[Ballet as high-performance activity: health risks exemplified by acute injuries in dance students]

The perennial training and education to become a professional dancer is associated with maximum physical and psychic stress. These challenges fall into a period of utmost changes caused by adolescence. As a consequence, acute injuries may occur that - depending on the degree of severity - could endanger the education. The aim of this study was to analyse acute injuries, their causes and mechanisms with regard to gender-specific aspects in students of a state ballet school. These data may provide the basis to work out individual institution-centred injury prevention concepts.

The data for the evaluation were obtained from occupational accident reports, accident documentations of various Berlin theatres as well as case records of a State Ballet School (n = 480, m: 120, w: 360) of the Berlin State Accident Insurance (UKB). Evaluation and descriptive statistics were conducted with Excel 2007 and PASW Statistics 18.

One of three dance students is injured at least once a year. One out of ten accidents is classified as severe. The lower extremity is the most frequent localisation (67.8 %; m: 57.6 %, w: 73.0 %). There are age- and gender-specific particularities. The main acute injured body structures are joints and ligaments (69.5 %). Contusions (23 %), distorsions (33 %) and muscular strains (20 %) are the most frequent types of injuries. There is a correlation between the time of the day and the incidence of injuries. Acute injuries in both genders are more frequently caused by multifactorial (70 %; f: 71.6 %, m: 64.5 %) than by exogenous factors (30 %; f: 28.4 %, m: 35.5 %). Exogenous objects initiating an accident are 'corridors/stairs' (f: 8.8 %, m: 13.7 %), followed by 'human being' (f: 7.5 %, m: 13.2 %) and 'dance floor' (f: 7.5 %, m: 5.7 %).

With due regard to gender, the results can be compared in many respects with those of professional dancers. There are various gender-specific differences in the acute injuries, reasons of which are numerous (e. g., the monospecific education/training, early specialisation, gender-specific differences concerning work contents). Incipient stages of injury prevention are as complex as the versatility of dance movements.