DANCE MEDICINE

differentiation between dance and sport as they would between individual sports.

When examining the dance literature for the links between risk factors and injuries, the varying definitions of injuries coupled with different methodologies make findings confounding. From our own research we have broken these risk factors down into those of extrinsic and intrinsic origin.

Extrinsic factors, including the type of work, duration, props, stages and costumes are often difficult for the medical team to influence. Charged with the accountability of dancers’ well-being, medical teams in dance can concentrate on those issues that fall within their control. This includes ensuring dancers are fit enough for the demands of both rehearsing and performing. Nutrition needs careful consideration, focusing on both the fuel required as well as the timing of intake. Adherence to an appropriate recovery strategy can play an important role in allowing dancers to continue to display the repeatability of movement needed within the context of a busy performance schedule.

It is that ability to support the dancers’ exceptional skill level that is of paramount importance when planning management programmes for dancers. Comprehensive screening can provide a thorough examination of intrinsic factors that may influence injury and provide the cornerstone of understanding and planning in regards of dancers’ conditioning. Unlike most athletes, dancers are biased towards skill at the expense of base strength and fitness. In the presence of injury or identifiable risk factors, that

balance needs to be shifted to allow the body to accept the forces transmitted through it, focussing attention on weakness noted within the kinetic chain in particular.

THE AUTHORS

Nick Allen MSc(Sports Med) BSc(Hons) MCSP SRP. Nick is currently the clinical director of the Jerwood Centre, a £1/4 million sports medicine and rehabilitation centre in Birmingham, where he looks after elite level dancers and athletes. He works as a consultant to Great Britain Gymnastics, the LTA’s High Performance Centre at Edgbaston Priory Tennis Club, a national squad physiotherapist to England and Great Britain Hockey and sits on the British Olympic Association’s and English Institutes of Sport’s register of sports physiotherapists available to national governing bodies. Prior to moving to the Jerwood Centre he was head of medical services for a top premiership rugby club. He is also currently undertaking an epidemiological based PhD.

Dr Matthew Wyon PhD, MSc BSc (HONS) is a reader in performance science at the University of Wolverhampton, UK and the exercise physiologist for the Birmingham Royal Ballet and English National Ballet. He is on the board of the International Association of Dance Medicine and Science and sits on the following committees; Medical Advisory Committee of Dance UK, Research Committee of the International Association of Dance Medicine and Science, Research Centre for Sport, Exercise and Performance University of Wolverhampton. He is the course leader for the Masters in dance science at the University of Wolverhampton and a director of stud- ies for five research degrees in dance science and medicine.

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