DANCE READY is a program designed by a dear friend of both Dr. Avery Schroyer and Kara Schroyer.

 

DR. DANELLE DICKSON, PT, DPT, OSC is a Performing Arts specialist and the creator of Dansebridge Online, host of the Dancing around Elephants Podcast, co-founder of The Business Female Foundation, and co-founder of the Dance Ready Project.

 

She has worked with DC dance companies, schools and notable companies and performances such as Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, POTUS!, CHICAGO!, Netflix’s Bridgerton, Tony Award winning Jaja’s African Hair Braiding, Dance Institute of Washington and the Kirov Ballet to only name a few.

 

During her pandemic “free time,” Dr. Dickson, along with Dr. Sheyi Ojofeitimi, an another colleague, to create a screening that would assess a dancer’s “baseline fitness.”

 

This assessment score was an objective measurement of muscle strength, balance, flexibility, and other factors that could be used to determine whether a dancer was ready to return to dance after a long layoff or injury — or, as it turned out, after a pandemic lockdown.

 

Wary of what seven months away from the studio had wrought for Ailey dancers, the doctors suggested company members undergo this fitness assessment virtually before classes ramped up. The result: while the pandemic had allowed time for dancers with injuries to heal, almost all were “extremely under-conditioned.” “If we had these people walk into rehearsal and dance full out, we would have had a rash of injuries.”

 

The doctors created a five-week return-to-dance schedule for the ballet that prepared the dancers to safely get back in the studio. But it wasn’t until industry giants like Broadway’s “The Lion King” began calling — that the doctors realized their “baseline fitness assessment” would spark something bigger.

 

Today, under the name Dance Ready Project, Dickson, and her team and associate doctors seek to provide the same “ready” information for dancers that pro sports team coaches have for their athletes. Their Dance Ready Score provides an accurate assessment of where a dancer is today physically, and what areas require attention.

 

Through Dr. Avery’s use of Dr. Dickson’s assessment program, we at Titan Physical Therapy look to elevate the standard of care for dancers by bridging the gap between dance medicine, dancers and their studios.