I've been meaning for quite a while to let you know about the top health care professionals who treat New York City dancers. Now I have a personal reason for sharing the information. Last June, while I was guest teaching an open class at the American Ballet Theatre, I blew out my right knee big time. The leg had essentially been a reinjury waiting to happen during the twelve years since I first tore my anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) in a partnering accident. The options for reconstruction back then were not attractive, involving an "autograft" (from the Greek word for "self") fashioned from my own patellar tendon or hamstring. Dr. William Hamilton performed an arthroscopy to remove some torn cartilage, but I chose to leave the knee labile (unstable). I strengthened it as much as possible with physical therapy at Marika Molnar's West Side Dance PT. I danced after that, but I had limitations.

That's why the second injury has proved to be a true blessing in disguise. This time around, I was a candidate for a new surgical technique called an "allograft" (from the Greek word for "other"). Translation: A tendon from a deceased donor. I learned that the grafted tissue soon acclimates to the "host environment" as cells exchange through membranes, and that it eventually becomes a kind of superligament. The surgery is major, but it is performed with an epidural (a spinal block) instead of general anesthesia. The patient is able to watch the proceedings on the monitor and go home the same day. Because there is no blood flow in the donor tissue, it is not recongnized as foreign by the recipient's body and is not rejected. Therefore, unlike people who get organ transplants, those who get tendons don't have to take drugs to suppress the immune system. Also, all cadavers (the indelicate way in which the medical exstablishment refers to donors) are tested and certified as free of disease. The possibility of contracting an illness as a result of a graft is extremely remote. I decided to take my chances.

I'm immensely glad I did. The very talented Frank Cordsaco, M.D. at the Hospital for Special Surgery did the honors and Ellen Walker at Marika Molnar's West Side Dance PT has been been my superb physical therapist. Full rehabilitation takes several months, but the results are well worth the work. By December, I was already back on the boards doing character roles with my own company, Ballet Ambassadors, and well as performing Flamenco and other ethnic dances with a venerable folkloric troupe, The Phyllis Rose Dance Company, which has been delighting audiences and teaching dance in the tri-state area for 31 years. That I was able to accept Miss Rose's invitation to join her company after over a decade of compensating for my injury and doing only my own careful choreography, is nothing short of miraculous. I find my comeback particularly amazing in light of the fact that when my physical therapist unlocked my brace three weeks after the surgery, she said cheerfully, "And now it's time for gait training." In other words, she was going to teach me how to walk! I had lost my proprioception -- the knowledge of where you are in space -- in that leg. We had to re-educate it, in effect recreating the synapses -- the "message pathways" from the brain to the muscles.

In addition, because I had also sustained what is referred to as a "bucket handle tear" of my medical meniscus (cartilage), I was feeling a good deal of soreness around the spot where my surgeon had "debrised" (trimmed off) the cartilage. I remember thinking, as I took those first uncertain steps, that pirouettes were a very long way off. Yet in a matter of two weeks, I was walking at a fine clip on a treadmill and soon after that I was using the StairMaster. By post-op week six, thanks to lifting ankle weights and using a resistance band among other therapeutic measures, I was capable of balancing on my right leg on a trampoline. That's when I first fully comprehended that the leg is now absolutely stabile. I had to blink back tears of joy. As of this writing, I am dancing full out and doing steps I had thought I would never be capable of again. Not a day goes by that I don't offer profound gratitude for the gift from my anonymous benefactor that has made this new millennium, once more with feeling, my time to dance.

So that's my tale. Those of you who have read my e-novel "Gala Performance," in which there is speculation that ballerina Samantha Sunderland may need a cadaver graft, will appreciate the life-imitates-art twist! Now, here's that list of NYC's dance healers extraordinaire. But first a warning: As with any medical decision, use your own judgment. Even if your sister Sue -- not to mention the entire membership of the New York City Ballet or ABT -- raves about Dr. So-and-So, he may not be the right physician for you. The same goes for any given physical therapist. You must feel comfortable with your health care professionals. Listen to your instincts when it comes to trusting someone and to reacting positively to "bedside manner."

William G. Hamilton, M.D.
Orthopedic Consultant to the New York City Ballet and the American Ballet Theatre
345 West 58th St., New York, NY 10019
212.765.2262

Phillip Bauman, M.D.
Assisting Orthopedist to the New York City Ballet and American Ballet Theatre
345 West 58th St., New York, NY 10019
212.765.2260

David Weiss, M.D.
Vice President of the International Association for Dance Medicine and Science (IADMS)
530 First Avenue, #5D, New York, NY 10016
212.263.7743

Lawrence E. DeMann Jr., D.C
Chiropractic Consultant to the New York City Ballet
300 East East 56th Street, New York, NY 10022
212.935.1700, 212.980.2181

Marika Molnar
Physical Therapist to the New York City Ballet, founder of Wet Side Dance Physical Therapy, and President of the International Association for Dance Medicine and Science (IADMS)
53 Columbus Avenue between 61st and 62nd
New York, NY 10023
212.541.8450

Peter Marshall, M.A., P.T.
Physical Therpaist to the American Ballet Theatre
(Currently no private practice)

Olinda Cedeno, L.M.T.
Massage Therapist to the American Ballet Theatre
(Currently no private practice)

The Harkness Center for Dance Injuries
Offical treatment center of the Dance Theatre of Harlem
301 East 17th Street
New York, NY 10003
212.598.6022

The Katherine and Gilbert Miller Health Care Institute for Performing Artists
425 West 59th St.
New York, NY 10019
212.523.6200

The Hospital for Special Surgery
(Not strictly a dance facility, but this is the hospital of choice for many dancers because the staff of orthopedic surgeons specializes in the reconstruction of joints such as hips, shoulders, knees and ankles.)

535 East 70th Street between York and the East River
New York, NY 10021
212.606.1555, 800.796.0486

May 2001 be a year of healing and happy comebacks for those of you who are injured now -- and an injury-free year for everyone else!