Dance injuries: concepts, symptoms, situational cause and treatment.

Abstract

The injuries due to the practice of dance have been investigated in several countries of Europe and in North America focusing mainly the Classical Ballet. The characterization of the main injuries of this kind of dance has caused changes in the style and in several movement patterns described by Pierre Bauchamps in the 17th century. For this reason, the Classical Ballet taught in the modern dance schools has also changed. In order to prevent injuries, the movement of the pointe position has been banned and the five basic Ballet positions are nowadays done in demi pointe. Although this dance style is well known among us, there is a lack of information about injuries suffered by the dancers and as a consequence, one knows few about the main injuries originated by this way of expression. As the practice of dance can develop a wide range of injuries in different body regions, the main purpose of this article was to present the concept, the main symptoms, the situational cause and the treatment for the injuries which appears most frequently in the technical literature. To achieve this, we have classified the main injuries according to the body regions that concentrated the majority of the occurrences, that is, the lower extremities of the body and the vertebral column.