services
- Dance injury assessment, management & rehabilitation
- Dance conditioning & injury prevention programmes
- Dance Assessment screening (biomechanics, technique, strength, flexibility etc)
- Screening for Tertiary Dance Assessments (eg. WAAPA, Victorian College of the Arts, Australian Ballet School)
- Pre-Pointe Screening
- Yoga for dance
- Pilates for dance
- Workshops for Dance Teachers and Dancers on conditioning, injury prevention, Pilates, yoga
- Other Aesthetic / High Flexibility Sports (eg. gymnastics, acrobatics, skating, diving, synchronised swimming, competitive aerobics) & Performing Arts – injury management, conditioning programmes, screening, workshops
Background + Quals
An experienced dancer herself, Vicki was the Company Physiotherapist for West Australian Ballet for 8 years from 2005 until 2013. She has worked with dancers of all levels – from recreational to pre-professional and professional – for nearly 20 years. She is currently working with dancers from a variety of schools and companies, including West Australian Ballet, WA Academy of Performing Arts (WAAPA), Bangarra Dance Theatre, Sydney Dance Company and other visiting companies, as well as dancers visiting home from eastern states and overseas. She has also worked closely with dancers and physiotherapists / other practitioners from many schools and companies, including New Zealand School of Dance, Royal New Zealand Ballet, Queensland Ballet, The Australian Ballet School, and especially The Australian Ballet.
Vicki was the first physiotherapist in Australia (in 2007) to become a Specialist Sports Physiotherapist with the sub-specialty of Dance, and is the only one in Western Australia. Becoming a “Specialist” is the highest clinical level a physiotherapist in Australia can achieve, and requires peer examination by other interstate Specialists.
(See this link for more information: https://www.physiotherapy.asn.au). Since 2007, Vicki has mentored or examined many other Australian Specialist Sports and Musculoskeletal Physiotherapist candidates, including others sub-specialising in Dance.
Vicki is also a Certified Pilates Practitioner, Registered Yoga Teacher and Certified Yoga Therapist with the International Association of Yoga Therapists. This means she can effectively incorporate yoga and Pilates into individualised programmes for conditioning, injury prevention and rehabilitation for dancers.
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As a dancer herself and an experienced ballet company physiotherapist, she has a thorough knowledge of technique, terminology, goals, aesthetics, and the culture and psychology of dancers. She has an extensive network of colleagues across Australia (and internationally), to and from whom she regularly receives and gives referrals.
Vicki has given lectures and workshops over many years for Sports Physiotherapy Australia to physiotherapists and podiatrists on dance injuries, and foot and ankle injuries (which are the most common dance injuries). She also presents workshops to dancers, other elite athletes with aesthetic elements and high flexibility demands (eg. gymnasts and ice-skaters), dance teachers, Pilates instructors and coaches on injury prevention and management, anatomy for dance, “SafeDance” principles and Pilates.
She has conducted and published research studies in dance medicine: ankle injuries for her physiotherapy degree, and into the relationship between turn-out and dance injuries for her Masters degree {Boyle J & Negus V (1998) Joint position sense in the recurrently sprained ankle. Australian Journal of Physiotherapy 44(3): 159-163. AND Negus V, Hopper D, Briffa NK (2005) Associations between turnout and lower extremity injuries in classical ballet dancers. Journal of Orthopaedic & Sports Physical Therapy 35(5): 307-18.} She is also an independent journal reviewer (by invitation) for several physiotherapy and dance medicine journals (including the Journal of Dance Medicine and Science and the Journal of Orthopaedic and Sports Physiotherapy), and has been consulted for a number of articles on dance injury prevention and management, including for Dance Australia magazine.
Vicki is a member of the International Association of Dance Medicine and Science (IADMS) and has presented at the IADMS international conference, on the relationship between turn-out and dance injuries. She has completed the Level 1 and 2 Dance Physiotherapy courses through Sports Physiotherapy Australia and constantly continues to further her education in the field.
