Ep 49: Kelly Uygan | Dance conditioning and injury prevention

In this episode, Janet and Nikki chat with Kelly Uygan, co-Owner of Konnect Pilates and Faculty with American Ballet Theatre’s West Coast William J Gillespie School about conditioning and injury prevention strategies for dancers.

They cover:

• Common causes of injury in dancers and how that relates to their technique
• Key elements of a dance conditioning program
• Technical things that dancers can work on to both improve their technique and balance out their body for more resiliency (e.g. working in parallel, dorsiflexion, quad strength)
• The issue with using cues for technique that aren't technically accurate and why this can contribute to movement dysfunction
• The role of Pilates in dance conditioning
• Safe strategies for stretching and what to be mindful of with dancers who have hypermobility

About Kelly Uygan

Kelly, is a former ballet professional ballet dancer and Co-Owner of Konnect Pilates Studio, she is a certified PMA [Pilates method Alliance] certified instructor and her teaching experience as a pilates instructor exceeds over 30 years. She trained originally with renowned Pilates instructor Diane Diefenderfer 2nd generation Pilates.

Kelly is also an active faculty member with the Balanced Body Education, instructing teacher trainers in all 8 Pilates Modules plus Anatomy and Balanced Body Barre. She is also on Faculty with American Ballet Theatre’s West Coast William J Gillespie School at the Segerstrom Center for the Arts training pre- professional levels 4,5 and 6.

She holds certifications with: The Pilates method Alliance, American Ballet Theater’s National training Curriculum for young dancers; Resistance Flexibility and Strength training with the Ki-Hara technique used by Olympic swimmer Dara; The Pink Ribbon Program, a Post-Operative workout enhancing recovery for breast cancer survivors; CoreAlign, BBBarre, BODHI and the entire BodyCode system in which she is a Master Teacher of training under Mr. Carbone Master Gyrotonics teacher and inventor of the BodyCode system for 10years.

To connect with Kelly, visit her website konnectpilates.com.