Injury Prevention for Modern Dancers: A Pilot Study of an Educational Intervention

Abstract

Modern dancers suffer a high rate of musculoskeletal injuries. Preventing injury prolongs dance careers and eases financial burden on both individual dancers and dance companies alike. A medical student partnered with Garth Fagan Dance to develop a curriculum to teach principles of injury prevention specific to preprofessional and professional modern dancers. Quantitative assessments showed a significant increase in participant injury prevention knowledge after completion of the course (P < 0.0001). Participants' concern that injury may end their careers showed no significant change after the course (P = 0.35). Injury prevention and dance-related injuries were reported the most often as useful topics while weight management was reported the least often as a useful topic. Qualitative evaluations showed that participants' found a course on injury prevention valuable and desired a course of longer duration that includes a greater number of topics. These findings show that modern dancers perceive an educational course on injury prevention as valuable and retain information presented in the course in the short-term. Further study is warranted to assess changes in injury rates after the course and to continue to improve curriculum content and implementation.

Sports injury prevention in Swedish elite floorball players: evaluation of two consecutive floorball seasons

“…The intervention group took part in an individual intervention comprising six sessions during a 20-week period and resulted in 0.22 injuries per player, while the control group received 1.31 injuries per players. Later on, four studies evaluated prevention intervention [81][82][83][84][85]. The content in the intervention is mostly based on psychological skills training [81,83,84] but education is also included [82] and mindfulness [85].…”

“…Later on, four studies evaluated prevention intervention [81][82][83][84][85]. The content in the intervention is mostly based on psychological skills training [81,83,84] but education is also included [82] and mindfulness [85]. The most striking aspects in these studies are the small groups of athletes (range and the rather young age of the athletes (range 17-22) (Table 1).…”

Injuries in Contemporary Dance

“…However, the accompanying problem is that there are times when teachers are not responding in time, so it is especially crucial to strengthen students' own safety awareness and self-protection ability. On the other hand, the reasonable arrangement of dance teaching content (the establishment of dance injury prevention courses) and progress can also prevent dance injury (Fuhrmann et al, 2010). First of all, the teacher needs to understand the physical fit-ness level of each student, respect the difference of each person's situation in the classroom, when the students show load performance, they need to increase their vigilance, and let the students add energy to take a rest.…”

Understanding Exercise Physiology through the Eswatini Traditional and Cultural Dances

“…Despite that Swazi dances are done through passion and respect for EmaSwati tradition and culture, Fuhrmann et al (2010) [66,67], suggests that educating dancers about injury prevention is important, effective and comprehensive cost cutting intervention program. Injury prevention topics should include; body composition, nutrition, weight management, rehabilitation [12] and psychology among others.…”