Injury in dancers
As usual I am always trying to find a new subject to write on, and this week, I have been inspired to write about injury in dancers due to the fact that, recently, I have had quite a lot of dancers come into clinic. So what are the common injuries experienced by dancers then? Well, the injuries that I have seen in clinic recently are knee injuries, Achilles issues and back problems but is this a true reflection of dancers as a whole? As a whole this is the general view: Minor injury in professional ballet, modern, and theatrical dancers is 74% according to Chmelar et al (1987). Chronic injuries in professional ballet and modern dancers was 48% according to Bowling (1989). Musculoskeletal pain that lasted for at least 1 year in Swedish professional ballet dancers was reported to be about 95% according to Ramel and Moritz (1994) and (1998). They also found that 90% of those followed up 6 years later reported recurrent pain (Ramel and Moritz 1999). ...
