Forum For Dancers’ Health Set Up in Pune

My colleague Prof Priya Joshi at Pune's FLAME University has initiated the following activity:

Pune- A Forum For Dancers’ Health (FFDH) has been set up in Pune to create awareness about the problems the students and performers face. The initiative has been taken up by five experts who are concerned with the issues of health and injuries faced by the dancers and the dance students.

The   FFDH convener, Prof. Priya Joshi, a veteran dance teacher at the FLAME University, said the forum would interact with the stakeholders in the dance community. They included the dance students, their parents, dance teachers, medical practitioners and others interested in the welfare of the dance art.

It has begun its activity with the collection of data on the health issues, particularly of the female students and specifically during the adolescence. She pointed out that the dancers and dance students at times sustain injuries during the training, rehearsals and performances. Besides these, the performers might suffer from psychological problems. The female dancers need pregnancy and post-delivery guidance to resume dance after the delivery.

Prof. Joshi had interacted with the ‘Dance Medicine and Science Community’ in different parts of the world during her performances and national and international conferences. She realized how the dancers were treated and rehabilitated with proper medical and psychological treatment.  The FFDH planned to make a beginning in Pune in creating the awareness and offer guidance to the stakeholders in this area.

She has been practising Bharat Natyam since past thirty years as a dancer, choreographer and teacher. She is the founder of the ‘Kalanilayam Centre for Dance’ which promotes the art of Bharat Natyam in Pune.

She has witnessed various stages through which a dancer undergoes from his/her childhood. During the last five years, she had occasions to share knowledge and information from her peers and medical practitioners in Pune, U.K and the USA. She is the founder of the ‘Kalanilayam Centre for Dance’ which promotes the art of Bharat Natyam in Pune.

Her article in a newspaper had evoked a good response from the stakeholders who shared their experience about the injuries to the dancers. The Forum has been set up to extend its activity for the benefit of the dancers and others in the field.

She has appealed to all the stakeholders through the media to get in touch with the forum at the email address dancershealth@gmail.com. She can be reached at the postal address: Kalanilayam Centre for Dance Prof. Priya Joshi   13, Kalambe Complex, Manikbaug, Sinhagad Road, near Manikbaug Petrol Pump,   Pune 411051.  

The Forum has urged the people to send their experiences and suggestions that the forum would welcome.