Training Days

Dancing through the off-season with Dr. Nick.

by Janet Anderson

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Published: Jul 8, 2008

Michael T. Regan DOUBLE DUTY: Dr. Nick DiNubile (center) keeps a watchful eye on Pennsylvania Ballet dancers — when he's not working with the Sixers. (CLICK IMAGE FOR LARGER VERSION)

You likely won't see Donovan McNabb practicing graceful jetés and pas de bourrées across the 50-yard line this summer at Eagles camp in Bethlehem — he'll probably stick to tire runs and noncontact drills.

But despite their obvious differences, footballers and ballet dancers spend the hotter months with the same goal in mind: improving their game.

Take it from Nick DiNubile, a Philly-born, -raised and -educated physician who serves as an orthopedic consultant to both the Philadelphia 76ers and the Pennsylvania Ballet. "Anyone who truly loves movement and sports and wants to improve their own performance should watch what dancers are doing," says Dr. Nick, as he is affectionately known to his patients.

Dr. Nick attended St. Joseph's University and Temple Medical School and did his residency at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, where he practiced martial arts to stay in shape. When a dancer friend assessed his efforts and showed him how to use ballet technique to increase his strength and balance, Dr. Nick was a convert.

He has since written a book, Framework: Your 7-Step Program for Healthy Muscles, Bones and Joints (Rodale Books, $18.95) and hosted a PBS show on the same topic. When he's not training athletes, he's rattling off statistics and studies on the benefits of dance technique. "[One study] looked at 60 sports and rated them on 20 performance criteria including physical, intellectual and environmental," he says. "The 'toughest sport' was ballet!"

Dr. Nick recalls a time when ballet improved the game of one of Philly's toughest athletes. When star Philadelphia Flyers goalie Ron Hextall was injured about 10 years ago, Dr. Nick suggested Hextall work with Pennsylvania Ballet then principal dancer William DeGregory as part of his physical therapy. "Here was this guy doing spectacular deep lunges and splits on ice, which gave him hamstring problems and a groin pull," DeGregory recalls. "He'd do all these things and then at the [intermission] just sit on the bench."

"This is not the ballet mind," DeGregory says. "You have to be toe-to-the-top-of-head in-shape. You work at it every day."

That's why, says Dr. Nick, dancers don't use their "off-seasons" to relax. "It's rare to see a dancer get out of shape. They just know what they need to do. Even injured, they will find ways to keep moving."

Christine Cox, co-artistic director of BalletX, agrees. "The spawning of BalletX really comes from summers with no work," she says. "We wanted to use our time more productively. Our natural state is to be working." And work, they have been: With choreographers Helen Pickett, long of Ballet Frankfurt, and Annabelle Lopez Ochoa, based in the Netherlands, on board, the six-member troupe (plus three guest dancers, including Francis Veyette of the Pennsylvania Ballet) has been in the studio virtually every day this summer.

It's not just ballet dancers who train in between performance seasons. Headlong Dance Theater has hosted a dance camp since 1995, where new members can work with veteran Headlongers who are well-versed in mixing movement with theater. Plus, longtime local dance choreographer Melanie Stewart's nEW Festival provides summer opportunities for modern dancers to showcase works-in-progress. "Summer is an incredibly creative time for all the dancers working in the region," says Stewart. "At the nEW Festival we had six resident choreographers, seven counting me, each doing work that will be seen at some point this fall or at the Fringe. The important thing is that dancers have to keep their instruments in shape and keep moving."

It's this constant determination and willingness to work hard throughout the year that keeps these highly trained athletes going, even in the face of injury.

After Pennsylvania Ballet's Jeff Gribler's first knee surgery (performed by Dr. Nick) in 1989, he bounced right back. When his other knee popped in 1996, however, he recalls telling the doctor, "I think I just ended my career." But with surgery and physical therapy and lots of drive to succeed, Gribler continued performing until his retirement in 2001. Now PAB master dancer Gribler painlessly leads company class and rehearsals. "I'm just lucky," he says. "I was born to be an athlete, and you don't get more athletic than dance."

(j_anderson@citypaper.net)

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