An overview of injury in dance

Dance medicine and science practitioners focus predominantly on three interlinked areas - injury prevention, healthier dance practice and the development of peak performance. When working towards these goals, it can be useful to take a step back and consider the extent of the healthcare issues facing dancers that must be addressed. Injury is the key factor in this, as neither healthy dance practice and peak performance cannot be achieved without addressing the significant problem of injury occurence in the dance profession.

Instances of injury are excessively high in the dancers. Across all disciplines of dance musculoskeletal injury is common in both student and professional dancers. Pushing the body to it's limits and the evolution of evermore demanding choreography means that dance will always be a risky profession; this does not mean however that steps cannot be taken to reduce the risk.
Collecting data on dance injury can be problematic due to dancers often being reluctant to report physical problems to directors or company doctors out of fear of losing professional position or opportunity. Therefore in many studies on dance injury, anonymous self-reporting has proven more useful than company medical records, as is the case with the studies discussed below. The extent of the problem, when providing the security of anonymity to dancers, is shown to be much wider than official company records state. What follows is a brief overview of the issue according to published research.

Nutrition - Protein

It is essential when following a low calorie diet, as many dancers are, that nutrient intake is monitored and you ensure you are providing your body with adequate provision of carbs, protein and fat. Protein is an essential macronutrient that contributes to the formation and repair of muscle and other tissues. It is also required for metabolic processes, formation of antibodies making it crucial to the immune system, hormone synthesis, and even functioning as an energy source when carbohydrate and fat stores are depleted (i.e. in cases of starvation, exhaustion or extreme endurance exercise).

Dietary protein has additional benefits including increased feelings of satiety (making you feel fuller), higher thermic effect during metabolism than fats or carbs (meaning consumption of dietary protein may increase your metabolic rate) and increased protein turnover (regeneration of body tissue). Protein contains nitrogen, enabling it to form amino acids. There are 20 amino acids that the adult body needs, classified as either essential or non-essential amino acids. The 9 essential amino acids cannot be made in the body and therefore must be provided for through protein sources in our diet. So protein does one hell of a lot for us, and we need to ensure that even when controlling energy intake in low calorie diets, we are meeting our bodies' requirements.

Timetabling in full-time training

Dance schools, conservatoires and companies have a responsibility to care for the overall health and well-being of the dancers they work with. This means on top of technical training providing measures for injury prevention, fitness training, nutritional support, psychological support and a measured approach to workload. Training frequency and scheduling is often waylaid due to other concerns; timetabling tends to be based on what is convenient for studio space or teacher availability, rather than what makes the most sense for the dancers. Scheduling of training can have a significant effect on the dancer's performance and well-being and it is important that companies and schools recognise the implications of their timetabling.

Research Update: Warm Up & Stretching

A new study has been published in the Journal of Dance Medicine and Science looking at the effect of varying stretching protocols during warm-up on dance performance. Warm-up is a much neglected are of dance research and it's great to see work being conducted in this area.

Nutrition and Injury Recovery

I'm currently typing this one-handed, sitting banged up at home with my first serious injury in about 4 years. I dislocated my elbow at the start of the week and will be spending the foreseeable future in the world's least stylish full-arm cast and not lifting anything heavier than a teacup. Awesome. So it seems as good a time as any to discuss options for injury rehab, recovery nutrition and finding some way to not just bow down and give up for several weeks.

Dance Science Resources

Dance science is still very much in it's infancy and as such steady sources of reliable information - whether peer-reviewed research, journals, books, magazines or websites - can be hard to come by. As a dance educator, facilitator, choreographer, director, or artist, you have a duty of care to yourself and to those you work with, and the most important part of that is educating yourself.

Below is a short, non-exhaustive list of some of the most useful resources for reliable dance science information; some are dance-specific, others are more general in areas of sport, exercise or health but all are applicable and useful to those working within dance.

Improving jump height in dance training

Jump height is an area that I'll freely admit I largely neglected during my training years; my jetés didn't cause me particular problems and so I paid little attention to developing them. So more recently my training patterns changed, and after stopping performing I moved into training in martial arts. Within 2 months I could jump higher than I had ever been able to before, fast-forward 6 months and it's higher still. Now when I go back to dancing, my sautes, jetés and grand jetés are the highest they've ever been,  my leaps are more powerful and my elevation is significantly more impressive than it was when I was training and performing full-time. Since jump height is such a fundamental aspect of dance performance, serious provision for maximising it should be included within training. The fact that for it isn't provided for in various schools and companies makes little sense, when simple changes to training programmes are liable to elicit substantial gains.

Supplements use in dancers

Dietary supplements are taken by athletes to supplement their existing nutritional intakes and address any insufficiencies or deficiencies that may affect their health or performance. While some are taken for performance and others for health, others are completely pointless, occasionally dangerous, and all cost a considerable amount of money. Individuals with low caloric intakes may need to consider supplementation in order to ensure their nutrient intake is adequate. As many dancers use calorie restriction in an attempt to control weight and body composition, they are an at-risk group for nutrient insufficiencies/deficiencies and so it is worth considering where insufficiencies may arise.