How integrating ballet into physical therapy enhances recovery | Jessica Baynes | TEDxSaltLakeCity

Ballet is commonly considered an elite form of movement, reserved for those with a specific body type. But when introduced into the context of medicine, ballet can optimize physical, mental, and emotional healing. In this inspiring talk, Jessica Baynes shares her personal experience fusing ballet with physical therapy to optimize her recovery from a Traumatic Brain Injury and how this unique form of movement can help others do the same. Jessica Baynes attended the University of Utah, where she received her BFA in Modern Dance. Jessica sustained a Traumatic Brain Injury during her freshman year and underwent almost two years of intensive rehabilitation to regain quality of motor function. During that time, she experienced social isolation, stigmatization, and loss of identity as a result of her injury. Since recovering, Jessica founded Healing in Motion Dance, an arts and medicine initiative that teaches rehabilitative ballet classes to participants with neurological conditions that impair neuromuscular function such as Multiple Sclerosis, Parkinson's Disease, and stroke. Her goals with the program are to physically strengthen and emotionally empower others with motor function inhibiting diagnoses, through ballet. Healing in Motion Dance serves as a platform on which collegiate dance and physical therapy students collaborate by designing adaptive ballet classes for patients in their local healthcare system. This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at https://www.ted.com/tedx