Hi everyone, it’s @dr.robtsai.physio
You’re probably going to ask - and yes this session is in person and virtual as well.
I’m looking forward to leveling the playing field with a few principles and approaches we’ve adopted over the years at @danceprehab - to help build environments and ecosystems for dance health, particularly those of our younger dancers.
You can find more details about the course and session agendas at the Eventbrite page or on our website.
The primary impetus for putting this together is because dance health is often framed as personal responsibility. This exercise, that recovery method, and all the personal health hacks we can imagine.
Over the last 20 years I have been privileged to be granted a steady presence in the studio, prepro, collegiate, and professional spaces, as an educator and in more recent years, as a healthcare professional. I’ve had the opportunity the critically observe, examine, and mostly importantly hear from educators and families.
It’s in moments of vulnerability and honesty, which in turn has lent itself to greater levels of clarity, autonomy, and confidence.
As conversations grow deeper, at some point the systems and frameworks that hinder forward progress will have to acknowledge that the only constant is change, even if it is a slow grow.
Looking forward to sharing more thoughts over the next few weeks leading into July.
Let’s move!
LINK IN BIO 👆🏼
#danceprehab #danceprehabeducation #dancehealth #danceeducation
when you read this, know that this isn’t a unique story but there are a multitude of stories like mine, some of which we haven’t heard, some which have yet to be written. many stories will be cut short, put on pause, or silenced.
morality > legality.
recent thoughts on grey areas, fine lines, and community/cultural evolution and continuing to honor the human who has chosen dance.
Edit//
I don’t chat business much on these platforms, but here are some current learning processes:
One thing I am learning is how to coexist with the speed at which things move while still maintaining a real sensitivity to nuance, context, and relationship with those around us.
Business often asks for action, speed, and momentum. It asks you to keep moving, keep communicating, and keep making the work visible. A lot of it actually feeds into a sense of urgency that I acquired from being a professional dancer. Respond quickly or someone else will replace you. Stand out, but also fit in. Fit in, but also stand out. Be unique, be valuable, be special, but do not make too many waves or you might lose opportunity.
You start realizing how many spaces condition people this way. Performance spaces. Professional spaces. Social spaces. Even healthcare and education spaces at times.
Especially as the world changes, we will only have to navigate this tension more.
I continue to find it between visibility and authenticity. Between sustainability and performance. Between wanting to share this work that I have found meaning in while also staying aware of the emotional, cultural, and psychological climates people are already trying to survive inside of.
I am learning that some part of evolution and maturity is learning how to stay in relationship with that tension without becoming consumed by it, desensitized to it, or disconnected from the people on the other side of the work.
Forever navigating!
It’s nearing the end of the season here and the students are managing their academic loads, school and studio end of year recitals, competitions, and everything else that we know that stacks up at the end of the school year.
At this point, we’re not trying to chase peak strength or add more intensity for the sake of it. The goal is not to burn dancers out when their systems are already carrying a lot.
But that doesn’t mean we can’t find ways to maintain athletic qualities, or do a small yet effective amount of exercises. I’m not looking for peak performance. Implementing physical literacy principles means I’m thinking about continued graded exposures to forces that the body will still have to handle, keeping the students engaged, and continuing to find entry points to keep moving in ways to keep the floor up, especially with summer intensives around the corner.
We hit a group isometric session + roll out afterwards 👌🏼
Stay tuned for an upcoming summer seminar for dance educators :)
#danceprehab #physicalliteracy #ltad
There’s nothing wrong with a “dance-specific” warm-up. But I do think there is so much more that can be done with that space.
When I look back at the movers we’ve shared space with over the years, from the studio to college programs to professional companies, the common thread isn’t a single exercise or method. We’re certainly not a method or special approach. We are a space that creates consistency of exposure across time with shared language.
Through our time together, no matter who, or where the mover is, we find opportunities and moments to return to ideas, acknowledge shifts in their physicality, and build towards an awareness and process they can rely on in a world of constant change.
Over time, that becomes something they carry with them. Not a set of exercises, but a way of approaching movement, preparation, training, and learning.
⚠️⬆️ Looking for dance educators who are looking to build tools to enhance their ecosystems | Summer 2026 interest form in bio ⬆️
#danceprehab #warmup #danceeducation #danceeducator
This past spring, we had the unique opportunity to integrate student heath education, educator professional development, and integrated care for the families, students, and staff at the Orange County School of the Arts @weareocsa
✅Student education consisted on athletic principles and recovery concepts.
✅Professional development included sowing seeds on recognizing pain, communication, and building environments conducive for health.
✅Onsite work for students for additional touch points and deepening of health realities and performance needs 🙃
🤝Lots of moving pieces here and we are grateful to all the @weareocsa departments for their efforts and particularly for @ocsacmd director @limmyjack + wellness educator Jeannette DeGrave , @ocsabcd director @paigeamicon , and @ocsa_balletfolklorico director @marlenepenamarin for creating the spaces to make these experiences a reality for the students and staff.
🌱Lastly, thank you to all the @weareocsa families past and present that we have had the privilege to cross paths with over the years. It takes a village and you are as much part of this ecosystem as anyone.
🙏🏼🙏🏼🙏🏼Thank you again @limmyjack for spearheading much of these efforts and for providing the space to demonstrate these first few steps to true health integration as a reality.
Here to continue building frameworks for the next generation of movement artists.
LET’S MOVE!
#physicaltherapy #performingarts #danceprehab
Thank you @drbrookewinderpt@csulbdance for the (continual!) invite and privilege of sharing with your students! It has been a pleasure watching from the sidelines seeing the program grow and to see new and familiar faces from past and present continue to intertwine.
1 - Principles behind GPP and asking the right questions to build and maintain the right strength. Maintaining capacity baselines to better build skills.
2 - Importance of preparation through full ranges, particularly through the hip joint (clamshells are great, but we can do better).
3 - David Parsons’ “Caught” = best example of stretch shortening cycle and pogos. Capacity and skill directly related to dance performance.
4 - DNS sideplank star goodness with multidirectional reaches to prep dynamic core awareness with more context.
5 - The RAMP framework as lifelong consistent principles for movement preparation and performance prep.
6 - principles of acceleration, deceleration, reacceleration - not always about dance movement, but an entry point into athletic qualities that dance will ask of us.
@danceprehab.education
#dance #danceprehab #health #performance
Looking to put something together this summer.
This seminar will be both movement and lecture based, informed by the different spaces I’ve been in over the years and by seeing how dance science and training concepts have actually taken hold in tangible ways across real teaching and training environments.
Movement is often the entry point into many of these topics. It gives us a way to open up conversations around health, changes in the body, and the realities of a dance environment that is constantly evolving and asking more of the human behind the dancer.
Topics will include pain education, class structure, translating training principles, growth and maturation, the youth artist-athlete and early specialization, navigating dance culture, and communication strategies that support accountability to dancer health and well-being.
A lot of this is about application. Not just more information, but how these ideas can actually live in an ecosystem to better support the people who entrust us with their training.
⬆️Interest form in Linktree⬆️
So… what’s the point of all of this?
Reimagining dance health has always meant spending some time on the ground to stay connected to the ebb and flow of the community.
Yes I’m in a lot of places, and yes it’s a challenge to balance it all, but it gives such a unique perspective to this work now, and how this work, and my role as a physio AND educator, HAS to evolve with the times and cultural shifts.
Being granted the privilege of these spaces means we get to wholeheartedly be a part of the dancers’ journey. I’m not here just to learn about a high school vs college vs pre-pro vs professional experience.
Finding roots in the non-clinical space means we learn how to make informed heath decisions at @danceprehab and @danceprehab.education with nuance and context, through these transitions of life, to walk alongside you and help to make sense of this constantly changing world.
Thanks @matsuyamatsai for allowing me to do silly things.
Pain is complex, and it’s not uncommon to see pain and discomfort manifested in a way that doesn’t reflect tissue damage, but rather apprehension, anxiety, and fear.
We’re not invalidating pain either, but rather to listen and recognize. As a physio, it’s not about finding the “right” exercise, rather, about finding the right entry point.
I learned this lesson not as a dance physio, but working at a regular outpatient gig where I saw many low social economic status individuals. They worked multiple jobs to support their families and “rest” and regular fitness were not luxuries they had. Working with them meant given space, being purposeful with movement, and making movement meaningful to them.
@danceprehab@danceprehab.education
For more word salad from me: TikTok: @dr.robtsai.physio :)
#danceprehab #physicaltherapy #physiotherapy #pain #paineducation
Some other great resources:
@therealdoczoff@laura.painspecialist@paingeeks
and work by Lorimer Moseley
thoughts after working with dancers (aka humans who have chosen dance) across the life spectrum - from studio to collegiate to pre-pro to professional.
Skills vs capacity will ebb and flow and component each other. “Dance-specific” definitely has its place in how I approach healing, recovery, and training. Working on building up the human means the dance-specific things will stick.
@danceprehab@danceprehab.education
For more word salad from me: TikTok: @dr.robtsai.physio :)
#danceprehab #physicaltherapy #physiotherapy
