Canada may soon be home to a new healthy dancer organization. Medical professionals, dance instructors and dancers came together to share and discuss ideas at the second annual Healthy Dancer Canada symposium on September 26th, 2009. The conference was centered on how to foster healthy dancers in Canada, and the importance of doing so. The full-day event, complete with a warm-up to start and a dance performance halfway through, hosted eight short presentations focussed on topics such as full-body wellness, injury prevention, nutrition, training and rehabilitation. The symposium attracted specialists from across Canada as presenters and attendees. But the coordinators aren’t satisfied just yet. A goal of this years’ meet was to decide if the creation of an organization focussed on fostering healthy dancers is needed; the answer was yes. Coordinators and delegates of the event recognized that the success of the symposium, a future association, and the application of dancer-specific health information relies heavily on the ability to communicate and work together. The consensus of the group was that not one party, whether it be dancers or medical professionals, can further advance healthy dancing alone; there is a need to work as a team, be aware of each other and be comfortable seeking guidance from one another. Symposium coordinator, Stephanie Pilley-Correia, is looking for ideas as to how a Healthy Dancer conference can benefit dance artists; she can be reached at healthydancercanada@gmail.com.
Tagged: Conference, Health & Wellness, Uncategorized, Various, National
