A new study aims to help improve health literacy in the Australian dance community.
Dr Melanie Fuller is a musculoskeletal physiotherapist and researcher from the University of Southern Queensland and has worked with various ballet, contemporary dance, and musical theatre companies. The experience has helped her understand the importance of improving health outcomes for dancers.
According to AusPlay data, dance is the third most popular physical activity for Australian girls; however, the data indicates participation begins to dwindle as children grow older, with the most common reason for leaving the pursuit driven by the impact of injury or worries about the potential for future injury.
“Dance places extreme physical demands on the human body and can involve a high volume of training, which isn’t always matched by the physical condition needed to perform consistently,” Dr Fuller says.
“Access to high-quality dance-specific health services can be limited at the pre-professional and recreational levels of dance, so improving knowledge in dance health may assist with injury management and better recognition of psychological concerns in the dance community.”
Injury prevention strategies help dancers keep dancing
Dr Fuller told EducationDaily that most injuries for dancers occur in the foot and ankle.
“The frequency of injury in different locations of the body can vary a little depending on the dance style, but ankle sprains tend to be the most common traumatic injury, and things like posterior ankle impingement syndrome can be common in ballet, with bone stress injuries being one of the most costly injuries in dance, in terms of the need to take time to recover before returning to full dance activities,” she says.
“My overarching research interests, which are influenced by my clinical interests, are to aim to reduce the risk of injuries in dance. Providing education and improving health literacy in dance could be one way to achieve this.”
The survey – conducted through the University of New South Wales – invites non-professional and recreational dancers of all forms, parents and guardians of dancers under 18, and dance teachers to participate.
“My colleagues and I are conducting an anonymous survey to ask questions of parents and guardians of dancers under the age of 18 years, dancers 18 years and over, and their teachers,” she told EducationDaily.
“We want to hear from dancers of all styles of dance, from ballet to pole dance.”
Some key survey questions designed to improve health literacy include:
1. What do dancers, their carers, and their teachers know about health to support their dancing?
2. Where do dancers, their carers, and their teachers receive health information from?
3. What do dancers, their carers, and their teachers want to know to support their health for dance training?
4. Why do/don’t dancers, their carers, and their teachers participate in dance research?
“We hope to understand the best way to provide education to improve health literacy in the dance community at a grassroots level to promote a lifetime of dance participation for physical activity, optimisation of health and performance, and reduction of injuries.”
The research study has evolved as part of a working group of the Dance Research Collaborative that focuses on dance-related research in health, education, performance, injury and epidemiology.
Research findings could benefit other athletes
Dr Fuller says the study would provide an essential step towards informing the delivery of health information to the Australian dance community.
“The dance community is very passionate, as is this team of researchers that love this art form and are motivated to provide high-quality health information to keep dancers healthy and dancing at their best for longer,” she says.
She told EducationDaily that their findings could also be beneficial to those who undertake other physical activities.
“I believe it is possible that our findings and our future research activities could be generalised to those that participate in other sports and physical activities, but I also believe that an important aspect that influences the outcomes of interventions is for them to be individualised to the specific real-world context,” she says.
“That’s why the research team and I are looking to understand what the dance community know, where they get information from, and what the dance community want to know to inform the design and likely improve the outcomes of our future research activities.”
She also hopes the study will provide the groundwork for future research endeavours into dancers’ physical and mental health.
“I believe that improving physical and mental health and wellbeing will keep dancers dancing and keep all in the performing arts practicing their craft for longer, and performing at their best, whilst reducing the risk of injury.”
