1. Dancers get injured frequently from the physical demands of their art form, but often cannot afford regular physical therapy. Most professional dance companies provide dancers access to physical therapists to prevent minor injuries from becoming major and reduce costs from lost performers. 2. While Alma College's athletic trainers assist athletes, dancers cannot access this support despite also representing the college and risking injury. A recent last-minute injury to a dancer for an upcoming performance highlights these issues. 3. Hiring a part-time physical therapist with their own practice to also work with Alma College dancers could provide immediate care and test the costs and benefits, following the model of other colleges and dance companies. This would enhance safety, the

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To: Dr. Jeff Abernathy
From: Alexandra Bourne, Haley Valente, Jackson Conner
RE: Dance Company Members Access to Athletic Trainers
15 April 2015
Dancers follow a rigorous schedule, twisting into unnatural positions and movements on
a daily basis, pushing our bodies past their limits, all for the sake of our athletic art. As a result,
injuries are very common. From a strained muscle to skeletal damage such as a fractured foot,
not a day goes by in the life of a dancer where something does not hurt. As a result, we spend
much of our time paying for physical therapy in an attempt to bring our bodies back to working
order, get back into peak performance shape, classes, and rehearsals, and prolong the time we
have left to dance.
Most professional dance companies allow their dancers access to a physical therapist
free of charge. Companies cannot afford to lose a handful of dancers throughout the season to
minor injuries that can easily be prevented. As the salary of a professional dancer is not very
large, oftentimes the dancers cannot afford to pay for physical therapy themselves. These
dancers are allowed, if not required, a minimum of one visit to the therapist per week to assess
any new injuries and receive therapy for any ongoing injuries. Should any new and serious
injuries arise, they are allowed immediate access to the therapist. The situation is very similar
to that of a dancer in a college program. College dancers get injured just as frequently, and
oftentimes do not have the money to afford physical therapy on a regular basis.
Athletic trainers for Alma College provide assistance to sports teams in the Athletic
Department (including the cheer team, though they are not a part of the NCAA). The job duties

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of an Alma College athletic trainer consist of overseeing the health care of all athletic programs,
caring for current injuries, and injury prevention through assistance such as ice tubs,
ultrasounds, heating, taping, and physical therapy. They work with injuries such as fractures,
sprains, referrals to and recovery from surgery, and much more. Athletes under the jurisdiction
of the Athletic Department are allowed to visit the athletic trainers as often as needed, even on
a daily basis, to assess any physical ailments they may have received during their training, or
even on their own time, as it effects their athletic performance. Furthermore, the athletic
trainers and students in the program attend the athlete’s events so that they are on hand if any
injuries happen on site that require immediate attention.
Despite dance being as physically demanding as any other sport and dancers becoming
injured just as frequently and seriously, the athletic trainers cannot help dancers to even give
us ice should any injury occur, simply because we are not sponsored by the Athletic
Department. This raises a question that has been asked many times with dance: artists, or
athletes? The answer is both. We are artistic. Our sport is beautiful. However, it is also
extremely difficult and takes a toll on the body. We jump and run for the college, and become
injured in our artistically challenging sport just as any other athlete. Not all athletes wear
jerseys or uniforms. However, though we dance for the college dance company and highland
dance company, though we are given scholarships to do so, the college offers us no aid should
we become injured while taking class or rehearsing as they do with the cheerleaders and other
athletes. This may be viewed as a reputational concern to the college. By not supporting non-
athletic activities, some may perceive a lack of support for non-athletic programs, which could

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adversely impact the school’s brand and reputation. This could look like the college is favoring
athletes, rather than caring for all the students. Some may feel unimportant and unvalued.
The lack of an available physical therapist raises a myriad of problems. The Alma College
Dance Company and the Alma College Highland Dancers are small companies. As such, we often
do not have enough dancers to have understudies should a last-minute injury occur. Therefore,
should a dancer get injured the day before a show, it becomes extremely difficult to re-arrange
the choreography that has been rehearsed for months to accommodate a missing dancer.
The Alma College Dance Company had a recent problem that highlights these concerns.
On Friday, March 13, 2015, exactly one week before the opening night of the Alma College
Dance Company Spring Concert, an emergency rehearsal had to be called to re-arrange a 15
minute piece because one dancer injured her foot and could no longer perform. The injury
devastated the dancer. That care for her injury is not easily accessible is worse. She has to go to
the hospital instead of to a physical therapist on campus, and because of this she was unable to
receive the needed care as rapidly as other athletes on campus may have with the provisions
that they have available. Furthermore, having to go off campus for help in the hospital means
there is financial stress added to the emotional devastation of being unable to dance for a
significant amount of time. The situation could possibly have been prevented when the dancer
had first started feeling pain, or helped post-injury by visiting an athletic trainer. If aid were
available on campus as it is for Athletic Department sponsored activities free of charge the
situation would be even better, as she would be able to receive the care she needs
conveniently and without the added stress of the financial impact.

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Something as small as shin splints could take a dancer out of class and performances,
and could easily be solved through even one visit to an athletic trainer for advice (as track
runners often do for the same injury). However, if we do not have access to aid, a small, simple
injury could quickly and easily become a serious injury that could potentially jeopardize any
chance of that person dancing again. This could also put at risk any scholarship money that
person may have received for dance (according to Alma College’s Director of Financial Aid,
Michelle McNier, this decision would be made on a case by case basis “in collaboration with the
chair for the program, the financial aid director, and possibly the Vice President of enrollment
or finance”).
However, athletic trainers at Alma College are limited to working only with students
under the jurisdiction of the Athletic Department, rather than providing assistance to any
athletically active student on campus due to licensing and insurance restrictions. This, and a
shortage of resources, makes opening access to the current athletic trainer’s on staff to the
dancers impractical, as has been proposed in years past. But as the field of athletic trainers has
expanded, one of Alma College’s athletic training students, a member of the Alma College
Dance Company who has a wish to become a physical therapist for dancers, has gone to the
Grand Rapids Ballet to job shadow their physical therapist (an opportunity that she had to set
up for herself because the college does not have any collaborations to work with dance physical
therapy). Dave Asselin, DPT of PT 360 in Grand Rapids, Michigan, began a partnership with the
Grand Rapids Ballet Company in 2011 as the official physical therapist of the company. He
works part-time for the Grand Rapids Ballet—seeing each dancer for one hour every week and
attending tech week and performances—and runs his own practice the rest of the time.

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This idea of hiring a part-time physical trainer who has a practice of their own to the
college who can look at the dancers is a model that has successfully been implemented with
dance companies across the nation, and could prove to be a short-term solution to the college.
This would allow the dancers immediate access to aid, and allow the college to test the cost
benefit of hiring a physical therapist before committing. The therapist could be aligned with the
Wilcox Medical Center so they had access to medical facilities and potentially work with the
hospital to get a discount on supplies. An additional benefit of this would be building a
relationship with the nursing program and further establishing the reputation of the college (as
Alma College is the only D3 school in Michigan with a BS in Nursing).
Furthermore, this would give the college a competitive edge. Very few colleges have a
physical therapist or athletic trainer that can see members of the dance program. Adding even
a part-time physical therapist would create a stronger dance program, increase safety for the
students, enhance the college experience, and help both current and potential students to have
more faith in the college. By giving the college this competitive edge, the brand of the college
becomes better. According to the college’s Vice President of Finance, Todd Friesner, “you can’t
put a dollar value on the brand of Alma College,” and it’s about “how the dancers represent the
college, not just locally, but nationally as well”. Hiring a physical therapist that works with the
dance program would establish a stronger reputation for the dance program and the college.
In a survey of current Alma College Dance Company members, nine of the eleven who
responded said that “knowing that a particular dance company offered complementary physical
therapy would indeed positively affect my decision to join”. Given this response, a physical
therapist for dance would attract more students, as it would differentiate us from other

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colleges. Another dancer responded, “the knowledge of a dance program at a college that has
free access to a physical therapist would impact my decision to attend. After having suffered
back injuries in high school that required physical therapy (provided at a cost to my parents)
having access to an on-site, referral-free physical therapist would be nice”. Another dancer said,
“I didn’t know that the athletic trainers were completely unavailable to us (even for ice) and if I
had it would have been a major issue. I have chronic pain in both my knees and tend to get shin
splints during every show week. This happened at my home studio as well, where I had access
to my father who is a physical therapist, and it was always nice to know that he would be there
if I had questions or the pain got horrible. It would have been a major plus in my book if the
company members here were offered at least minimal physical therapy or athletic training
access. This is something that has bugged me since I started here”.
Personally, I know that access to a physical therapist was considered when I was looking
at colleges. I have had multiple injuries in the past including another sprained ankle and hip
problems that have required me to attend physical therapy. Much like the student above
responded, it was at a cost to my mother, as the physical therapist for the Grand Rapids Ballet
did not partner with them until after my injury, and was only able to see the company
members, not students. As previously stated, I have gotten another sprained ankle at Alma
College. Due to a shortage of finances and difficulty in transportation, I was unable to receive
aid for this injury. As such, I had to sit out most of my dance classes for the final few weeks of
the year. Having someone on campus who could help me get back to peak shape would be
immensely appreciated. Furthermore, knowledge that I had absolutely no access on campus

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even to advice from an athletic trainer would have made me question my consideration to join
the college.
Ideally, this proposal for a part-time physical therapist to work with the dancers is a
short-term solution. Long-term would require hiring a full-time physical therapist who could be
part of the faculty as an expansion to the athletic training program. As above stated, athletic
trainers who work with dancers are in ever-increasing demand. This job field has greatly
expanded, and the athletic training department could benefit immensely from this partnership.
The physical therapist could be a full-time physical therapist who could work with the dancers,
and a part-time professor. In response to the survey, one dancer responded “after having ran
track for two years at the college level and having access to the athletic training facilities—but
only as a NCAA athlete—I think that it would be worthwhile to first begin partnering with the
AT department to develop a class in which AT students are taught methods for working with
dancers”. Having a physical therapist on staff who also taught classes to students on how to
work with dancers not only supports and improves the athletic training program, improves the
programs reputation, and helps students with this developing field of work, but also helps the
athletic department by relieving some of the workload.
In my interview with the college’s Vice President of Finance, Mr. Friesner estimated that
the cost of adding one full-time physical therapist to the staff for non-Athletic Department
students (such as the dancers and marching band members) to see would cost the school
approximately $58,000 to $60,000 in salary and benefits. While this does seem expensive, he
also estimated that the cost could be justified. A physical trainer on the faculty to support non-
athletic departments and activities could be a marketing opportunity. Free benefits would

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include physical therapy services, improved reputation and brand of the college and appeal to
the prospective students (the previous testimonials support this strategy). Mr. Friesner
estimated that the addition of even a single physical therapist that members of the dance
companies have access to would increase enrollment to offset the expense by a minimum of
two to three new students whose combined room, board, and tuition exceed the cost of adding
this physical therapist. Furthermore, the reputation of the Scottish heritage of the Kiltie
Dancers and the college itself would improve, drawing in more students to one of the few
schools in the country that offers them the opportunity to continue with this style of dance.
Both the short-term and long-term solutions could be implemented this coming school
year. However, if the college is reluctant to commit to hiring a full-time physical therapist to
begin with, as previously stated, the college could immediately implement the solution of hiring
a part-time physical therapist aligned with their own practice as a trial until the above
estimated cost benefit can be proven. If the solution works (by increasing current student faith
in the college and it’s care of its students and increasing enrollment by advertising that this aid
is available where many places it is not, and even potentially improving the reputation of the
nursing program by aligning the physical therapist with the Wilcox Medical Center), then the
college could hire a full-time physical therapist with the potential of this person also working
part-time as a professor to relieve the workload of the Athletic Training department and expose
its students to this developing job field.
While dancers may not be considered athletes, dance is still an athletic art form that has
its own risk of injuries. That previous efforts by students imploring the college to allow the
dancers access to aid when they become hurt dancing for this school for many years and have

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yet to receive aid is disappointing to say the least. Many of the athletes or professors are
unaware of the situation, and are shocked when they tell the dancers to “just go visit a trainer,”
and discover that the college does not allow us this essential aid. Not having access to aid when
we are injured affects our academic and athletic performance abilities, and potentially affects
our job prospects and scholarships. Should we gain access to aid in the form of the athletic
trainers (restricted or not) or a physical therapist who works specifically with athletic students
outside of the Athletic Department, we would be able to perform better and be healthier. The
risk of serious injury can be lowered significantly, and any less serious injuries that may keep us
from participating in class and rehearsals and performing to the best of our abilities can be
helped and healed, allowing us to return to being the best we can be without harm to ourselves
or our financial situations.