Dance medicine: risk factors for dancers' musculoskeletal injuries

Kaufmann, J.E. (2023)

Doctoral Thesis

Aspects which advocate the synergy between dance medicine and dance pedagogy with the aim to prevent musculoskeletal injuries in classical ballet and contemporary dancers were investigated. Specifically, aspects which have not yet been studied before, such as neuromuscular warm-up in dance, motivational climate, or injuries as stressors and their association with physical (repetitive) injury, respectively, in order to provide the basis for future research. Also, the effects of erroneous dance technique were evaluated, while a dual-approach looked into the causes which dancers perceived for their acute and overuse injuries as well as how they rated their ballet masters’ or ballet teachers’ proactive efforts to implement dance medicine into dance practice with the goal of identifying and preventing musculoskeletal injuries in their dancers. An extensive and international survey study provided retrospective data and longitudinal prospective data was collected over 6 years in a university training professional contemporary dancers.

• Dance
• Contemporary dancers
• Classical ballet dancers

• All authors: Kaufmann, J.E.
• Supervisor: Nelissen, R.G.H.H.
• Co-supervisor: Gademan, M.G.J.
• Committee: Schipper, I.B.; Harlaar, J.J.; Poolman, R.M.; Kok, L.M.; Stubbe, J.H.
• Qualification: Doctor (dr.)
• Awarding Institution: Faculty of Medicine, Leiden University Medical Center (LUMC), Leiden University
• Date: 2023-12-06