Technically, by definition, we recognize Art as the quality, production, expression, or realm, according to aesthetic principles, of what is beautiful, appealing, or of more than ordinary significance1 , and Sport as an athletic activity requiring skill or physical prowess and often of a competitive nature1. Artists and athletes are viewed as being from two distinct subspecies. Today Dancers perform and compete quite regularly so that boundary between artist and athlete has distinctly blurred. Professional dancers get hurt just as often and suffer just as serious injuries as athletes in contact sports. The practices, so often segregate, as performing arts medicine or sports medicine must coalesce when considering a dancer’s care. For the last twenty years a special group of dedicated clinicians have worked targeting the special needs of the performing artist (See PAMA - Performing Arts Medical Association).
What is it really that makes the dancer prone to injury? Their bodies are conditioned so perfectly to their craft. Their endurance is profound. In part it is the need for repetition, the essential mandatory rehearsal of a set of moves performed until the sequence flows from their bodies without requiring thought. Simultaneously they concentrate on sequence as well as form and music not to mention expression though this is more a feeling than a thought but still, it is part of the dancer’s awareness as they move. Each element contributes to the motion they produce, to the energy being transferred through the trunk and limb and this is what a dancer must master. It is so common to hear them say “it was silly really, how I hurt myself” and one will almost always be able to trace a dancer’s injury to a moment of distraction. The moves themselves are obvious. The injuries themselves fairly predictable.
The statistics do not seem to change over time. A dancer sprains ligaments and strains muscles. Partners will see disc injuries and more traumatic ligament and muscular damage. Degenerative changes will plague older dancers, with joint diseases affecting the spine, ankles, knees, hips, feet and shoulders. In approximately this order one sees clicking hips, hallux valgus (bunion), patella disorders, stress fractures, scoliosis, coxarthrosis, and spondylolysis as the usual leaders. Competent clinicians know how to treat these. The trick is realizing that successful treatment of a dancer requires acknowledging more than just the injury as part of the problem to be overcome. The successful treatment of a dancer involves artful negotiation between the clinician and patient, compromise that will allow adequate healing as well as continuation of their performance.
1. Dictionary.Com
