Interviews

An Interview on The Ballet Help Desk Podcasts | March 2025 Before stepping onto pointe, make sure you’re ready. Dr. Selina Shah, a sports and dance medicine specialist, shares what dancers and parents need to know— from the ideal starting age to strength exercises, medical evaluations, and the impact of…

Published in Athletes and the Arts | May 2022 On this episode, we talk with the artistic and wellness pros behind Diablo Ballet, a professional dance company and ballet school in Walnut Creek, California. As they celebrate the end of their 28th season, we find out how they manage to…

Published in Bendy Bodies with the Hypermobility MD | February 2022 Artistic athletes like dancers, gymnasts, and skaters require highly skilled medical care in order to maintain peak health while operating at an elite level. Understanding the unique demands placed on their bodies is crucial for their physicians. And when…

Published in The New York Times | December 2021 The power of dance? It’s literal at a Glasgow arts center that is installing a geothermal heating and cooling system that runs on heat from dancing bodies. At rest, the human body produces about 100 watts of energy. Strenuous dancing might…

Published in Dance Magazine | February 2021 A year of dancing less frequently could give your body a chance to recover from nagging injuries. “Dancers tend to really push themselves through chronic issue­s,” says Selina Shah, MD, FACP, a dance medicine specialist in the San Francisco Bay Area. “As great…

Published in Health.com | January 2021 Weight loss is a little bit more complicated than just a single workout. If your goal is to lose weight, you need to burn more calories than you consume, and a healthy weight loss program will ideally combine exercise with diet modification, Selina Shah, MD,…

Published by Jon Kingdon in Lamorinda Weekly | December 2020 If you have recently been to the Campolindo Soda Aquatic center, you may have seen several young women walking around with their faces slathered in a white cream. It was not a performance of Kabuki Theatre. You were witness to…

Published in Dance Spirit Magazine, September 2020 We all know the feeling: You wake up the day after class or rehearsal just to find that you literally. cannot. move. To answer all your burning (pun intended!) questions about the way-too-relatable topic of soreness, Dance Spirit enlisted the experts: board-certified sports…

Published in Dance Magazine, February 2020 When dancers come to Dr. Shah’s clinic, she looks at their technique above and below their injury. “A lot of times dancers get injured because of imbalances in their muscles,” she says. “While acute injuries are usually freak accidents, chronic injuries have to deal…

Published in the Alumni Profile section of the Vanderbilt University School of Medicine website by Jill Clendening, Fall 2019 Getting a kick out of her unconventional career. Selina Shah, MD’00, HS’03, FACP, has studied and performed many styles of dance since the age of 3, including ballet, Indian classical dance,…

Published on Livestrong.com During exercise, the brain releases endorphins — your body’s natural painkillers — which can help alleviate anxiety and stress, says Selina Shah, MD, dancer and California-based sports medicine physician for the Diablo Ballet Dance Company and Axis Dance Company. That’s why you feel so calm and satisfied…

On this show, Ikaika discusses dance medicine with Dr. Selina Shah MD. Listen Now

Published in Point The average girl goes through puberty between the ages of 10 and 14. “If a dancer hasn’t had her period by 16, there is a concern,” says Dr. Selina Shah, a Bay Area sports and dance medicine specialist. “There may be an underlying medical problem with another…

Published in ACP Internist Patients are increasingly going to the ED and to their internists with concerns about concussions, likely in response to the recent media spotlight on the risks to professional athletes—especially football players. In many cases, however, patients are presenting with what even five years ago would have…

Published in Dance Magazine Pointe work increases the forces placed on a foot by up to 12 times their body weight and prepubescent bones are more vulnerable to injury. “Is a 9-year-old more at risk for premature growth plate closure than an 11-year-old? Yes, possibly. That’s the bottom line,” says…

Published in Dance Spirit Magazine More studio time = more improvement? Not always, according to Roman Zhurbin, American Ballet Theatre soloist and certified personal trainer. “It’s absolutely necessary to take rest days so your body can reset and you stay motivated,” says Zhurbin. “Seven days a week of hard training…

Published in Dance Magazine For dancers, the ups and downs of a menstrual cycle can be inconvenient, to say the least. But learning how the monthly hormone fluctuations affect you can help you understand your mood, energy and appetite, and even your focus, coordination and confidence in the studio. It…

Published in Dance Magazine It’s the end of a long season: Your body is exhausted, you’re emotionally drained from back-to-back performances and you’re feeling ready for some serious time on the couch. But as soon as you start to relax, the doubts creep in. What will happen to my physique if…

Published in Pointe Magazine Seeing a practitioner who’s familiar with ballet is ideal. If you live near a professional ballet company, find out who their dancers see. However, depending on your insurance or location, this may not be possible. Dr. Selina Shah, MD, FACP, a physician who treats dancers from…

Published in ACP Internist Working for a professional sports team can be similar to a traditional office-based practice. Internists who hold these jobs handle chronic conditions and acute injuries, convey difficult medical concepts to their patients, coordinate care among subspecialists, and sometimes deliver bad news. But when they’re working the…

Published in Dance Magazine Come back stronger by using your body’s natural healing response. It’s the end of a tiring rehearsal, but you try that challenging jump one last time, and land sideways on your foot. Within minutes you begin to notice the signs of a sprain: swelling, pain and heat, and…

Listen to an interview aired on KCBS regarding the Russian Doping Scandal that unfolded just before the 2016 Olympic Games. https://selinashah.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/2016-07-19-KCBS-Interview-Russian-Doping-Olympics-Ban.mp3

Published in DanceInforma.Com Dr. Selina Shah knows dance from the inside out — as a dancer trained in ballet and other forms and as director of dance medicine at the Center for Sports Medicine, in San Francisco and Walnut Creek, California. In addition to serving as team doctor for USA…

Published in Dance Studio Life November 2015 Volume 20 Issue 9 Three experts explore the latest thinking on safe, effective stretching Dancers have always prized flexibility—and the bendier they can get, the better. But technique has gotten more extreme in recent years, and today’s choreography seems to require a contortionist’s…

Published in Diablo Ballet Blog Do you think dancers are recognized as athletes? Do you think they are paid fairly and receive the medical treatment and health education they need? And that professional dance is as popular as professional basketball or baseball? If you answered no to any of those…

Published in Dance Magazine Houston Ballet corps dancer Elise Judson was rehearsing an overhead lift that transitioned from one partner to another when she fell headfirst to the floor. Adrenaline immediately took over. “But once that wore off, the left side of my head and face felt like they were…

Published in Dance Magazine Roam the dairy section of any supermarket and you’ll spot labels all over that say “with probiotics.” And it’s not only in the dairy aisle. Visit the candy section and you’ll even find a probiotic-enriched chocolate mint bar. Probiotics are the latest health benefit to be…