Paul Winston

PAUL WINSTON 

• Victoria, BC. 
• Ballet, Baroque dance 
• Career Pathway: Physician, specializing in disorders of movement 

 Paul Winston: I am a physician specializing in Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation. I use my dance knowledge to analyze and detect missed diseases and injuries and support people with all forms of injury and disability to maximize their potential and reduce disability. I focus on treating people with severe neurological disorders, nerve injuries, and disorders of muscles and joints. I also work with athletes and dancers on injury rehabilitation. I am engaged in international education and have many outlets to teach physicians and students from many continents; hence, I frequently go on tour. I have pioneered an entirely new drug-free procedure called cryoneurolysis to treat a neurological movement disorder called spasticity that is being implemented across the world. 

PAUL’S STORY 

“I joined the National Ballet of Canada weeks after graduating from the ballet school. When I chose to move on and pursue medicine, I received excellent advice from the DTRC. I continued to dance with Opera Atelier while in my first year of university, and then the flexible DTRC grant allowed me to extend my grant money out over two years to supplement my part-time dance income. I was awarded the Peter Bronfman award for a second full-time grant when I attended medical school. More importantly, I received advice and mentorship. I was put in touch with physicians who were former dancers and University of Toronto advisors and even given summer jobs at the DTRC. The support I received has empowered me to be a global mentor and educator, and I have many commitments to providing free and accessible education from all continents. 

My transition occurred after the economic meltdown of the early 1990s. I did not know any physicians, and really few people who had attended university when I began my journey into medicine. I was naïve as to the challenges that lay ahead. The DTRC was there for me at every stop. Advice, training, economic and financial planning, mentorship and of course financial support. It simply would not have been possible without the DTRC. My commitment to ongoing incorporation of dance into my medical career was part of the recognition for the Ken Carter National Ballet School Alumni Award. Artists are vastly underpaid and tragically undervalued in our society. Paying back for the help I received and providing mentorship is a must for me. 

The DTRC’s commitment to education has stayed with me. Now, 28 years after starting my transition, I am using dance again to foster educational ideas around the world. 

DTRC’S SUPPORT 

• Retraining (Study) Grant 
• FTS-I Subsistence (Post-Performance Pathway) Grant 
• The Peter F. Bronfman Memorial Award