[ research report ] B allet dancers are described as both artists and athletes, 19,25 performing complex artistic routines that require a high level of athletic ability due to the extreme physical demands placed on them. 51 Consequently, ballet dancers are at risk for injuries that can potentially disrupt performance and curtail a career.23,51 The van Mechelen et al 56 injury prevention model indicates the need to understand the extent of the injury problem. However, within dance, this has been challenging due to methodological deficiencies and inconsistencies in published epidemiological studies. 4,22,27 These include the choice of research design, such as injury surveys 3,26,28,46 and retrospective data collection, 17,37 and variations in injury definitions, including medical attention 17,37 and financial cost.
18When examined prospectively, the incidence of dance injury has been reported to be between 0.62 and 5.6 injuries per 1000 dancing hours. 19,30,38 Two of these studies were based on preprofessional dancers, 19,30 which may render the findings less generalizable to a professional ballet company.
22,53Although epidemiological studies can aid in the understanding of the injury profile, allowing appropriate interventions to reduce the risk of injury, 34,35,40 the epidemiology of injuries in ballet is not well understood. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to undertake injury surveillance of professional ballet dancers to enhance our understanding of injuries and to provide a foundation for future interventions to reduce injury incidence. Specific objectives were to report the incidence, severity, and etiology of injuries sustained by a cohort of professional ballet dancers, including the nature of the injuries as intrinsic or extrinsic, whether they were traumatic or from overuse, and the episode of injury (first occurrence, exacerbation, or recurrence). Furthermore, the objective was to look at the impact of dance activity and the dancers' rank on injuries and whether differences occur between genders.
METHODS
Aprofessional ballet company composed of 52 dancers (female, 27; male, 25) was prospectively studied over 1 performance year. Female dancers had a mean SD age of 25 6 years, height of 162.2 3.7 cm, weight of 49.2 4.0 kg, and body mass index of 18.9 1.6 kg/m 2 . Male dancers had a mean SD age of 23 5 years, height of 179.6 4.3 cm, weight of 71.7 4.7 kg, and body mass index of 22.2 1.4 kg/ m 2 . All dancers were assigned a rank for the entire year based on their position in the company. The highest rank within the company is principal, followed by soloist, T T STUDY DESIGN: Prospective, descriptive single-cohort study.
T T OBJECTIVE:To assess the incidence and severity of injuries to a professional ballet company over 1 year. T T METHODS: Data for an elite-level ballet company of 52 professional dancers were collected by an in-house medical team using a time-loss injury definition.
T T RESULTS:A total of 355 injuries were recorded, with an overall injury incidence of 4.4 inju...