An overview of important vision skills for Dance

Dance

Just as many people don’t think “sport” when dance comes up, most people don’t realize just how important vision is for a dancer, especially those who dance at competitive levels. Dance is a sport in which precision, balance, and awareness of what’s around you are extremely important, and each of these is tied to vision skills.

Core Visual Skills For Dance

While there are a number of vision skills that are important for dancers, some are more crucial to performance than others.

Core vision skills for dancers include:

Visualization: Believe it or not, visualizing yourself performing a particular feat does help you physically accomplish it. In dance, better visualization gives a performer increased ability to carry out more difficult and daring moves.
Hand-eye-foot coordination: Dance is a sport in which precise control over every body movement is essential, and this must all be done while in motion. Improving hand-eye-foot coordination is essential in order to see improvement in dance overall.
Vision-balance integration: It should be obvious that balance is a key component of dance. What might be less obvious is that vision is a key component of our ability to balance. Improving this skill will have a major impact on a dancer’s ability to maintain balance while going through all the complex motions.

Secondary Visual Skills For Dance

Secondary visual skills for dancers aren’t necessarily any less important than core visual skills, though they are not quite as central to what is needed for a dancer to be successful.

Secondary visual skills for dancers include:

Visual attention: Visual attention is the ability to remain focused on a visual task despite outside distractions. Especially for a sport like dance, being able to completely “tune out” other things that might be on one’s field of view, such as the judges or audience, is a vital skill for dancers performing at high levels.
Dynamic visual acuity: This is the skill that enables someone to maintain clear vision while in motion. With dance, the performer is often carrying out complex motions at speed, so being able to clearly focus on one’s surroundings is a useful skill to ensure that no missteps are made.
Anticipation timing: This is a skill which enables one to better time key motions. In dance, this especially helps when the dancer goes airborne, and needs to properly time the landing.

Dr. Ikeda

Dr. Ikeda, FCOVD, DPNAP, is a leading optometrist in the field of neuro optometric rehabilitation and developmental optometry. He has made profound contributions to the field over the years and uses these expertise to provide the highest quality of eye care to his patients. He was Past-President of the Optometric Extension Program Foundation (OEPF) and of the Neuro-Optometric Rehabilitation Association (NORA). He received the “Founding Fathers Medal” for his continued service to NORA and he was recognized as “Physician of the Year” by the Rehabilitation Nurses Society. He is a clinical associate professor of the Western University of Health Sciences College of Optometry and was inducted as a Distinguished Practitioner into the National Academies of Practice (Optometry Academy).

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Testimonials

I haven't actually used the optometrist side, so my review is limited to the vision therapy offered. This office was recommended by my occupational therapist for the treatment of my double vision following a stroke.

Claire A.

Love this location. I had a brain injury accident from day one one. All the team make you feel you still important and hope in the horizon after when the medical system fell you miserably. Dr. Ikeda very professional and very understanding about your issue. Two tombs up.

Jim K.

My husband and I were immediately impressed with Dr Ikeda. I was hit by a car while cycling which caused broken bones and three brain injuries. The brain injuries caused double vision. Dr. Ikeda examined my eyes and got me started on vision therapy with his occupational therapist who specializes in vision therapy. She (Chris) is absolutely great. I am impressed with the array of tools used to help recover my binocular vision. I am doing things I never thought were possible (balance boards etc). Chris pushes me and keeps me motivated. I really enjoy my sessions with her. The office staff is always friendly and they have a wonderful appointment reminder tool that makes it easy to keep my calendar up to date. I am happy the rehab center at Little Co. of Mary recommended them!!

Teresa S.

The Vision Therapy is handled in a separate office through a different door from the shared waiting room. Chris, the vision therapist, has a wide and varied assortment of tools, equipment and resources to best evaluate and treat most vision issues. After just a few visits, my double vision became easier to control, using exercises developed during the therapy process. It was time well-spent.

Joe M.

I have been coming here since I can remember. I love it here. The staff is so amazing and nice. They explain everything they gonna do and never make you feel rushed. Dr. Ikeda has always been my doctor and I would never want another one. He is the doctor for my whole family and is always asking how everyone is doing. I am also so crazy about picking out my frames and have to try so many and each person who helps me take the time and lets me try them all on. I would never want to go anywhere else! I definitely would recommend this office to anyone looking for a great eye doctor.

Kayla W.

This is not for the eye exam but for the frames selection portion. I brought my prescription from Kaiser here with my VSP insurance. The reception staff was very polite and professional. Manny helped me to pick out frames and explain my coverage. Very helpful and patient not like the individual at the other place I rated here on Yelp. I was running late and he still helped me and was not bothered at all. I am so glad I came here ..........very pleased.

Very professional staff and pleasant.