Critical Reflection Portfolio

Hi Everyone, here's the link to my Critical Reflection, enjoy reading!
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1-MxdvnnfLwvLXimWtOxUk5uzZSehQNVycHW3YLPEpSU/edit

"The Healthier Dancer Project" - Literature Review

Literature Review

Dancers’ Health Pilot Scheme article ( Dance UK News Issue 66 Autumn 2007)

http://www.danceuk.org/media/cms_page_media/136/Dancers%27%20Health%20Pilot%20Scheme%20Article%20DUKnews-66-HDP.pdf

Executive Summary of Vision and Pilot (Briefing Paper 1, DCMS Dance Forum- Dance Health 22 January2007)

http://www.danceuk.org/media/cms_page_media/136/Exec%20Summary%20of%20Vision%20and%20Pilot%20Final%20PL.doc

I have been reading over a lot of articles that all relate to the same project “ The Healthier Dancer Programme” which has been publicised by Dance UK magazine and is taking place over the course of the next 2 years.

The articles and reviews relate very well to the inquiry that I am hoping to undertake, which will involve “An exploration of how dancers work through injury and injury prevention from a dancer’s point of view”.

The fact that the inquiry I plan to take on is so topical is really exciting. I’m so relieved that a big organisation is as passionate about this subject as I am.

I shall be watching the Healthier Dancer Programme closely as I am very intrigued as to how it works out and feel that this is exactly what professional dancers need to have the best chance of sustaining their careers for a longer amount of time. If anything I hope that the project will heighten awareness of dance injury to dancers and companies and hopefully provide knowledge into injury prevention especially over cure.

I’m interested in finding out my own data from dancers that I know personally rather than just looking at numbers. I am looking forwards to looking at how some of my colleagues and associates injuries have evolved and their personal experiences so that I can understand from stories rather than numbers.

In a nutshell here is my review from the different articles that I have been reading on “The Healthier Dancer Programme”.

Since 2006 Dance UK have been promoting a national project that aims to help freelance dancers who are not entitled to free specialist medical healthcare to recover from their injuries. The project is a big deal for dancers and promises a twice yearly screening to them for their injuries and free injury care provided by dance specialists. The project is a brilliant idea and will last 2 years providing treatment equivalent to what is already available to elite sports athletes. It is hoped that the project will help to understand the infrastructure that will be needed to set up “hub-sites” around the UK where dancers can go and see specialists such as physiotherapists, nutritionists, doctors, physiologists, and psychologists etc to help treat and prevent injuries.

Finally it has been realised that all dancers need affordable access to specialist treatment and advice, not just those dancers fortunate enough to work in the top two or three dance companies.

The Project will collaborate with the top companies whose dancers already have access to specialist advice and treatment enabling a larger amount of data to be provided and be used to help research into the causes of certain injuries, how they can be treated and prevented in the future.

I feel that it has taken too long for action to be taken towards helping dancers through injury and that elite sports athletes should have funded access to injury specialists and dancers not.

The Healthier Dancer Programme states that the project will “hugely benefit dancers and enable them to push the boundaries of performance to new heights, safely”

Just imagine the new possibilities and what could be achieved by dancers if we knew more about minimising certain risks that could cause injury, or knew more about preventing injury. The standard of dance could improve phenomenally and the limits of performance could be endless. Keeping dancers at their peaks for longer means new skills can be mastered and adapted and that it is worth spending the money on becoming a professional dancer in the first place.

The cost of the project is £500, 000. I am sceptical about where the Healthier Dancer Project is going to get its money from. This is a large amount of money and some of the comments about the project were against it arguing if we can really justify spending this amount of money on researching injury and injury prevention when there are more desperate needs in the world.

I am very excited about the Healthier Dancer Programme, but is there a way that it could be done by spending less money?  

In my opinion we can justify spending money on this cause. So much money is spent on saving lives maybe it’s time that a small amount or money in the overall perspective of what is given to charity every year is spent on researching how to make the most of enjoying the lives we are living.