Performing Arts Physical Therapy in Salt Lake City, UT
Dancers, musicians, singers and circus artists. We almost never tell people to stop — we modify, load and plan backwards from the date you have to be ready.
Twelve Years Backstage
Vantridge opened on East 300 South in 2014 to treat performers and only performers, in a city with a serious ballet company, a symphony, several conservatoire programmes and a genuinely strange amount of circus.
Our therapists have all trained or worked in performance, which matters more than it sounds. When a dancer says the pain comes on the landing from a grand jeté but not from a sauté, that is a specific and useful sentence — and it is one that gets nodded through in most clinics.
We have a sprung floor, a barre, a mirror, a piano and a rig point, because you cannot assess a performer sitting on a plinth. Most of what we need to see happens standing up, at speed, in the position that hurts.
- ✓Performers exclusively since 2014
- ✓Sprung floor, barre, mirror, piano and a rig point
- ✓Therapists who have trained in performance
- ✓Last appointment 7:30pm
Four Very Different Bodies With One Thing in Common
None of you can take six weeks off, and all of you have been told to.
A Clinic With a Sprung Floor
Because assessing a dancer on a treatment table tells you almost nothing.
What a Pre-Season Screen Finds
For individuals, studios and companies — ideally six to eight weeks before the season starts.
Turnout, Honestly Measured
How much comes from the hip and how much is being forced from the knee and foot. Dancers who force turnout accumulate injuries in exactly the places you would predict, and almost nobody has ever had it measured.
Calf and Foot Endurance
Single-leg heel raises to failure. The published benchmarks for dancers are far higher than most people expect, and falling short of them predicts a good share of foot and ankle injury.
Hypermobility, Mapped
Very common in dancers and circus artists, and a real asset that needs specific management. Hypermobile joints need strength through range, not stretching — and being told to stretch more is a common and expensive mistake.
Energy and Load History
Hours danced or played, recent increases, sleep and fuelling. Relative energy deficiency in sport is prevalent in dance and it drives bone stress injury. It is an uncomfortable conversation and a necessary one.
From Injury to Back On Stage
Tell Us the Dates
The audition, the tech week, the opening. We work backwards from them, and if what you want isn't realistic we'll say so on day one rather than in week six.
Watch, Then Assess
You dance, play or climb in front of us. Filmed if useful. Then the hands-on examination — in that order, because the first tells us what the second is looking for.
Modify, Don't Stop
What to take out of class, what to keep, what to add. Usually delivered as a note your teacher can work from, so nobody has to negotiate it at the barre.
Back to Full
Graded return through the specific demands — jumps, pointe work, playing time, aerial load — with criteria at each step rather than dates.
Booking, Cost and Bringing Things
No Referral Needed
Utah has direct access — book straight in. We verify insurance benefits beforehand and tell you what it costs before you commit.
Student and Company Rates
Reduced rates for full-time students and members of local companies and conservatoire programmes. Ask when you book; we won't make you ask twice.
Bring Your Instrument
Or your shoes, or your rig tape. We need to see the thing that hurt you being done, and photographs of it are a poor substitute.
Evenings and Saturdays
Last weekday appointment at 7:30pm and Saturday mornings, because class and rehearsal own the daytime.
Teachers Welcome
Bring your teacher or coach to a session if it would help. Sorting out a technique disagreement in the room takes ten minutes and saves months.
Ten Minutes From the Theatres
East 300 South, walkable from the main downtown rehearsal spaces. Several of our patients come in on a break between calls.
Built Backwards From Opening Night
Bring the shoes, the instrument, and the date you have to be ready.
What Performers Ask
Are you going to tell me to stop dancing?
Almost certainly not. Complete rest is rarely the best treatment and it is nearly always the most costly one for a performer. We modify — which class elements to take out, what to keep, what to add — and stopping entirely is a last resort we'd discuss with you rather than announce.
How do I know if my daughter is ready for pointe?
Not by age, which is the criterion most often used. Readiness is about ankle range, calf endurance, single-leg balance and trunk control, all of which are measurable. We do a formal pre-pointe assessment and write to the teacher with the result either way.
Should I really bring my instrument?
Yes, please. Playing-related injuries are about how you interact with the instrument under load, and that is invisible when you're sitting on a plinth. We'll ask you to play the passage that provokes it, which is often the moment the whole thing becomes obvious.
I'm hypermobile. Doesn't that mean I should stretch less?
It means you should stretch a great deal less and strengthen a great deal more — through your available range, not into new range. Hypermobility is a genuine advantage in dance and circus that needs specific management, and 'just stretch more' is one of the commonest pieces of bad advice in the field.
Can you talk to my teacher or company?
Gladly, with your permission. A recommendation that contradicts what happens in class helps nobody. We write short, specific notes teachers can actually work from — what to modify, for how long, and what to watch for.
Do you work with amateurs and students?
About half our patients are students, amateurs or adult returners. The demands on your body are the same shape whether or not you're paid for it, and so is the fact that you don't want to be told to stop.