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Dance Medicine

Agile Physical Therapy is the leading dance physical therapy clinic in Birmingham

&

The #1 choice by Birmingham's professional dancers

General Information

Dance Medicine is the medical practice of treating, healing, and preventing dance-related injuries through physical therapy and other forms of medicine. Other sports can also benefit from this style of treating: including gymnastics, ice skating, dance team, cheerleading, and even synchronized swimming. Agile Physical Therapy focuses on promoting good health and wellness in addition to fitness training, rehabilitation, and injury prevention through education.

Our physical therapists are trained in dance-specific techniques and fully understand the physical demands of dance classes, rehearsals, performances, and competitions. We know the vocabulary and understand the intricacies of how all dancers move, no matter the type (or types) of dance performed. We will not be satisfied until our dance patients are active again and until we have fulfilled our commitment to educating them on proper alignment, risk-reducing techniques to prevent injury, and efficient movement.

Treatment

Dancers are prone to many injuries due to overuse, muscle imbalances, lack of appropriate flexibility, weakness, joint instabilities, improper fitting shoes, high impact, improper technique, environmental, and malalignment issues. To combat these causes, our clinicians use multiple methods to correct current injuries while providing the tools to prevent future injuries. We not only perform testing of muscle strength, flexibility, joint mobility, body alignment, and posture, but we also assess dance technique and sport specific movement. The use of Pilates and other methods train the whole body for the most efficient and balanced movement quality for return to dance.

Our Methods:

Traditional Strengthening Methods - Theraband, free weights, functional tasks
Balance/Coordination Techniques
Manual Therapy Techniques - massage, stretching, mobilization
Sport Specific Skill Training
Pilates Techniques - breath/movement coordination & full body strengthening
Fabrication of Protective Padding
Bracing & Taping - Athletic Taping & Kinesiotaping
Injury Prevention Education

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Pointe Shoe Fitting

Since dancers are unique artists and athletes, they have specialized shoes in which they perform in and use daily. An improper fitting shoe of any athlete can contribute to injuries. Our physical therapists at Agile PT not only understand your shoe needs, we have been in them as dancers; therefore, we know the importance of a proper fitting shoe. At Agile Physical Therapy, we take the time to analyze how our dancers move and perform in each pair of shoes.

There are two ways in which we can analyze your shoe fit:

1) As part of your physical therapy treatment sessions

2) As an independent shoe assessment not related to medical treatment

Fees will be paid at the time of the visit and cannot be billed to insurance. In very special cases, we can meet you at a local dance store and assess multiple shoes.