My Story

Like many of the dancers I work with, I also struggled with hip pain at 12 years old. But, I was scared I’d have to stop dancing if I told anyone about the pain – so I initially kept it to myself. I felt frustrated my body wouldn’t do what I wanted it to and overwhelmed by the uncertainty of what my pain could mean. When I finally told my mom, she didn’t know what to do. We asked my dance teacher and were referred to someone who had helped her in the past. For months I went to appointments across town and things felt better short-term, but we never talked about dance. We never talked about how my hip pain was related to my difficulty with arabesque height or how to prevent the pain from coming back.

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For years I struggled with on-again/off-again hip pain – and plenty of other injuries – throughout high school and as a dance major in college. I came to realize I was not the only dancer struggling to get through performances while injured, and I was not the only dancer setting themselves up for a laundry list of future issues and pain 5, 10, 20, even 40 years down the road. I realized that each of my own injuries was a missed opportunity to recover stronger than before and to become more successful as a dancer and more resilient as an adult.

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So, I went to physical therapy school, completed a dance medicine internship and a lot of additional training, and started my mission of helping dancers write a story different than my own. I decided to create Charlotte Dance Medicine to help dancers in a way that I didn’t have help.

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And it’s been an honor and a privilege to be a part of each dancer’s journey ever since.