Preparing For End-Of-Year Dance Concerts 

Dancing is one of the most popular sports that many Australian children participate in each year. Not only does it provide them with a great cardio workout, but also improves their balance and coordination. Despite its numerous benefits, dancing can be physically demanding on the body, from points to jumps and turns to twists. This often places additional stress on the lower limbs, resulting in lower limb sprains and strains amongst some of the most common injuries we see in dancers.  

According to recent findings, 82% of dancers suffer between one and seven injuries within their dancing career. Furthermore, dancers can also sustain overuse injuries caused by growth spurts, muscle imbalance, incorrect technique, tendon overload or an increase in rehearsal and performance schedule.  

With concert time just around the corner, dance classes and rehearsals may increase to get you performance ready. With that in mind, now is a more important time than ever to ensure you are taking the adequate time to rest and recover. An injury now may unfortunately take you away from that highly anticipated annual, end of year concert.  

Here are our top 4 injury prevention tips to take with you into the concert season.   

• Correct footwear is vital for dancers to perform at their best. To prevent injury, always ensure that you are wearing suitable footwear for the dance genre and that they are in good condition, fit for regular use. 
   
• Engage in a dynamic warm-up that mimics the style of dance you will be performing. Dynamic warmups are active movements where joints and muscles go through a full range of motion, such as jumping jacks.  
   
• Foam rolling major muscle groups such as the Quads and Hamstrings before and after rehearsal will target the underlying fascia, promote blood flow and increase flexibility in the muscles.   
   
• Visit the Progressive practice to use the Game-Ready or Normatec system. These state-of-the-art technologies have been designed for fast muscle and injury recovery to help athletes’ recovery in-between training and boost their performance.   

End-of-year concerts are just around the corner, so don’t miss out on showcasing all of your hard work over the past year due to an injury. If you are experiencing pain or discomfort when dancing, talk to the team at Progressive today.