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Riverside, California - December 21, 2011

Damien Diaz is dancing in the Nutcracker this holiday season, but he thought he'd never be back onstage after breaking his foot in a devastating fall last year.

"It was a freak accident," he said. "I heard a crack. Everyone in the studio heard the crack."

The 38-year-old was rushed to Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, one of the only hospitals in the nation with a dance medicine program.

"It brings together physical therapists, orthopedic surgeons and a professor of dance medicine. Each of us have our own expertise and look at prevention of injuries from a little different point of view," explained Dr. Glen Pfeffer of the USC School of Theatre Dance Medicine Center at Cedars-Sinai.

Diaz had an injury common to many dancers; he broke the long bone on the outside of his foot. During surgery Dr. Glenn Pfeffer put a screw in his foot to force the bone together.

"It can be a dangerous operation because as you're putting the screw in the bones can rupture apart," Pfeffer said.

But it was successful and then the program got Diaz back on his feet.

"In three months I was dancing again," he said.

The specialized treatment not only helps ballet dancers get back on point, injured jazz, hip-hop and ballroom dancers can benefit, too.

A lifelong dancer, Diaz says the program taught him some new moves; stretches and exercises to avoid another injury and strengthen his injured foot.

"Now my right foot which is the broken foot is my stronger foot," he said.

So strong he doesn't avoid an arabesque. He's dancing again with confidence.

Hundreds of dancers have been treated through the Cedars-Sinai program.