SPORTS MEDICINE

DANCE MEDICINE: ARTIST OR ATHLETE?

Whilst it may not be unusual to hear of an athlete undergoing a ‘return from injury fitness test’ as late as the day of competition in many sports, the nature of dance makes this largely impossible. Rehearsals for shows can begin 4-6 weeks prior to performance (sometimes while performing another show). A dancer generally needs to have participated in most, if not all of the rehearsals, not only for the expected benefits of skill acquisition, which is an integral part of a dancer’s armoury in injury prevention, but also because of the interaction with other cast members and props. Injury to one dancer can result in entire cast changes. This can be made even more complicated if dancers are cast in more than one role.

This article aims to introduce the concepts of dance and dance medicine and to look at particular issues involved with the management of dancers, using the results of our own epidemio- logical study.

EPIDEMIOLOGY OF DANCE INJURIES Armsey & Hosey (3) indicate that the epidemiology of sports injuries can help to identify risks and plan preventative strategies. This premise is supported by Brooks et al. (4) who place value on assessing the causal links between risk factors and injuries, thereby allowing informed decisions on preventative and therapeutic interventions.

The understanding of risk factors in dance from the literature is somewhat confounding due to the varying means by which injury is defined, data is collected and findings interpreted (5–10). A survey of the dance community in the UK indicated a reported injury incidence of 80% (11), while some studies have indicated injury incidence rates of 2.9 to 4.7 per 1000 hours in dance

6 INTRODUCTION

Sports medicine is a continually expanding discipline. Buckner and Khan (1), in defining sports medicine, move away from it relating solely to the management of sporting injuries, to a broader definition of ‘the medicine of exercise’ or ‘the total core of the exercising individual’. Dance is often described as the embodiment of both artist and athlete (2), and yet a disparity exists between sport and dance, which can lead to resistance to the implementation of sports medicine principals within the dance world. One of the greatest issues is that the dancer often sees themselves primarily as an artist.

This article discusses the specific characteristics of dance that present significant challenges to the sports medicine practi- tioner in keeping these performers healthy and injury free. It is important to note that this paper has not commented on the psychological aspects of the management of dancers. Psychology plays a significant role in the management of dancers but its specificity and scope fall outside the context of this paper.

students, (12) and 0.48-0.62 per 1000 hours in professional dancers (6,13). In our own prospective study we recorded 370 injuries from a company of 54 professional, elite level dancers in one year.

EXTRINSIC FACTORS Workload Classification of injury can come from whether the injury

sportEX medicine 2008;35(Jan):6-9