Abstract
ABSTRACT Movement is a fundamental element of dance, and the dancer’s body is the raw material through which the art of dance is expressed; for this, it demands the utmost discipline in the pursuit of technical and artistic excellence. To meet the professional demands, dancers are subjected to strenuous training routines, which can lead to the development of injuries in this environment. The objective was to examine the etiology, main affected segments, prevalence, and instruments used to evaluate the lesions in studies with professional dancers and/or in comparison with similar populations. We selected articles published in the last decade in the databases BIREME, LILACS, MEDLINE EBSCO, WEB OF SCIENCE, SCOPUS (Elsevier), and PubMed, with cross-sectional, observational cohort and case control design published in Portuguese, English, or Spanish. Systematic reviews, case studies, dissertations, theses, book chapters, cross-referenced articles, and studies published outside of the last decade were not included. The search used combinations of the terms “dancing* and athletic injuries* and musculoskeletal* and pain*”. A principal investigator and two reviewers conducted the survey and analyzed all the potentially relevant articles, initially by the abstract and title. Twelve articles were included, with 1,149 participants (965 professional dancers of classical ballet, modern dance, contemporary dance, and breakdance, 104 amateur dancers, and 80 elite athletes). Nine studies found simultaneous lesions with emphasis on the foot and ankle (n=4), upper and lower limbs lesions (n=4) and lower and upper limb joints (n=1). Other studies have found lesions in the anterior cruciate ligament (n=3). There was no agreement regarding the instruments for detecting lesions in professional, pre-professional, and amateur dancers. There was a prevalence of studies aimed at classical ballet modality, evidencing a higher frequency of lower limb involvement in professional dancers.
Highlights
Dance has the movement as fundamental element of its art, and the body as raw material, requiring discipline, develops and enhances it, in order to reach all the magnificence, line purity and possible expressions of the worked technics[1]
Articles that brought the cited descriptors and evaluated professional dancers comparing them with similar populations as pre-professional dancers, amateur dancers and athletes were included in the search
After analyzed the studies included in this systematic review, it was evident that the most affected segment was the lower limbs, specially foot, ankle and knee
Summary
Dance has the movement as fundamental element of its art, and the body as raw material, requiring discipline, develops and enhances it, in order to reach all the magnificence, line purity and possible expressions of the worked technics[1]. To fill all the athletic demands that dance as professional activity requires, these dancers are submitted to stressful charges in order to reach an excellent physical aptitude, and for that they need great levels of aerobic resistance, neuromuscular coordination, power, based muscular resistance, agility flexibility and stretching[4,5,6,7]. The athletic life routine of these dancers starts from an early age, enabling them to become professionals near 15 years old[8]. Since these dancers are subjected to heavy loads of training, regardless their musculoskeletal structures be ready, raising the occurrence of acute injuries and granting the occurrence of chronicle injuries[7,9]
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