Sustainable Performance in the Real World

Training, Fatigue, and Healthcare for Performing Artists

A 90-minute interactive virtual workshop + planning lab for performing artists navigating real schedules, real stress, and real-world training demands.

Presented by Founder Melissa Buffer, MSPT

Friday, February 27 · 1:00 PM ET · Live on Zoom

$20 General Admission

Discounted tiers available for community partners

Why This Workshop

Performing in the Real World Means Load Adds Up

Performing artists work in high-output environments with huge variability in scheduling, workload, and recovery.

Rehearsals and performances overlap.

Recovery windows are inconsistent.

Access to healthcare is often reactive instead of proactive.

At the same time, many artists are balancing work, caregiving, relationships, and personal responsibilities that directly affect sleep, recovery capacity, and stress.

These demands aren’t separate from performance, they’re a critical part of total workload and must be accounted for when training for longevity.

In real life, that often looks like:

  • Irregular schedules and overlapping artistic demands

  • Limited recovery windows and sleep disruption

  • Work and caregiving responsibilities as real load

  • Emotional labor and decision fatigue

  • Delayed access to care

The Approach

A Practical, Medically-Informed Framework for Real Life

This workshop introduces a medically informed, practical framework used in sports and performing arts medicine to help performing artists manage training, recovery, and healthcare within the realities of real life.

You’ll actively use the AAHC Real World Performance Planner to map your current workload, identify fatigue patterns, and practice decision-making in real-world scenarios

Learning Objectives

You’ll Learn How To…

  • Recognize how performance demands, work, and personal life combine to create total load

  • Identify physical, mental, and emotional fatigue—and how each affects output, injury risk, and performance quality

  • Apply a workload phase framework to real schedules using The Performance Planner

  • Use conditioning, cross-training, and recovery tools more strategically

  • Make informed decisions when discomfort, fatigue, or time constraints show up

  • Understand how and when to use healthcare, self-care, and exercise proactively

The Lab

Plan, Test, and Adjust in Real-World Scenarios

You’ll work through a guided, real-world scenario that includes artistic demands, work and caregiving responsibilities, and limited recovery windows. Then, a disruption is introduced: fatigue rises, symptoms persist, or stress increases outside the studio

Using the Planner, you’ll practice how to:

  • Identify your current phase and main fatigue drivers

  • Adjust training and recovery plans

  • Decide when healthcare input is warranted

You’ll leave with a repeatable framework you can use week to week:

  • What phase am I in?

  • What fatigue type is dominant?

  • What is the minimum effective plan this week?

  • What recovery lever matters most?

  • Do I need healthcare support now or soon?

Audience

Who This Workshop Is For

This workshop is designed for professional and pre-professional performing artists—including dancers, circus artists, actors, vocalists, and movement-based performers—who are navigating training, rehearsal, and performance in real life, not inside a school schedule.

It’s especially valuable if you’re juggling overlapping demands, feeling the effects of cumulative fatigue, or trying to train and perform sustainably without consistent structure or built-in support.

No medical background required—just real bodies, real lives, and real decisions.

Join Us!

Friday, February 27

1:00 PM ET

Live on Zoom (recording available for a limited time)

90-minute interactive workshop + planning lab

Includes the AAHC Real World Performance Planner (digital + printable)

$20 General Admission

Discounted tiers available for community partners and affiliates