by Rachel Marchica
Movement Toward Change (MTC) is a podcast that uses dance as a means to cultivate community and start conversations. The podcast covers a variety of topics such as injury prevention, mental health, eating disorders, arts accessibility, career advice and more. It can be found on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and through the website movementtowardchange.org. The podcast is co-hosted by friends and dancers Rachel Marchica and Nicole Testa.
To access the MTC episode described below, click here.
In a Movement Toward Change Podcast episode titled “Dance Injury Prevention and Cross Training” co-hosts speak to Michelina Cassella Kulak, PT. Kulak is the former director of Physical therapy at both Boston Ballet and Boston Children’s Hospital, and she currently serves as the Senior Dance Specialist at the Micheli Center in Waltham, MA. Ms. Kulak describes the muscles that are often weak in dancers which include the lower abdominals, and gluteus maximus and gluteus minimums. As Kulak describes it, a strong core sets the stage for the lower extremities to just follow; when the core is strong, it can help to support the rest of the body. Misalignment in dancers is one of the leading causes of injury. Muscles that are often found to be tight in dancers include the hip flexors, hamstrings, and calves. Kulak notes that flexibility in the lower extremities is “a key to success.”
Warm-up and cool down procedures were also discussed during this podcast episode. Before class, Kulak recommends a dynamic warmup which allows the muscles to begin moving and get the blood flowing. After class static stretching is recommend. Static stretching is most successfully performed when a stretch is done for up to 30 seconds and completed a total of 3 times. In regards to foam rolling, it is very much based on the individual dancer to determine at what point in the day it is most productive to complete. For dancers that have tightly bound muscles, rolling out before class can help to loosen the muscles. Most dancers would also benefit from foam rolling before they complete their post-class static stretching.
Kulak also tells us that another key consideration is the development of a cross-training routine. As a general guideline, dancers should be completing 1 hour of cross-training per every 5 hours of dance each week. Kulak suggests forms such as Pilates, yoga, and Gyrotonics ®. In regard to “cardio” (or aerobic exercise), if feasible, a dancer should participate in “cardio” for 30 minutes, 3 times a week. Kulak suggests biking, elliptical, or swimming as sound options in addition to jogging, preferably on a treadmill to avoid uneven roads. Rest days are equally important to all the rigorous cross-training, and the number of a rest days a dancer takes can often be determined by listening to one’s body—there is no one size fits all solution.
The episode ends with both advice and a specific quote that speaks to Kulak. Her advice is two-fold. For teachers she suggests that they have a clear understanding of the developmental process. During the adolescent growth spurt students should be allowed to modify classes and the teacher must enforce these changes in a positive way. For students, her advice is clear: to stop worrying about what your peers are doing and to begin focusing on yourself. As a dancer, perfection is not an achievable state and this realization can allow the dancer to move forward. The quote that speaks to her is one of George Balanchine’s which states “See the music, hear the dance.” Kulak elaborates that there is a dancer that dances from the inside out and one that dances from the outside in. She encourages dancers to focus on the former… that one truly feels the music and allows the technique to speak for itself.
Rachel Marchica is a recent graduate of the University of Massachusetts Amherst where she received her BFA in Dance and Certificate in Arts Management. She was also the recipient of the Chancellor’s Talent Award in Dance. Marchica has studied under the direction of Paul Dennis, Thomas Vacanti, Lauren Cox, Adriana Suarez, Gianni Di Marco, Sheryl Thomas, and Earl Mosley. She spent the first part of the spring 2020 semester studying the Gaga movement language at the Jerusalem Academy of Music and Dance. Marchica has attended summer intensives at GagaLab Online, Earl Mosley Institute of the Arts, Bates Dance Festival, Jose Limon Dance Foundation, and Boston Dance Theater.? She has performed works by artists including Thomas Vacanti, Sidra Bell, Alexander Diaz, Rachel List, Christal Brown, Mathew Rushing, Anton Ovchinnikov (Ukraine), and I-Fen Tung (Taiwan). During the summer of 2021, Marchica served as head of dance and movement at Camp Sewataro.