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So You Think You Can Dance? Dancing Feet Subject to Injury

Typically, a dancer’s foot injury is lumped under a general sports medicine heading even though many of the injuries are atypical of those traditional athletes may suffer. That, combined with the fact that with the competitive nature of dance as a career, many professional dancers tend to want to cover up their injuries in an attempt to protect their careers, means that many dance injuries aren’t treated promptly, which can cause further complications.

Overuse or trauma are the two most prevalent injury categories, and dance injuries can fall into either category. However, the most common category is overuse. A number of different factors can contribute to overuse injuries experienced by dancers including age, nutrition, strength and flexibility, biomechanical imbalances, schedule, non-healed injuries, shoes, and flooring.

Common overuse injuries suffered by dancers include stress fractures, a dancer’s fracture (typically associated with a ballet dancer coming off of pointe, tendonitis, shin splints, metatarsalgia, and neuroma. Dancers also suffer from more than their share of warts, corns and calluses, toenail bruising, and blisters.

The key with any injury – whether it be dancing-related or otherwise – is to seek treatment swiftly. Particularly with dancing, early intervention when an injury first occurs may help cut down on rehabilitation time.

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