Emily Cook Harrison MS, RDN, LDN

Emily is a Registered Dietitian Nutritionist (RDN) and holds both a Bachelor's and a Master's degree in Nutrition and Health Sciences from Georgia State University. Her research was on elite level ballet dancers and energy balance and the relationship to injuries.

She has additional training and expertise in providing nutrition counseling for people with diverse needs including athletic performance, weight management, wellness, food allergies/ intolerances, celiac disease, and eating disorders. Over the years, she has worked with hundreds of dancers in seven countries to encourage healthy eating and positive body image.

She is a public speaker who has done nutrition workshops and food demos for leading dance schools, universities, and conferences. She is also an experienced writer who regularly contributes to print and online dance publications as well as frequently being an expert source in nutrition for journalists.
Emily began her professional career with Boston Ballet II and Ballet Internationale in Indianapolis, IN where she worked with legendary Kirov dancers Eldar Aliev and Irina Kolpakova. She then danced for Emmy award winning choreographer Michael Smuin in his San Francisco company: Smuin Ballet. Emily then joined the Atlanta Ballet where she danced leading roles in addition to being a faculty member with the NASD accredited Centre for Dance Education. She ran the Centre for Dance Nutrition and Healthy Lifestyles at AB for 6 years and now runs her private practice “Nutrition for Great Performances”.  She holds additional certifications in Sustainable Food Systems and Environmentalism. 

Emily is also the mother of two children and understands the unique challenges parents face when it comes to feeding children.
She can be reached at [email protected] 

Peter Donohoe

Peter Donohoe is a strength and conditioning specialist, a teacher, coach and mentor and is skilled in movement and mobility. He is a passionate and expressive coach who trains his students/athletes, the safe and powerful way to build a strong and healthy body.

“More is not better, better is better.” A philosophy that continues to support Athletes improving performance. Peter has worked at Boston Ballet since 2007, with professional and the pre-professional dancers training them in the art of strength, injury prevention and optimal performance. He developed an integrated curriculum with elements from Pilates, core strength and corrective exercise techniques in a progressive training program that helps to enhance the dancers’ performance. With his private training studio in Carlisle, “Donohoe Training”, currently trains young and “old” athletes, people managing injuries and some just working to get back into good shape, you may see the occasional pro-athlete.

Born in Dublin, Ireland, a 2 time Olympic Athlete, a structural engineer, who shifted to the engineering of Human Movement and Performance. Currently working for Hydrow as their Strength and Movement Specialist, creating Movement, Mobility and Strength training content for onscreen clients. Certified in Performance from Altis, Poliquin and the NSCA, with more than 20 years of experience both as an Athlete and Performance Coach.

Emily Griswold

Emily Griswold is a certified athletic trainer with an emphasis in performing arts medicine. Emily fell in love with dancing in young adulthood after spending much of her life as a competitive figure skater. She has her masters degree in Athletic Training from Ohio University where she spent her time working as an athletic trainer with university performing artists at the Clinic for Science and Health in Artistic Performance (SHAPe Clinic).

Emily currently resides in Southern California with her husband (who is also an athletic trainer), where she works with professional performing artists and entertainers, with a particular interest in injury prevention and education.

Katie Groven

Katie Groven is an ACSM certified personal trainer, holistic health coach and two time world champion dancer. She is the creator of dancer-fitness.com  an online exercise database designed to transform competitive dancers into athletic powerhouses.

She has combined her 25 years of dance and her expertise in fitness to empower dancers of all ages to view themselves as athletes and gives them the tools to increase their strength, endurance, injury prevention, and overall performance.

Katie travels the country cross-training teams and studios including Larkin Dance Studio, home to World of Dance finalists Eva Igo, Ellie and Ava Wagner and The Trilogy. When she’s not training individual dancers or teams she’s spending quality time with her husband Chris, daughters Hazel and Amelia or growing her collection of Converse shoes.

Katie is also a Doctors For Dancers specialist and regular blog contributor for More Than Dancers and The Line Up.

Listen to Katie speak about simple and effective ways to strength train dancers on the Dance Boss Podcast (Ep.56) Count me in Podcast (Ep.68) and Dance Studio 411 Podcast (Ep.30)

Terry hyde

Terry Hyde is a psychotherapist and counsellor for dancers.

Terry started dancing aged 6, won a 5 year scholarship to the RAD aged 10. He attended the Royal Ballet’s Upper School, joining the Royal Ballet at age 18.  To expand his character work, he joined London’s Festival Ballet (now ENB) as a soloist, playing roles such as, Dr Coppelius in Coppelia Sancho Panza in Don Quixote and The Headmistress in Graduation Ball.

Terry left the ballet world to explore other artistic genres, and performed in musicals in London’s West End, in Film and on TV.

On retiring from performing, Terry set up as a Business Manager for people in show business. His clients included a number of well-known performers and many ‘jobbing’ dancers, singer and actors.  On selling the business 15 years later, and inspired by the realization that many of the people he’d worked with also sought his advice on personal issues, he retrained as a psychotherapist attaining a Masters Degree in Psychotherapy & Healing Practice validated by Middlesex University in 2012.

After working with an ex-ballet dancer suffering with bipolar disorder, Terry recognized that there was a very special niche that he could fill within the world of dance. He’s now combined his two passions, dance and psychotherapy bringing his ‘insider knowledge’ about life as a dancer into the realm of counseling. He founded www.counsellingfordancers.com in 2017 and has been working to support the unique needs of dancers in relation to their mental health ever since.  

Terry presents interactive Mental Health Self-Care Workshops for Dancers both in person and virtually.  These proactive workshops are to help support dancers’ mental wellbeing, teaching them resilience and how to be mentally fit and emotionally strong.

He now offers one to one therapy sessions available via video-link worldwide.

Ashley Mowrey

Ashley Mowrey is a Mindset Coach and Educator for dancers.  She holds a B.A. in Psychology from The University of Arkansas, is a Certified Professional Coach through Coach Training World, a trained facilitator in Tara Mohr’s Playing Big Leadership Program for Women, a specialist for Doctors for Dancers, and a blog contributor for Apolla Performance.

Ashley trained as a competitive dancer out of Dallas, TX before teaching and eventually directing a company and dance studio in Fayetteville, AR.

It was during those years that she felt drawn towards the dancer’s mindset and the need for training and tools in the dance community to foster mental health and wellbeing. She sees clients in person and via Skype/Zoom all over the country as well as travels (sometimes digitally these days) to studios for customized group workshops. Ashley has also recently been featured on Dance Studio Amplified Podcast, (Ep. 14), Dance Boss University Mastermind guest presenter, and episode 58 of Dance Boss Podcast. Head to her website for more information, or her Instagram for free tools and resources to help you build a healthy mindset to navigate the dance world at your best. 

Dr. Chelsea Pierotti

Chelsea was trained as a studio dancer in the Denver area, and spent summers training with professional ballet companies, finishing her performance career as a professional ballet dancer in Colorado. Chelsea was also a successful high school dance coach for over a decade. She won multiple State Championship titles and was recognized as Colorado’s Dance Coach of the Year.

Outside of coaching, Chelsea also has a Ph.D. in Sport Psychology and is a full-time instructor at the University of Colorado at Boulder. In 2017 she launched an online educational resource for dance coaches called Passionate Coach. Her company provides digital courses and memberships to help dance coaches learn and thrive. She specializes in education for dance teachers and coaches as well as independent consulting with dancers in many areas of mental skills for athletes including confidence, anxiety control, motivation, and leadership. Visit her website at: https://passionatecoach.com

Dr. Jeff Russell

Dr. Jeff Russell is an athletic trainer, researcher, and advocate for performing artists. His current position is Associate Professor of Athletic Training and Director of Science and Health in Artistic Performance (SHAPe) at Ohio University. He changed his career from sports medicine to performing arts medicine in 2002 while on the faculty at Belhaven University.

His heart was unsettled by dancers and other performing artists he was around who reported injuries, but had no healthcare provider to serve them. So, he set up a clinic at the university to offer the artists specialized attention. Three and a half years later, he and his family moved to England where he studied for his PhD in dance medicine and science from the University of Wolverhampton. His dissertation explored the anatomy and motion of the ankle in pointe dancers.

Now at Ohio University, Dr. Russell’s SHAPe program comprises three parts of performing arts medicine: clinical care of injured performing artists, applied research in the medical aspects of performing arts, and education of both artists and healthcare workers. Dr. Russell leads a team of athletic trainers and researchers who care for and study artists in dance, music, theatre, circus, film and television, and marching band. His research involves international, transdisciplinary, community-engaged explorations of concussions in theatre, circus, and film and television stunt performers, as well as injuries and healthcare access in commercial dancers.

Dr. Russell is a Fellow of the International Association for Dance Medicine & Science (FIADMS), serves on the Boards of the Performing Arts Medicine Association and the Bridge Dance Project, and is a member of the Research Advisory Group of Cirque du Soleil. He and his wife, Ruth, live in Athens, Ohio. He and Ruth have an adult son and daughter and a grandson. His hobbies include ethnic cooking, fishing, traveling, and outdoor activities.

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