Sugarfoot Therapy is a revolutionary injury prevention conditioning program created by Doctor of Physical Therapy Nicholas Cutri and professional dancer/choreographer Katie Schaar. Used by dancers and dance educators worldwide, Sugarfoot Therapy brings the exercises of sports physical therapy to dancers. When practiced regularly, these exercises are scientifically proven to help reduce injury risk.
Sugarfoot Therapy has been featured by the following reputable dance organizations:
Who is Sugarfoot Therapy for?
If you are a competitive dancer frustrated by repeated injuries, a dance teacher frustrated by having injured dancers sitting out, or a professional dancer who fears the impact an injury could have on your income…
this program is for you.
Most orthopedic dance injuries are overuse injuries caused by a repeated movement pattern that places continued stress on a tissue over a period of time. Injuries manifest over time as pain, inflammation, stiffness, weakness, and tissue damage as a result of inefficient dance technique and/or lack of effective cross training. Sugarfoot Therapy provides an easy-to-implement cross training program for dancers, designed by a Doctor of Physical Therapy and backed by research based evidence.
Our program bridges the gap between the principals of functional biomechanics and traditional dance technique, creating functionally authentic movements that are the most efficient and effective way to warm-up, mobilize, and stabilize the dancer’s body in all three planes of motion. This is the same science that prepares professional and elite level athletes to perform optimally, while dramatically decreasing their chances for injury. Understanding that the body in motion is a dynamic chain of moving parts, it is only as strong as it’s weakest link. One part affects the whole and creates optimal function or dysfunction. The dancers body not only requires vast amounts of mobility, but also the ability to stabilize that range of motion with adequate muscular strength and neuromuscular activation. Recognizing that dancers are extraordinary beings who push the human form well beyond its evolutionary limitations, we have taken this science and catered it specifically to the dancer’s biomechanics and physiology.
Sugarfoot Therapy is designed so that you can fit it into the beginning of every class, before every rehearsal, and prior to every audition and performance. Sugarfoot Therapy is not intended to replace dance technique training but to greatly enhance it. Our program offers full-length workouts for dancers in our SFT Routines…these are great to use as your gym workout or as your full-length conditioning class. We also offer a curriculum of individual exercises with our SFT Progressions. This curriculum makes it easy for dance teachers to incorporate our program in the classroom one exercise at a time. Dance teachers, we encourage you to use our program in your classroom. Improve the health of your dancers and teach them the value of taking care of their bodies. We would love to help guide you in figuring out the best way to incorporate Sugarfoot Therapy into your existing studio program. Send us an email and we can discuss!
Sugarfoot Therapy is optimal for every kind of dance. Ballet, modern, jazz, tap, hip hop, ballroom, burlesque…whatever your style, Sugarfoot Therapy will strengthen your body so that the artist in you can move freely.
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Partnerships
Bridge Dance Project
The Bridge Dance Project builds bridges between the competition and commercial dance community and the dance medicine and science community by providing easily accessible, readily applicable, and personally empowering information.