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What is Performing Arts Physical Therapy?
Imagine a rehabilitation program that SPECIALIZES in treating
the PERFORMING ARTIST.
After a back injury in 1980 when Mr. Gallagher was dancing
as a modern dancer in Philadelphia, he was unable to find a therapist or a facility to treat him
that understood his specific needs as a performer. Developed
in the 1980s by Sean P. Gallagher, BFA, PT, Performing Arts
Physical Therapy was the first physical therapy center
devoted entirely to treating the performing artist.
Dancers, musicians, singers, actors, circus performers,
puppeteers and other performers finally had a place to rehabilitate
where their injuries were treated with experience and understanding of the demands of their art.
PAPT pioneered physical therapy for the Broadway community, providing the
first ever on-site care to Broadway in the 1988 production of Jerome Robbins' Broadway. Since 1988,
we have worked on over 80 Broadway productions as the in-house provider of rehabilitation services.
Our current list of productions includes Hairspray, Mamma Mia, Beauty and the Beast, 3 Penny Opera, Sweeny Todd,
Drumstruck, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, Lestat, and The Wedding Singer.
Furthermore, PAPT was the first physical therapy clinic to provide
on-site care to modern dance companies, including The Paul Taylor Dance Company, The David Parsons Dance Company
and Hubbard Street Dance Chicago. Mr. Gallagher also created the first physical therapy program for onsite care
at a dance conservatory/university, including The Julliard School and SUNY Purchase.
By 1991 Mr.
Gallagher realized the need to unite physical
therapists around the country to start a specialty practice in
performing arts physical therapy within the American Physical
Therapy Association (APTA) and develop standards of practice for this new specialization.
Mr. Gallagher is the founder and first president of the Performing Arts Special Interest Group
which is a sub section
of the Orthopedic Section of the APTA. Mr Gallagher and the staff at PAPT remain committed to furthering physical therapy for
the performing artist as a specialty, through one-on-one performer specific patient care, continuing
education, inservices and research.
Since 1995 Mr.
Gallagher has been teaching physical therapists around the
country in the sub specialty of performing arts physical
therapy and has lectured for the Touro College masters degree
program, the Montana state physical therapy chapter, the
APTA's national convention, as well as providing numerous
continuing education courses.
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