IADMS New York 2002   [back to the Category]

Bending the Rules: Is Modifying Class Good Enough for Dancers with Hip Pain?   [read the french version]

Author :   Leigh Anne Roberts, MPT & Al.

Bending the Rules:
Is Modifying Class Good Enough for Dancers with Hip Pain?

Leigh Anne Roberts, MPT; Jennifer M. Gamboa, MPT, OCS
Body Dynamics, Inc.
Arlington, Virginia, USA

Peter Lavine, MD
Orthopaedic Private Practice
Washington, D.C., USA


Hip pain is a common complaint of classical dancers for which they seek medical support. As practitioners, we always try to keep our dancers dancing by condoning relative rest, but does this really work? The purpose of this paper is to discuss the management of pre-professional dancers with hip pain when we allow them to continuing dancing instead of implementing complete rest.


Patients were all elite level ballet dancers (age 13 to 16 years) in a pre-professional program. All dancers experienced anterior hip pain that was exacerbated by doing a développé to the side and to the front (at least 45? off of the floor).

Following a visit to an orthopedic doctor and a standard physical therapy examination, a diagnosis of hip capsulitis or hip flexor tendonitis was obtained. After 7-10 days of complete rest, students returned to class at different rates with directions from the physical therapist for relative rest specific for their case.

After 5 to 17 physical therapy visits, all patients improved in their pain scales and their functional abilities, although to different degrees of recovery. A subset of patients had greater benefits and fewer physical therapy visits. These were patients who met the following criteria: 1) not waiting until the problem is chronic, 2) compliance with a home exercise program, 3) compliance with class modifications, 4) accepting the source of their injury, 5) accepting the solution to their injury. Other limitations to recovery include the patient’s body awareness and age, as well as insufficient support from artistic staff.

The evidence presented in this paper raises the question that we all face…should we enforce complete rest to allow for physiologic healing or is it all right to “bend the rules” and allow the dancer to continue dancing?