Injury prevention and treatment for Dancers

This is needless to say that knowledge of right movements and basics of bio mechanics helps dancers to prolong their career span.

 Landing techniques is a broad term that decides the way you touch the ground while  you manoeuvre your body during various moves.

Few factors that play key role in landing related injuries are as follows:

 Surface- Frequent change in quality of floor surface leads to altered proprioception (sense of joint position).For example,many auditoriums have raked stage that inclines towards the audience; a dancer who has practised on flat surface may need more effort to keep antero-posterior (forward- backward) balance.This is a common cause of injury during final rehearsals before shows. Similarly sudden transition from sprung floor to cemented floor during tours may need adjustment in impact of landing.

 Dance form- Some dance forms are physically more demanding than others.Modern contemporary dance styles have a huge scope of use of quick moves,jumps and gymnastics.What may lead to injuries is variation of moves from show to show which doesn't give enough time for adaptation.Injuries in such dance forms can involve any part like back, knee or ankle etc.whereas in classical forms of dance moves remain disciplined within a certain pattern so type of injuries also follow a certain pattern.Research based evidence from a study in 1989(N.America) suggested that ankle injuries are most common in ballet and theatricals. Assessment and prevention-In a dance medicine conference, researchers presented that:Prevention is the keystone to avoid injuries, and for dance injuries,preventing strategies may be directed toward previously identified risk factors.A supervised training regimen should be monitored for gradual progression of intensity and type of activity.Female Athletes/Dancers are at higher risk because maintaining a dance fit lean body involves dieting and vigorous practise.This lifestyle over a prolonged period may lead to problems such as amenorrhea,eating disorders and osteoporosis;this is known as the female athletes triad.This may lead to added risk of stress fractures during improper landing techniques.Guru Knows Best- Medical advice may help you to understand importance of landing techniques but its your teacher in a particular dance form who can help you correct your landing in a specific manner.