IADMS Miami 2000   [back to the Category]

Shall We Dance? Physiological Profile and Injury Prevention of Elite Formation Dancers   [read the french version]

Author :   Eileen M. Wanke, M.D. Germany

Author: Eileen M. Wanke, M.D., Center for Dance Medicine, Bassum, Germany

There are about 185,000 members in the German Dance Sports Association (Deutscher Tanzsportbund), 10% of which carry out this type of sport as competitive sport either individually as a pair or as part of a team consisting of up to 8 pairs. As a contest discipline, the standard as well as the Latin American ballroom dance belong to the group of top athletic sports due to the maximum demands to the physical capability of dancers with a total training time of 25 hours an average per week. Research has shown that up to 70% of the members of a team are injured during the 10-month- dance season. In contrast to classical ballet, however, most of the dancers are amateurs.
Subjects and Methods: In this study the daily stress of an internationally leading Latin American Formation (n = 20) as well as corresponding junior formations (n = 40) were analyzed and measurements of heart rates and blood lactate acid were done. In addition, the standardized but not dance-specific bicycle ergometry was employed in order to be able to compare the individual and sports specific physical capability of the dancers. An anonymous questionnaire completed the profile.

Purpose of Study: Besides the physiological profile it was the aim of this research to provide data as to specific injury patterns and their causality of the male and female dancers of world elite standard and Latin American formations in comparison to junior dancers and to dancers of other types of dance and develop a training concept that helps to minimize and/or avoid injuries.
Initial Results: Final findings and their evaluation are expected by May 2000, for the research is still on-going. Initial results, however, already show different injury patterns in the various categories of dance. While the Latin American formation dancers suffered mainly from injuries in the lower spine and feet, the problem zone for the dancers of the standard formations were the upper spine and shoulder. Typical stress patterns make high demands on the aerobic as well as the anaerobic mechanism of the energy supply. Based on the first results of the bicycle ergometry, male and female ballroom dancers may be assigned to the group of non-endurance athletes. There are external as well as stylistic reasons for their injuries. As in classical ballet, nutrition, organization of training units as well as therapy and prophylaxis of acute and chronic injuries show a considerably high deficit.

This is the abstract of a paper presented at the Tenth Annual Meeting of the International Association for Dance Medicine and Science, held 27-29 October 2000 in Miami, Florida, USA. All rights are reserved by the individual author(s).