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Keeping Dancers Dancing: “Help I Have An Injury – What Do I Do?”

March 8, 2012 by 4dancers

by Jan Dunn, MS

Jan Dunn, MS

So you have a dance injury?  What do you do….????

Last month we covered the various causes of dance injuries, and I’m hoping that information is helping you to stay injury-free.  But hey, it can still happen, despite our best preventative efforts. So, the next piece is knowing what do if / when an injury occurs.

  1. First off, you have to be sure you recognize that it IS an injury….i.e, knowing the difference between “good” and “bad” pain.  This may sound like first-grade language (it is), but it’s the easiest way to understanding the signals your body may be giving you:

-“good” pain is the discomfort we feel when we are doing a new activity our body is not used to, like taking a jazz dance class for the very first time, when all your training has been ballet.  It’s the normal response of our muscles / joints to the new movements, and is characterized by:

-a dull aching discomfort (not what we usually call ‘pain”) which is wide-spread through the body area you were using in a new way. For example, in a jazz class you use the ribs / pelvis in very specific non-balletic movements, and the next day you may feel over-all sore in those areas.

-“bad” pain is when your body is saying very clearly “STOP!  I am HURT!”, and  is characterized by:

-pain in a very specific place, much more localized than the discomfort described above.  It may be in that one spot constantly, or only when you use the body part / joint in a specific way.  It is usually a sharper type of pain than the “good”kind, but the key point is that it’s NOT wide-spread, but much more in one place.

2. Ok, so you’ve recognized that you have a “bad” pain, an injury —what do you do?  The very first step is often abbreviated as PRICED (we used to say “RICE”, but you’ll see below where the “P” is now added in: [Read more…]

Filed Under: 4dancers, Dance Wellness, Injuries Tagged With: Ballet, dance injuries, dance medicine, dance medicine specialist, dance wellness, iadms, international association for dance medicine and science, jan dunn, jazz, keeping dancers dancing

Dance UK: The Healthier Dancer Programme

February 8, 2012 by 4dancers

by Jessica Wilson

‘Injury’ is word that is never far from any dancer’s mind as one of their constant and greatest worries: every year, 80 percent of dancers suffer at least one injury that affects their ability to dance.

Whether it is working to prevent injury, dealing with a current injury or recovering from a past injury, dancers are always considering the implications. The industry as a whole has considerably raised the profile of dance injury in recent years, indicating not only that the arts sector is tackling additional strands to ‘injury’, but also that there has been a significantly low focus on injuries and wellbeing in past years. For example, UK magazine Dancing Times collated a health directory for dancers throughout 2011, providing readers throughout the dance industry with further and definitive information, and offering a wealth of resources in terms of alternative practices. A range of complementary therapies were focused on, including Sophrology (dynamic relaxation) and Osteopathy, as well as more well-known procedures such as Massage and Physiotherapy.

In addition, Dance UK, the UK’s national voice for the dance sector, organised The Dance UK Medical Practitioners Directory as part of their Healthier Dancer Programme, offering access to their free online database of practitioners and complementary therapists for the dance sector. Helen Laws, Healthier Dancer Programme Manager, spoke extensively about the ethos of Dance UK, and the thinking behind the Healthier Dancer Programme. [Read more…]

Filed Under: Dance in the UK, Editorial Tagged With: dance injuries, dance uk, Dance UK’s Healthier Dancer Programme, helen laws, The Dance UK Medical Practitioners Directory

Dance Wellness: Causes of Dance Injuries (Risk Factors) Part I

February 1, 2012 by 4dancers

KEEPING DANCERS DANCING

by Jan Dunn, MS

Jan Dunn, MS

This month’s topic in our ongoing Dance Wellness series is “Causes of Dance Injuries” (also called “risk factors” in the dance medicine world).  We all know that dance is a risky business – injuries do happen.  But learning what causes them can go a long way in helping to reduce that risk, and keep you “Dancing Longer / Dancing Stronger” (actually the title of an excellent dance medicine books for dancers!).  All of the information in this article is supported by dance medicine research over the last thirty years.

The risk factors discussed below are NOT listed in any order of importance!  In many dance injury situations, more often it is a combination of “causes” that may result in injury (I will explain what I mean by at the end !). We’ll cover five today, and five tomorrow:

1)  Poor alignment and faulty technique:

While it is true that many injuries result from a combination of factors, this one is usually agreed to be one of the most important.  Dr. Justin Howse, longtime physician to The Royal Ballet in England (now retired) and one of the early pioneers in Dance Medicine, went so far as to say that all injuries were the result of faulty technique. Most current experts would agree that while faulty technique is a major component of injuries, they would not necessarily concur that it is the only factor.

By “Alignment problems” we mean such postural patterns as:

-forward head (the head not in good alignment with the spine and torso)

-forward shoulders (rounded shoulders)

-lumbar lordosis (“swayback”)

-thoracic hyperextension (protruding ribcage)

-hyperextended knees (knees straightened beyond 180)

– foot pronation or supination (rolling in or out)

A dancer who has good alignment is more likely to have “efficient movement” (using only the muscles and amount of energy necessary to accomplish the movement), and is less likely to be putting strain and tension on soft tissue (ligaments / tendons / muscles) around the joint, thus resulting in less possibility of injury.

An example:

A young dancer complains of knee pain. The dance medicine physical therapist or physician gives a diagnosis of patellofemoral syndrome, which frequently involves the patella (kneecap) not tracking properly in the patellar femoral groove (the groove in the femur through which the patella glides, on knee flexion and extension).  Looking at the dancer’s plie in first, the medical specialist and the dance trainer note that the dancer’s feet are turned out to 65 degrees, and the knees are not aligning over the toes, but falling instead in front of the great toe.  Foot pronation (rolling in) and lumbar lordosis (“swayback”) is also noted. The dancer’s external rotation (turn-out) in the hip joint is then tested lying prone (on the stomach), and is found to be 48 degrees – so she is “forcing her turn-out”, which can cause knee pain (and possibly other problems).  Recommendations are given for medical treatment for the knee pain, and she is also given cueing for proper plie technique, using her natural turn-out of 48 degrees, and not forcing at the knee and ankle.

The crucial point here is that ALL injuries in dance need to be evaluated for technique concerns, to see if this may have played a causative part.  If the dancer rehabs the injury without knowing if faulty technique is involved, the injury is more likely to re-occur when returning to full dance activity.

2). Anatomical limitations: [Read more…]

Filed Under: 4dancers, Dance Wellness, Injuries Tagged With: ballet injuries, causes of injury in dance, dance injuries, dance medicine, dancer, dancer wellness, injury, injury in the dancer, jan dunn, the royal ballet

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