When Dance is at Odds with Family Culture, Goals, and Traditions

Harkness Center Coffee Chats are informal, guided discussions about topics related to dancer wellness and injury prevention. Our discussion this fall will be When Dance is at Odds with Family Culture, Goals, and Traditions.

In this Harkness Center Coffee Chat with guest Alena Gerst, LCSW, RYT, we will discuss ways that dancers may or may not feel supported by their families—whether relatives, religious/cultural families, or other identity groups. How can we balance our dance goals with our love and respect of family, especially when families may not understand our dance vocation? This workshop is for anyone seeking tools to better understand and communicate with those they love about their dedication to a discipline both physically and artistically demanding.

About the instructor:

Alena Gerst, LCSW, RYT is a New York and Arizona state licensed psychotherapist with a special interest in the mind/body connection. She is also the owner and director of Inside Psychotherapy NYC.

Registrants will receive Zoom link by email. We encourage live attendance to this virtual program, but the event will be recorded and the recording available for a limited time after it takes place.

Refund policy: We cannot provide refunds after the event has taken place.

About the Harkness Center for Dance Injuries: NYU Langone's Harkness Center for Dance Injuries (www.DanceInjury.org) is dedicated to enhancing the health and well-being of dance professionals by providing breakthrough approaches to injury prevention, medical treatment, education and training, and research. Founded in 1989 through a partnership between the Harkness Foundation for Dance and the Hospital for Joint Diseases (now NYU Langone Orthopedic Hospital), the Harkness Center provides world-class clinical care for dancers of all types and levels. The scientific foundation for this expert care comes from research into understanding the dancer’s body in motion coupled with workplace requirements. The Harkness Center’s evidence-based practice has produced globally accepted approaches to the recognition, treatment, and prevention of dance injuries.

In addition to caring for injuries, an integral part of the Harkness Center’s mission is providing education. For the dance community, Harkness offers injury prevention workshops, online courses, and screenings, including its long-running, free Injury Prevention Assessment (IPA) program. For fellow dance medicine professionals, Harkness is actively engaged in sharing clinical best practices through academic training with live and online continuing education courses. Since 2015, Harkness Center has offered DanceMedU, its digital learning platform (www.DanceMedU.org), which now offers over 20 lectures on dance medicine and dancer health.

Host or Publisher NYU Langone's Harkness Center for Dance Injuries