{"id":17872,"date":"2016-03-25T00:35:46","date_gmt":"2016-03-25T07:35:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/?p=17872"},"modified":"2016-03-24T17:54:37","modified_gmt":"2016-03-25T00:54:37","slug":"keeping-the-ballet-dancing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/2016\/03\/25\/keeping-the-ballet-dancing\/","title":{"rendered":"Keeping the ballet dancing"},"content":{"rendered":"

Sam Steinfeld works with Royal Winnipeg Ballet apprentice Jesse Petrie. He is traveling with the ballet on their current tour, which arrives in Vancouver April 7. (photo by Amy Simoes)<\/em><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

The Royal Winnipeg Ballet is currently making its way across Western Canada and will present the Vancouver premi\u00e8re of Going Home Star \u2013 Truth and Reconciliation<\/em> at Queen Elizabeth Theatre April 7-9.<\/p>\n

Commissioned by RWB, with support from the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, Going Home Star<\/em> was first performed in Winnipeg in 2014, as part of RWB\u2019s 75th season. Conceived by RWB artistic director Andr\u00e9 Lewis and the late Cree elder Mary Richard, the ballet was created by novelist Joseph Boyden, choreographer Mark Godden and composer Christos Hatzis. It features the music of Inuk throat singer Tanya Tagaq, and Steve Wood and the Northern Cree Singers.<\/p>\n

Traveling with the ballet is physiotherapist Sam Steinfeld, who spoke to the Independent<\/em> during the company\u2019s bus ride to Brandon, Man., the tour\u2019s first stop.<\/p>\n

\"photo
Sam Steinfeld (photo by Amy Simoes)<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Born and raised in Winnipeg, Steinfeld graduated from the University of Manitoba. He did a science degree and considered doing a master\u2019s in physiology but, between the poor job prospects for science grads at the time and a friend who was finishing up his training in physiotherapy, Steinfeld decided to change his path.<\/p>\n

After his training, he worked in a hospital setting for several years before going into private practice. He has been a consultant to professional sport teams in Winnipeg, including the Jets and the Fury, and, in 1998, he started working with RWB. He also teaches for the Neuro Orthopedic Institute, which is based in Australia.<\/p>\n

Steinfeld has been a physiotherapist for more than 35 years. \u201cEvery day\u2019s a little different,\u201d he said. \u201cThere are always new challenges, especially working in an environment like this, with the ballet and going on tour. It\u2019s one thing when you\u2019re working, say, in your clinic or at home and in the ballet\u2019s clinic, things are a little more predictable. But, when you\u2019re on the road, you never know what you\u2019re going to encounter \u2026 that, for me, keeps it interesting. Certainly working with different people, too, the different dancers we\u2019ve had over the years, different clients. Everybody brings their own way of managing and dealing with their injuries, and you have to be able to adapt and work with those people and find ways to get them going again.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s never the same, he said. \u201cTreating two ankle sprains doesn\u2019t necessarily mean you approach them in the same way, for instance, just because of the individual or what the individual\u2019s going to have to do.\u201d<\/p>\n

There are two physiotherapists who work with RWB \u2013 the other is Kevin Dyck \u2013 and the two split up the tours, said Steinfeld. When in Winnipeg, Steinfeld is at the ballet\u2019s clinic Tuesday and Thursday afternoons and evenings, and Dyck works the other hours Monday to Friday. For shows in the city, they try to divide the time at the concert hall evenly.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re looking after not just the company, but we look after the professional division students of the RWB school,\u201d explained Steinfeld. \u201cI\u2019m treating the recreational division students, as well, and we look after all the administrative staff, the teachers, the stage crew that works for us. We\u2019re responsible for all those people.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dancers don\u2019t generally get injured during a performance, he said. \u201cMost of the injuries we see are overuse things and, usually, with some modification of activity, some treatment, we can keep them going. Our main thing is to make sure they\u2019re going to be safe and we work closely with the ballet masters and artistic director. If we feel somebody can still perform but perhaps in a lesser role, or modify their choreography somewhat, they\u2019re good at adapting things for the dancer and are able sometimes to keep somebody in. But there are always situations where somebody just can\u2019t do it, period, because of the nature of their injury or the severity of it. Then we have to work around that, and that sometimes means somebody else picking up an extra part or, if we\u2019re on the road, bringing somebody from Winnipeg out to meet us and take over that part.\u201d<\/p>\n

Every physical activity stresses the body in a unique way. When he started working with the ballet, he said, \u201cit became quickly apparent that I was working with artistic athletes and I had to learn more about dance and the technique and what\u2019s involved and how they work because, in order to make decisions about whether it\u2019s safe for someone with an injury to return, I have to understand what it is they\u2019re doing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Compared to hockey or soccer, for example, dancers \u2013 and especially those who do pointe work \u2013 have more \u201cforefoot and ankle problems that you don\u2019t normally see, say, in a hockey player who wears a skate,\u201d said Steinfeld. A foot doesn\u2019t move much inside of a skate. However, he said, \u201cyou look at a dancer in a pointe shoe and the load they\u2019re putting on their foot, and the very different way they load their foot, right through their toes, for instance, when they\u2019re on pointe, is unique\u2026. So, we\u2019ll see more things like stress fractures in the foot, metatarsal stress fractures or mid-foot stress fractures, certainly more mid-foot and forefoot sprains and that sort of thing that you don\u2019t often see in something like hockey. You might see them in soccer, though, with the amount of running.\u201d<\/p>\n

Steinfeld is the son of Holocaust survivors who came to Canada three years after the war. He has two older brothers.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy parents set an amazing example in terms of their ability to overcome adversities, how they dealt with other people and \u2026 how they still had a lot of positive feelings towards other people. I think that helped me in terms of my development as a person and, ultimately, as a caregiver, in \u2026 having a little more empathy with people when they\u2019re in trouble and understanding that, with hard work and perseverance, you can overcome a lot of adversities\u2026. The courage they showed in starting a life anew after everything they\u2019d been through, I think it all trickled down to myself, my brothers. I\u2019m quite proud of that as far as my Jewish upbringing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Working with the ballet was never in his career plans, he said. \u201cI actually went in there to replace the therapist who was ill and I was only supposed to work for about four or six weeks there, till this person came back. It turned out, unfortunately, they weren\u2019t able to return to work, so the ballet said to me, do you want to carry on with us and I said OK, and here I am, 18 years later.\u201d<\/p>\n

Steinfeld said he is fortunate to have understanding colleagues and that the other physiotherapists in his practice help absorb his caseload when he travels with the ballet. He also voiced appreciation for his family\u2019s tolerance of his absences and their support of his work. \u201cI\u2019ve been a lucky guy, I think, to have had this opportunity,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Steinfeld\u2019s wife, Karen, is also a physiotherapist \u2013 she specializes in hands and the upper extremities, and he\u2019ll sometimes confer with her. Their two daughters are now adults, the oldest is a cardiac surgery resident in Winnipeg and the youngest is a lawyer in Ottawa.<\/p>\n

***<\/p>\n

Going Home Star is at Queen E April 7-9, at 8 p.m., with pre-show talks at 7 p.m. Ticket are $29 to $89 and can be purchased from ticketmaster.ca<\/a> or 1-855-985-ARTS (2787).<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Sam Steinfeld works with Royal Winnipeg Ballet apprentice Jesse Petrie. He is traveling with the ballet on their current tour, which arrives in Vancouver April 7. (photo by Amy Simoes) The Royal Winnipeg Ballet is currently making its way across Western Canada and will present the Vancouver premi\u00e8re of Going Home Star \u2013 Truth and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":17845,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[785],"tags":[5541,5540,5539,4910],"class_list":["post-17872","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-performing-arts","tag-going-home-star","tag-royal-winnipeg-ballet","tag-steinfeld","tag-truth-and-reconciliation-commission"],"blocksy_meta":{"styles_descriptor":{"styles":{"desktop":"","tablet":"","mobile":""},"google_fonts":[],"version":8}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17872","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17872"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17872\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17845"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17872"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17872"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17872"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}