How to Navigate and Prevent Injury as a Choreographer

While creating Crime and Punishment for American Ballet Theatre and Lady Macbeth for Dutch National Ballet, Helen Pickett suffered a pair of knee injuries. Her treatment for one, a lateral meniscus tear, involved wearing a large brace that limited her mobility and impacted her creative process, preventing her from demonstrating full-out. For Pickett, whose choreography typically uses the whole body working in opposition or ricocheting movement, limited mobility created an extra challenge. “I believe in the total coordination of the body,” she says.

But dancemakers are known for their creativity. For choreographers facing injury, making adjustments to their creative practices and daily regimens can help ensure they’re making dances for years to come.

Risky Business

Injury is seemingly always on dancers’ minds, but choreographers are at risk too. “Dancers need to train like an athlete and be able to perform like an artist,” says Dr. Emily Sandow, PT, DPT, OCS, who treats dance artists at NYU Langone’s Harkness Center for Dance Injuries. This advice isn’t just important for dancers. “It also applies to the choreographer,” she says.

In fact, according to Marika Molnar, PT, LAC, a physical therapist specializing in the treatment of dance artists, choreographers assume additional risk. Dancemakers, especially if they are transitioning from a performance career, might place less emphasis on their physical fitness, leading them to become more injury prone. Additionally, it might be harder for choreographers to access care resources than it is for company dancers.

“I’ve noticed that, as a choreographer, once you teach a portion of the piece, [the rehearsal process] moves on to the director,” says Bo Park, a dance artist and educator based in New York City. “While that’s happening, I’m not doing anything.” Molnar says that Park’s experience isn’t uncommon, which makes it tricky for choreographers to stay warm when on the job: “Something comes into their mind and they feel they have to show it, and their body is just not ready to do that kind of movement.” The most common ailments she treats in choreographers are ankle sprains and injuries to the knees and lumbar spine, areas which are especially prone to tweaks when dancing cold.

Making Adjustments

When injury strikes, choreographers need to adapt in multiple ways. Pickett says she relied heavily on her assistant, Sarah Hillmer, to demonstrate choreography when she wasn’t able. As she was already in the habit of talking through the movement she sets on dancers, adjusting to rely more on verbal instruction was less of a challenge. “I describe my choreography very much through how I feel, or how I think it would feel,” she explains, adding that she often “sings” musicality and finds other ways to make choreography a multisensory process.

Injury can prompt choreographers to reconsider their daily routines. Park says that she’s had to make changes over the years depending on the project she’s working on, the type of floor she’s dancing on, and whether she’s traveling or at home. For example, incorporating more stretching into her warm-up and cooldown routines helps ease stress on her ankles and IT bands caused by frequently switching between different flooring. When navigating a tight deadline or demanding job, Park will arrange for substitute teachers to handle her classes so she can take more time for rest. “It’s difficult to say no to a lot of
things, but I’ve learned that sometimes I have to,” she says.

Another change Pickett made post-injury was to her footwear. She began wearing socks over sneakers in the studio to get support without friction. In general, Sandow says that choreographers, like dancers, should make sure their footwear is up to the demands of the choreography. “The right shoe for the right floor surface is what you want to see,” she says.

Healing and Prevention

Choreographers often have busy schedules, but they lose the built-in conditioning that comes with consistent training. Because of this, it’s important to create and maintain an effective fitness routine. Molnar and Sandow encourage choreographers to continue to train in their primary dance genres and to maintain a supportive cross-training regimen. Choreographers should prioritize warming up before rehearsal, Sandow says, “so when it’s time to demonstrate, you’re physically prepared.”

Because Pickett’s schedule requires frequent travel, she says she works “exercise snacks” into her day, using breaks or time on public transit to do small, nonintrusive exercises. “It’s like firing the muscle in a short way,” she says. Molnar adds that something as simple as forward, backward, and sideways walks around the studio can be an easy and effective warm-up for choreographers. She also emphasizes the importance of weight-bearing cross-training, as opposed to low-impact activities like swimming. “They’re going to be showing things that are on their feet, so usually they need to do exercises that are on their feet,” she explains.

Multifaceted Wellness

Marika Molnar, a physical therapist who specializes in working with dance artists, encourages choreographers to not only bear their physical fitness in mind, but also to clue into other aspects of well-being, like nutrition and mental health. “You can’t work 12 hours a day without taking a break, drinking some water intermittently, and eating to keep your mental faculties going,” she says, adding that throughout the day choreographers should also work in 10 to 15 minutes of slow, calm nasal breathing and meditation, which has been shown to be an effective stress reducer.