We – medical doctors – are seeing an increasing number of dance-related injuries

Dance is becoming more popular especially with the advent of numerous dancing reality shows, not to mention popular dance-based workouts such as Zumba. As a result, we – medical doctors – are seeing an increasing number of dance-related injuries. 

This study looked at 500 dancers at the dance festival of Joinville (Brasil) over a period of 12 months. Dancers were broken into 4 groups: classical ballet, jazz/contemporary, tap/folk dance and street dance, based on biomechanical characteristics, the degree of motor demand and physiological aspects related to training in each group. 627 injuries were reported in 377 dancers, with overall incidence of dance injury being 70%. The most common anatomical region injured in the different groups was ankle/foot in classical dance, thigh/leg in contemporary/jazz, knee in tap/folk dance while there was no significant injury occurrence in different anatomical regions with street dance. 

The following were identified as risk factors for dance injuries: age and weight in jazz/contemporary dance; greater height in classical ballet; shorter height in tap/folk dance; and greater weekly frequency of practice in classical ballet and jazz/contemporary dance > from Soares Campoy et al.; Clin J Sport Med. 21 (2011) 493-498. All rights reserved by Lippincott Williams & Wilkins.