Perception of Musculoskeletal Injury in Professional Dancers

The annual frequency of injury among dancers has been reported to range between 23-84% while as many as 95% of professional dancers have ongoing pain. The discrepancy between the number of reported injuries and the amount of pain reported at any given time could be related to the definition of injury, or how dancers' themselves perceive injury with respect to pain and activity limitation thresholds. For many reasons, dancers may be dancing through or past what health care providers may conceive as injury. This can put them at risk of further or chronic injury. The purpose of this study is to understand at which point pain limits a dancer's ability to continue to perform and whether this is influenced by available medical services, a supportive dance environment, or other factors. In addition, the issue of non-reporting of injuries will be studied. This is very important as this will affect all measures of injury frequency and risk for dancers.