Dance and Dancers’ Injuries
By Chris Caldwell
Chapter 1
An Overview
When one sees an injury, whether to a dancer or another sports person, the first part of any treatment, particularly the initial treatment should always involve a detailed analysis of the process of factors that have caused the injury. Any therapist will agree that this is an acquired skill in itself; it is neither an interview with a clipboard or an informal ten minutes of ‘chitchat’. After several years in practice, it has become somewhat easier than it was in those first heady weeks. The therapist has to remember the ideas that the client will be nervous and in pain, possibly afraid of the treatment, or worried about a possible career-threatening injury. This can prey upon the mind of the client to such a extent that information given during this ‘history taking’ session is sometimes hazy and inaccurate. However, ones favourite attitude to history taking and initial consultations is the Kevin and Perry syndrome, the characters portrayed on the harry Enfield show (BBCTV), whereby injured teenagers sit awkwardly between parents and proceed to give no information whatsoever about the injury! If it is any consolation to young female dancers, this usually applies to the lads!
Chapter 5
Young dancers and injuries
Regular practise and dancing is of course, very common. Not only in dancing, but in many sports, participants begin at a very early age and may train for two hours and five or six days per week (Petersen and Renstrom, 1986). Examples are well-documented in sports like swimming, gymnastics and figure skating. It is difficult to predict whether the enthusiastic five-year old will become a future start at senior level but the over-riding principle at this age is that all sports (and that includes dancing) should be fun and not involve hard, even painful training.
Young people are spontaneously active (Caldwell, 1990) but by adolescence only about twenty-five per cent engage in vigorous activity – many become lazy and obese as they adapt to a Westernised adult lifestyle. At any age, the benefits of dancing and exercised should be balanced against the risks involved.
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