When the Tony Award-winning Broadway dancer-actor Bebe Neuwirth — known to television audiences as Lilith on Cheers — was forced to undergo hip replacement surgery in 2006, she recognized that it was the services of an excellent doctor and the support of friends and other professionals that allowed her to get through the ordeal. She also realized that most dancers in her situation don't have access to the kinds of resources she enjoyed. It was for this reason that Neuwirth founded the Dancers' Resource, a program of the Actors Fund that provides emotional support for dancers dealing with injuries. It also offers emergency financial assistance; referrals for health care and health insurance; advocacy for workers' compensation and disability insurance; seminars on injury prevention, nutrition, wellness, and financial planning; and connections to other dancers with whom one can share experiences, resources, and advice.
A trustee and vice president of the Actors Fund, Neuwirth suffered through several years of physical therapy, arthroscopic surgery, intense pain, and the psychological stress associated with not being able to dance before having her hip replacement. Through it all, she was afraid to tell anyone about her problems for fear it would detrimentally affect her dance career. The dance world has never been sympathetic to injured performers, and many dancers feel they must not disclose or discuss any injuries or debilitating conditions they suffer. It is Neuwirth's hope that the Dancers' Resource will be a safe haven where dancers can receive emotional support and have their unique physical and financial needs addressed.
Professional dancers are much like athletes in that they have very short careers and often experience physical injury. But most athletes have an extensive network of sports-medicine professionals to attend to them when they are injured. Dancers, on the other hand, rarely make enough money to afford the highly specialized kinds of medical care they might need, and some don't even have basic health insurance. When dancers encounter problems that prohibit them from performing, the combined physical, psychological, and financial strains can be too much for them to bear without professional assistance.
Launched in June 2007, the Dancers' Resource offers its wide array of services free of charge to dancers all across the country. Any professional dancer in need of assistance is welcome to apply for help by contacting the Actors Fund office in his or her region. While all the services are available nationwide, only the New York office currently employs a social worker, Alice Vienneau, to deal solely with dancers.
"I run a drop-in support group for injured dancers every week," says Vienneau, who spent 25 years as a professional musical theatre performer before earning a master's degree in social work from Fordham University. "It's a tremendous experience for dancers struggling with injuries to come to a group like this, because in the industry an injured dancer is so stigmatized that there isn't a place for them to go and talk about what it feels like. It's a really tough emotional battle to be so out of commission, and that's not often acknowledged elsewhere."
Not Just for the Injured
Vienneau emphasizes, however, that the Dancers' Resource is not just for dancers who are injured: "This is the place to come when you're struggling with any kind of crisis. We have the resources to either help you ourselves or to find someone who can, whether you're dealing with illness, family problems, anything. I will help you find health insurance, medical assistance, mental-health support. I will advocate on your behalf to workers' comp, and all the while helping you to learn the system so you can be empowered to advocate for yourself."
To qualify for the services of the Dancers' Resource, one must be a working professional dancer. The program does not serve students, and only those who have been dancing professionally for at least three years, making at least $2,000 annually, qualify for financial assistance.
While this new program is designed to address dancers' unique needs, dancers should realize that its parent organization has always served them. "The dance community needs to understand that all of the programs of the Actors Fund are available to them," says Ina Sorens Clark, the organization's chief development officer. "The Actors Fund is 126 years old. It was started by people like Buffalo Bill and Edwin Booth, and back in the day, everyone who worked in show business was called an actor. So from its inception the organization was designed to serve all kinds of performers, as well as stagehands, directors, writers, designers, and even ushers. We help everyone who works in theatre, film, television, dance, music, radio, and opera. And I mean everyone: producers, agents, you name it. So our name is kind of misleading."
The Actors Fund's deputy executive director, Barbara Davis, notes that among the many services the organization provides are two that may be of particular interest to dancers. "One is our Health Insurance Resource Center, which helps uninsured performers find ways to obtain affordable health coverage," she says. "And the other is our Al Hirschfeld Free Health Clinic, which is a place that dancers who have no insurance can go for free medical services."
For more information, visit www.actorsfund.org.
Write to the author at ljsagolla@juno.com.