," Apostolos
said. Los Angeles represents a greater population of people
who engage in one form of dance or another — including
salsa, folkloric and hip-hop — than any other city
in the world, said Pfeffer, a foot and ankle specialist. "We
think in terms of all athletics that involve motion and
jumping, from aerobics to ice skaters and cheerleaders," he
said.
The new center's full-time medical team was recruited
from Cedars-Sinai staff and chosen for expertise in sports
medicine and related areas and for an expressed interest
in dance, added Pfeffer, a onetime competitive ballroom
dancer who was sidelined by a foot injury.
The team consists
of three physical therapists trained in the treatment of
dance conditions and five "dance
doctors" — orthopedists with foot and ankle,
knee and shoulder, back and hip, and adolescent and adult
sports-medicine specialties.
Beyond treating injuries, the
goal of the center, which also features a Pilates gym and
underwater treadmills, is to teach dancers to prevent injuries
and to treat them with an emphasis on minimally invasive
surgical techniques that result in the ability to bear
weight on the injured limb sooner and in quicker recovery
of range of motion, Pfeffer said.
"I think it's invaluable," said
Joe Tremaine, L.A.-based choreographer, dancer and teacher. "To
have this localized in L.A. will be beneficial to L.A.
dancers in the professional and amateur dance communities
and to any visiting company."
Scientific research related
to movement injuries, including the use of motion capture
as a diagnostic tool, is another planned component. The
center will also "plug in" to
national dance medicine programs, Pfeffer said.
Apostolos, a member of the International Assn. for Dance
Medicine and Science, has held sports-medicine positions
at Stanford, NASA and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in
La Ca–ada Flintridge.
"I think that a significant part of my role in this
center," she said, "is to be the voice of dance,
the liaison who works with the dancers and can communicate
to the doctors."
To that end, as part of preparations during the last year,
surgeons and therapists chosen to work for the center were
asked to don leotards themselves.
"It's what I call my 'dance for doctors' class," Apostolos
said.
"It did two things," said Pfeffer, who participated. "One,
there was education, and two, the quotes we got were, 'This
is hard.' " That kind of empathy is essential, he
thinks.
One potential problem for the center is that dancers,
who notoriously exist on a shoestring without company benefits,
may not be able to readily avail themselves of its assistance.
As part of the Cedars-Sinai hospital, it is a private facility.
Pfeffer
acknowledged that "the problem with healthcare
in general in the U.S. is that many people are uninsured." But "that
said, we're all committed to helping the dance community
as much as we possibly can."
Pfeffer's passion for
dance medicine grew from his experience as a junior member
of the cardiothoracic team involved in famed choreographer
George Balanchine's heart surgery nearly three decades
ago.
"I held George Balanchine's heart in my hand," he
said. "My job was to hold his heart very, very still
while the main surgeon did the bypass surgery."
Afterward,
Pfeffer and Balanchine talked in the intensive care unit.
"One
night, he was comparing doctors and dancers and how they
express their knowledge in different ways," Pfeffer
recalled. "He said, 'Never minimize the intelligence
of a dancer who uses his or her body to teach us such great
things.' I remember thinking, 'One day, I'm going to take
care of dancers.'
Sounds "corny," he mused, "but
there are some things in life that play out that way. "
Source :
Lynne Heffley
Los Angeles Times
Retourner
au sommaire du numéro de mars 2007
© i-mouvance est édité
par le Regroupement québécois de la danse.
Les articles signés expriment l'opinion de leurs
auteurs et pas nécessairement celle du RQD.
Pour toute information : info@quebecdanse.org
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