[Dance sport: injury profile in Latin American formation dancing]

Latin American formation dancing ranks among the technical-compositional types of sport and represents a discipline of dance sport due to its performance- and competition-orientated mode. Despite its high degree of popularity and a movement profile favouring injuries, there has been a lack of studies as to health hazards and damage in Latin American formation dancing. The aim of this study is to analyse formation dance-related health hazards and their causes.

A total of n = 100 (m: n = 52, f: n = 48) Latin American dancers of the German top-level league participated in this anonymised retrospective cross-sectional investigation.

Mean weights of the male dancers were 75.2 kg and respectively 58.2 kg for the females, mean body height/size were 1.82 m (m) and 1.67 m (f) and mean BMI 22.2 (m) and 20.0 (f), respectively. At least one each traumatic injury/chronic damage was sustained by 69.3 % (m) and 77.6 % (f) of the dancers in the course of their dance sport activities. Almost all (97.9 %) injuries occurred during the training. A total of 409 injuries/overuse damages (= 4.1 injuries/athlete) was reported with 80.4 % traumatic injuries and 19.5 % chronic damages. Female dancers were more often injured than their male counterparts. The lower extremity was the most commonly affected body region [64.5 % (m) and, respectively, 71.2 % (f)], followed by upper extremity (m: 21.2 %, f: 17.6 %) and spinal column/trunk region (m: 12.0 %, f: 8.5 %). Blockages and pulled muscles were the most common complaints reported by males with contusions and pulled muscles being reported by females. Chondropathy/osteoarthrosis were the most frequent chronic diseases. Of all injuries sustained, circa two thirds were caused by extrinsic and circa one third by intrinsic factors.

The injury profiles/patterns in Latin American formation dancing show on the one hand parallels to the individual partner dances. On the other hand, typical and gender-specific movement elements seem to reflect in the injuries and chronic damages/diseases of formation dancers. This is to be taken into account when injury prevention measures are considered. There is also a need for further studies to allow a more differentiated analysis.