Ballet Academy publishes Health Policy

The Ballet Academy of the University of Music and Theatre Munich (HMTM) is introducing a comprehensive health policy for its students. As a consequence of the Ballet Academy’s pedagogical concept, HMTM has thus established a clear guideline for the physical and mental health of its dance students. The Health Policy is an important building block for holistic professional ballet training at the HMTM Ballet Academy.

Findings from dance medicine, nutritional science and psychology come together in the health policy: For example, the HMTM Ballet Academy’s health policy introduces minimum standards for healthy weight development for students. A dance medicine physiological examination at the beginning of the programme, regular individual consultations and anatomy and movement studies as a fixed aspect of the curriculum take into account the physical well-being of the students. Nutritional principles are integrated into the curriculum for dance students. Individual nutritional counselling and joint cookery courses are also included, as are adequate breaks for drinking and eating between the students’ intensive training periods. Psychological workshops and counselling complete the offer.

The health policy was developed by the Ballet Academy’s interdisciplinary health team: Marc Geifes (physiotherapist), Dr Dorothy Meyer (nutritionist) and Anna Esser (psychologist). The team was supported by Prof Dr Hans Hauner (Institute for Nutritional Medicine at the Technical University of Munich) and Prof Dr Martin Teufel (working group on psychological stress in competitive sport at the LVR University Clinic at the University of Duisburg Essen).

The introduction of the health policy at the Ballet Academy is part of the HMTM’s 7-point plan, with which the university is reacting to the results of the study ‘Abuse of power, discrimination and sexualised violence at the HMTM’. The study was conducted by the external research institute Institut für Praxisforschung und Projektberatung München on the basis of qualitative interviews with university members and a comprehensive full survey in the summer semester of 2023. The results were presented to the public on 18 April 2024.

Health Policy of the Ballet Academy of the University of Music and Theatre Munich (in German, soon to be published in English)