Dancer Injury Prevention

Among a discourse community of trained dancers, one expects to find individuals who are healthy and active athletes. Aside from technique and movement, health and cardio are underlying factors that play a huge role in a dancer’s career. Many dancers take on a healthy diet in order to maintain their body weight. Something that has been looked down upon in the trained dancers’ community is what it

During my research, I found various interviews with dancers of all different backgrounds based on how they felt about the dance world and the struggles that come with it. I picked out a couple of questions and answers that helped me develop a better understanding of my chosen area for this dissertation. Having read a number of interviews, I found the majority of answers were very similar which may suggest most dancers, even if from different genres, experience a similar pressure and fears when it comes to this industry.

Dancers go through a lot of pain. On average dancers get hurt about once every two weeks. That means that dancers, on average, get hurt about 26 times a year. Whether it is a tiny fall or breaking a bone, dancing is a foolproof way to hurt at least something in your body. Especially if you are on pointe. In a pointe shoe, you

Along with other sports, dance involves physical exertion and requires skill. It can be inferred that when athletes undergo physical activity, they push themselves to their limit, which results in them becoming sore, and possibly even injured in some cases. This also pertains to dancers. Dancers can pull a muscle by overstretching or by not stretching enough. They can also break any bone by doing turns, flips, jumps, and tricks. In Ronald Smith’s article, he proceeds to explain

From kindergarten until high school, I was a member of the Jean Wolfmeyer School of Dance. Up to 5 days per week, I would be at the dance studio taking classes, rehearsing for shows, and helping out in the less advanced classes. Regardless of skill level, Jean never hesitated to speak the brutally honest truth about students’ performances and she never settled for anything less than perfection. Jean would often preach that she is only the instruction manual and she cannot make us good dancers, we had to do that for ourselves. However, it was not her critique or teaching alone that motivated dancers to perform well, it was her relentless work ethic and commitment to her studio. As a 70 year-old women, Jean held classes as much as 7 days per

“What are you even doing here? I have never seen such flawed technique in all my years as a choreographer.” The words echoed throughout the medical college auditorium. Impelled by the admonishment in front of my peers, I persevered in my endeavor to improve upon my dancing prowess and by the final year of medical school was leading the college dance team. The above mentioned undertaking further spawned an interest for the discipline of Latin Ballroom which lead to participation at the national level. The unwavering focus and persistence even in the face of unfavorable odds is more broadly reflective of my approach towards learning, both academic and extracurricular. This has been instrumental in achieving stellar academic outcomes including being ranked nationally in the top 0.0004 percent in the premedical test and the top 0.6 percent in the common aptitude test for management training.

Dance demands the same physical skills that are required in other sports. Flexibility, strength, and endurance are key characteristics that most dancers need to posses. As with other “athletes,” most dancers are not born with these abilities but must establish them through practice and repetitive training. Similar to traditional sports practices, dance rehearsals are extensive and require diligence, dedication, and patience from the dancers as they will have to repeat exercises and stretches to perfect their technique and stay on

a) Many ask, “How can dance be a sport? You can't judge on time and the scoring is subjective!” Just like figure skaters, competitive dancers are judged on many criteria: technique, posture, timing, line, hold, poise, togetherness, expression, presentation, power, and foot or leg action. Dancers have a lot on their minds while performing. They are constantly asking themselves, am I extending correctly? Is my technique right? Is my head facing the right direction?

Ballet dancers more specifically are prone to hip impingements because of their en pointe position and walking on the en pointe position. Hip impingements can continue to pinch the labrum whether they are dancing, walking, or sitting. Athletic trainers often step in to provide a weekly treatment specific to the athlete. The rehabilitation can include hot pads, ice baths, stretching, and drills. Other forms of cryotherapy, which is something used to help treat an injury, can also be used when an athletic trainer deems it necessary depending on the severity of the dancer’s injury and the dancer’s pain

The issue here is injured dancers and dancers dancing over or recovering from injuries. This does not follow any kind of predictable timeline in terms of recovery.

Dancers are one of the most common victims of foot injuries since they put too much pressure on their feet as they dance to the beat of the music. Though some may be spared from foot injuries, most of them have at least one foot injury in their lifetime.

This paper focuses on the prevention and treatment of injuries in basketball. This paper explores the basic concepts of preventing injuries and the different methods to treat injuries that occur as a result of playing basketball. There are a variety of preventive measures to limit injuries at recreational, collegiate and professional levels of playing basketball. This paper will elaborate on specific approaches to injury prevention for each circumstance. Depending on the duration and intensity of play many contributing factors play a role in the prescribed treatment of basketball injuries. This paper will examine the different types of treatment available and the major factors that are considered based on case by case basis. Basketball is an enjoyable sport with the risk of minor and major injury. This paper will give insight into those injuries and remedies to treat and prevent them.

Also, injuries are less common. Therefore, dance should not be considered a sport. "Dance is not a sport because there are no winners or losers, also there are no limitations or rules" (Guarino). These people are mistaken because, dance competition judges score each performance based on Technique (1-25 points), Style and Execution (1-25 points), Showmanship (1-20 points), Costume (1-10 points), Choreography (1-10 points), Degree of Difficulty (1-5 points) and Age Appropriate Performance (1-5 points) for a maximum possible 100 points. A final adjudicated score is determined by an average of all judges scores. After this all dancers are put on stage and awarded with trophies 1st-10th place depending on the 1-100 average scoring from the judges. Therefore, dancers do have a set of rules and scoring just like any other athlete. Regarding injuries, they do occur. Most dance injuries are long-term because of the physical stress constantly being put on a dancers body. There are also instant injuries that happen while dancing, most commonly occurring in the knees, ankles, back, neck or hips. "The physical ability and discipline expected of a dancer can be easily related to those of an athlete and increasingly, dance critics are describing dancers as athletes" (Ailey). Ultimately, dancers are consistently proving, even to the critics, that they obtain the skill needed to be considered an

The topic that will be discussed in this proposal is the effects of dancing on gait and ankle flexibility in dancers. The population being researched is dancers and will make comparisons between dancers and non-dancers. The purpose of this research is for examining the effects dancing has on ankle flexibility and gait patterns in dancers and determining whether or not there is a difference between the gait patterns of dancers in comparison to non-dancers. Dancing requires extreme ankle postures and unique balance. Intensive and long term practice of extreme ankle postures can cause changes in gait patterns in dancers during normal walking (Lung, Chern, Hsieh, & Yang, 2008).

It showed that the professional break dancer had more injury on the wrist and knee due to overused syndrome. According to Aweto, et al. (n.d.)1 point out that break dance is not the highest musculoskeletal disorder among the dances. The highest musculoskeletal disorder is the Jazz dance. But, they points out the reason of injury among dancers. This was because dancers tend to try the skills which are beyond their abilities. Furthermore, the overtraining can also lead to the high level of musculoskeletal pain and injury. They also found out that the self-treatment was common among the dancer after they get an