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In this diagram it shows a few of the effects on the body due to the mental illness- Anorexia nervosa. This is a horrible illness for anyone to suffer with, but unfortunately it can be quite common for dancers. Staring in mirrors and comparing yourself all day can be seriously triggering and damaging to the mind. I feel like the industry does not help with this issue as you can be cut from auditions if they do not like your body shape.

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Learning correct technique is vital, not only to develop into being a professional dancer but to prevent injury. An example of bad teaching- not telling your students to plie before jumps, this causes a lot of pressure on the shins and knees, which will lead to further injury.

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The purpose of this assignment is to enable aspiring dance students to gain knowledge of how to enhance dance performance and career longevity, through research-led practice, within the field of Dance Medicine.

Through the format of an e-portfolio, you will complete a series of short written outcomes and a final reflective commentary that synthesise the factors relating to the following statement and your own:

In order to maintain career longevity and long-term health, elite aspiring and professional dancers, must be equipped for the huge physiological and psychological demands of the industry.

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PCD4009- Introduction to professional practise

Yana Jones

Date of submission- 14 th December

Word count- 2550

Tutor- Garry Clarke

There are many factors that contribute to be a healthy dancer, however the two crucial aspects are the body and mind. Your body is a tool that you relay on in order to dance to the best of your ability. Prioritising this is key to success and career longevity, important elements being flexibility, stamina, physique and performance. Looking after and appropriately training will allow you to be able to use your body to its maximum capacity, achieving true potential without causing injury. Throughout this essay I will be researching and discussing all the physical and psychological elements that make a dancer healthy and how these things have assisted me in my training.

Research into the science behind dance has been very beneficial for many performers. Dance scientists provide us with information on how to prevent/cure injuries and have the correct nutrition. At the Royal Opera house in London there is an elite team of healthcare experts and sport scientists working hard to analyse the current state and help improve the strength, jumping, force attenuation, cardiovascular fitness, psychological well being and nutrition for the Royal Ballet dancers. This is all to support the dancer to be free to create artistic excellence. Some of their research suggests 36% of professional dancers retire due to a musculoskeletal injury, with 91% suffering pain in later life. Dancers are also more prone to low bone-mineral density, which is linked to osteoporosis.

The muscular system in the body is very important for everyday life. Its main functions include stability, posture, movement and bodily functions. Zimmermann et al. (2016) stated that ‘Skeletal muscles are the only voluntary muscle tissue in the human body and control every action that a person consciously performs’. Many dancers include strength and weight training in their gym routine to help them build muscle as well as burning fat with cardiovascular exercises such as jogging. There are many reasons why building muscle will benefit a dancer, a few being a boost in metabolism, injury prevention and improved bone density. Having a higher metabolic rate will improve cardiovascular capacity and burn calories faster enabling you to maintain or lose weight. Body image plays a big role in the majority of dancer’s minds, during the three years of training they undertake every day is spent staring in a mirror.

‘Your cardiovascular system is made up of your heart, arteries, veins and capillaries.’ (Pathophysiology: Biological and Behavioural Perspectives. New York: Saunders. February 2000). As a dancer / performer it is vital to have a strong cardiovascular system, aerobic exercise is a favourable method to achieve this, a positive side effect of consistent aerobic exercise is an increase in stroke volume and cardiac output. When your stroke volume increases, your heart does not have to work as hard to deliver the same amount of blood and nutrients to your body’s active muscles. Other positives of having a strong cardiovascular system allows your heart to easily expand and contract therefore during diastolic filling more blood can enter the heart and so more blood can be re distributed back around to the body’s working muscles/organs. A strong CV system can also positively stimulate the production of more enzymes in the body, a benefit of more enzyme reactions is that more food eaten can be converted into energy such as ADP & ATP. Your body can exploit this during exercise, which will enable you to train and perform to the best of your ability for longer periods of time.

Maintaining a nutritious and balanced diet is an important part of everyday life, especially if you are an aspiring dancer.  ‘Nutrition is the study of how food and drink affects our bodies with a special regard to the essential nutrients necessary to support human health.’ (The School of Health, December 2017). Performances and training can be vigorous on the body so it is essential to fuel yourself with enough energy, due to this it is vital to know how much of each food group you need to withstand the demands of this career. Professional Nutritionists have stated that a correct balanced diet is made up of 55% carbohydrates, 20-30% fats and 12-15% protein. Unfortunately being a part of this industry puts a strain on many people, this is because for a lot of jobs a large part of why someone can be hired is due to your appearance / body shape and size. This amount of pressure can be extremely damaging to a dancers mental state causing them to suffer from disordered eating. Commonly eating disorders begin with normal dieting that gradually becomes more compulsive. Extreme weight control methods can develop, for example: fasting, bingeing, vomiting, excessive exercise, and overusing diuretics and laxatives. There are many issues that come along with disordered eating that can seriously damage the dancers training and career. This can also lead to the female athlete triad, which is the cycle of things that occur due to the lack of eating. ‘The female athlete triad is a medical condition observed in physically active females involving three components: low energy availability with or without disordered eating, menstrual dysfunction, and low bone density. (The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, June2017). If a dancer were to suffer from this condition, the extreme lack of energy would restrict them from being able to train leading to a very short career.

For dancers unfortunately injuries are very common, they occur in professional working dancers but mostly in training when the individual is learning about their body and adjusting to the strenuous hours they will be training for. There are many different types of injuries that dancers suffer from; joint, bone, tendon, muscle injuries and common, comminuted and hairline fractures and shin splints. Suffering from any of these injuries can seriously affect your training or even your career. It can lead to a decrease in fitness and muscle mass due to not being able to take part in classes. Also as you will not be burning off the calories you eat it may lead to an increase in weight that usually puts a psychological strain on the individual. There are many causes of injuries that dancers need to be fully aware of to help aid their training in every possible way. Some of these factors are; lack of technique and technical knowledge, bad teaching methods, environmental, ensuring you warm up and cool down properly, hydration and fatigue. A lot of people consider an injury to occur from a sudden movement that is painful, for example a sprained ankle, but if you overwork your body and allow little or no time for rest this can lead to extreme muscle fatigue. If you suffer from muscle fatigue this can affect your proprioception as if you continue to train you will not be applying correct technique. If you do not allow an appropriate amount of time for the muscles to repair this will lead to tissue damage which will be detrimental for the dancer’s career.

Across the UK there are many leading vocational institutes that offer excellent training and facilities for their students. Top schools provide things such as counsellors, nurses, Physiotherapists, Nutritionists, strength and conditioning coaches and Pilate’s instructors. From student feedback we have learnt that having access to all of this aids the individuals training in an extremely positive way. Having the opportunity to seek help and advice from professional physiotherapists and nutritionists will help prevent the dancers from injury, enabling them to achieve their full potential and career longevity. Nutritionists can not only tailor a plan suitable for the dietary needs for the individual but assist them in reaching their goals of either losing, gaining or maintaining weight. For example if an individual is suffering from low bone density, muscular strength meaning they are more likely to obtain injuries. A Nutritionist will benefit the individual by planning a high calcium food diary to help strengthen the bones and muscles. If injury occurs with the individual a physiotherapist will help them back to health in a timely matter enabling the dancer to return to training, build muscles and prevent further/ reoccurring injury.

A dancer is considered to be an athletic artist, this is due to the fact they train like an athlete and have creative minds. ‘The aesthetics of dance is the philosophical investigation of the nature of dance, of our interest in it, especially as an art form.’ (McFee, Graham. Dance, aesthetics of, 1998) For dancers unfortunately your level of talent can only take you so far, to perform on stage the individual must look aesthetically pleasing to the audience’s eye. This judgement reoccurs throughout all dance genres but is heavily focused on within ballet. The ideal physique for a female classical dancer is slim, with a long neck, a fairly short to medium length torso, and long legs with complimentary long arms. This tradition is promoted in the industry as professional companies have height and weight restrictions for their dancers. Dancers have taken dieting to extreme measures in order to fulfil their goals of being in a ballet company, but for some dreams are shattered as they cannot control the fact they are either too tall or too short.

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Muscle Fatigue is often defined as an overwhelming sense of tiredness, lack of energy and feeling exhausted. Dancers in training often suffer from this due to strenuous hours and having very little time to rest.

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Firstly, I would like to reflect on my current state of fitness, due to my dance training I am doing a lot more exercise than your average person, which gives me a high level of fitness. Dance classes are very strenuous but they could be considered as interval training as the lesson is fairly split up between warming up, doing technique exercises and learning / performing choreography. If I were to take part in a more continuous class, for example a spin class, I would potentially struggle as I am used to having breaks throughout. There are many factors that contribute to being a healthy dancer with a strong cardiovascular system, a main one being your nutrition.

Overall, I would say my diet is healthy and balanced, due to the fact I am a vegetarian I pay close attention to my meals to ensure I am fuelling my body with enough energy and nutrients to aid my training. A large quantity of my diet is made up of carbohydrates, mainly rice and pasta. As I have to look for protein in foods other than meat, I eat plenty of Quorn, beans, nuts, dairy, lentils and eggs. To improve my diet I will aim to replace any unhealthy snacks such as crisps and chocolate, to a healthier option like fruit or nuts.

To enhance my fitness further I could go to the gym in my spare time, I would focus on doing continuous training by running at a moderate pace for a long period of time. I believe that this would be beneficial to me as it is a type of training my body is not used to. I also aim to burn fat and build muscle as this will give me an increase in energy levels and a better metabolism. I have never done any sort of weight training before, so I would be intrigued to see how this will affect my body and training. During ballet classes sometimes I struggle to hold my leg at my highest possible Développé position, if I were to build muscle I would be able to hold this position for longer and maybe higher.

Throughout my life I have been very lucky not to have never fractured or broken any bones, yet I did suffer from shin splints for four months during my training at college. This was a very stressful time as not only was it painful, but it occurred during the time I was auditioning for dance degrees. This was extremely frustrating as having to sit out from classes meant I was not able to get the most out of my training. Previous to starting training at Dance College I had not done much technical training so lacked in knowledge of how to prevent injury. For example, whilst executing movements such as a leap, in the preparation I would use my plié but when finishing this my weight was not distributed in the right places, therefor my shins would take a lot of the impact. Visiting a physiotherapist really helped me as they advised me on strengthening exercises to prevent this injury to reoccur. I was also taught to work through my metatarsals which really benefitted me and ensured for a quick recovery.

I previously did a foundation course at The Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts (LIPA), during this time if you paid a fee of £100 you then had the opportunity to book appointments with a professional physiotherapist whenever you needed. I found this very beneficial as it was the first time I was doing strenuous training for long periods of time. As my body was adjusting to this I suffered from delayed onset muscle soreness (DOMS), especially in my trapezius, latissimus dorsi and quadriceps. Having a physio massage on these areas of soreness really helped as my muscles felt more supple enabling me to train at ease for longer. If money wasn’t an issue I believe it would really benefit every training institute to have a physiotherapist on site.

Due to the fact I spend every day dancing in front of mirrors, I would be lying if I said I didn’t compare myself to others in the room. It is very easy to get caught up in social media, models and fitness influencers are constantly posting photos of their bodies looking phenomenal. I can understand why seeing these photos everyday would be very triggering for young girls and how it can lead to extreme dieting habits or even an eating disorder. At a few vocational school auditions I was required to have my height and weight measured, I found this quite intimidating as you are already being judged on your body size before you’ve even started professional training. As I am aware when auditioning for jobs you are requested to wear minimal clothing, this is so the employers can see your body shape and know what they are going to be putting on stage. Currently if I had to dance in underwear, or something very close to it, I would feel extremely uncomfortable. I need to work on my confidence as a person and a dancer so by the time I graduate this doesn’t faze me.

During this essay I have gained a lot of knowledge that has helped me in my training, I will be able to take this information forward with me aiding my training and enabling me to achieve career longevity. I have realised the importance of all the factors that contribute to the physiological and psychological wellbeing of a dancer. From reflecting on everything I’ve learnt I now know the areas of improvement I need to work on, for example I am going to build muscle and add more protein into my diet. Being aware of how to successfully prevent injury will massively benefit me. Throughout this essay I have also gained an understanding of the muscular and cardiovascular systems which I can apply when dancing. To conclude I now feel a lot more confident going forward with my training as I have plenty of knowledge to apply enabling me to dance to the best of my ability.

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Physiotherapy is a healthcare profession dedicated to the restoration of movement, impairment and disability. Dancers can massively benefit from seeing a physiotherapist, it will significantly reduce the healing time of an injury and prevent it from recurring.

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This diagram shows the muscles used in when executing a full plie in second position. During dance training you use these muscles constantly. It will be very beneficial to make these muscles as strong as possible to aid your training.

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This diagram shows the cycle and effects of the female athlete triad.

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Over stretching is taking any joint past its natural range, and especially stretching the ligaments that normally help support the joint, so that it becomes more mobile.

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