This study aimed to investigate the associations between peak plantarflexion ankle joint moments and vertical ground reaction forces (vGRF) during jump landings, and static ankle dorsiflexion range of motion (ROM), three-dimensional ankle excursions, and lower extremity strength in professional ballet dancers. Twenty-seven professional ballet dancers volunteered to participate (men = 14, women = 13). Participants attended one data collection session to measure dorsiflexion ROM and isometric lower extremity strength.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe aim was to determine the validity of an open-source algorithm for measuring jump height and frequency in ballet using a wearable accelerometer. Nine professional ballet dancers completed a routine ballet class whilst wearing an accelerometer positioned at the waist. Two investigators independently conducted time-motion analysis to identify time-points at which jumps occurred.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThis study aimed to determine the within- and between-session reliability of ankle mechanics and vertical ground reaction forces (vGRF) during jump landings in turned-out and parallel foot positions in professional ballet dancers. Twenty-four professional ballet dancers (men = 13, women = 11) attended two data collection sessions where they completed five maximal countermovement jumps in each foot position. The ankle joint mechanics and vGRF of the right limb were recorded via a seven-camera motion capture system and one force platform.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIntroduction: Few studies have published data concerning the longitudinal rehearsal and performance demands experienced by professional ballet dancers. We aimed to describe the rehearsal and performance volumes undertaken across five professional ballet seasons and identify factors associated with inter-dancer and inter-production variation in dance hours.
Methods: Scheduling data were collected from 123 dancers over five seasons at The Royal Ballet.
This systematic bibliometric review summarizes recent neurocognitive research highlighting inter-individual differences in perception, action, and decision making that may have implications for dance education. First, the relevance of individual differences in cognitive functioning for dance education is illustrated by describing how a person's preferred reliance on certain perceptual, motor, or (meta) cognitive skills may be exploited in dance training. Subsequently, we describe the findings of a literature search conducted to identify cognitive neuroscientific publications between 2010 and 2021 that highlight individual differences in cognitive functions that were also found to be supported by structural or functional-connectivity differences in the central nervous system.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe current study highlights individual differences in the joint articulation strategies used by novices practicing a hip-hop dance movement, the wave. Twelve young adults, all naive regarding hip-hop dance performance, practized the wave in 120 trials separated into four blocks with the order of internal or external attentional focus counterbalanced across subjects. Various kinematic analyses were analyzed to capture performance success while exploiting the observed individual differences in order to establish the reliability of the proposed performance indicators.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPurpose: This study aimed to describe the relationships between dance exposure, dancer characteristics, and injury risk across five seasons in a professional ballet company.
Methods: Dance exposure time and clinician-reported time-loss and medical attention injury data were prospectively collected from 118 professional dancers of The Royal Ballet between 2015/2016 and 2019/2020. Cox proportional hazards and shared frailty models were fitted to overuse and traumatic injuries; individualized robust Z-scores for 7- and 28-d accumulated exposure, and week-to-week change in exposure, age, sex, company rank, and injury history were included as time-varying covariates.
Med Probl Perform Art
June 2021
Aims: Understanding the biomechanics of jumping in ballet dancers provides an opportunity to optimize performance and mitigate injury risk. This systematic review aimed to summarize research investigating kinetics and kinematics of jumping in ballet dancers.
Methods: PubMed (MEDLINE), SPORTDiscus, and Web of Science were systematically searched for studies published before December 2020.
Objectives: To describe the incidence rate, severity, burden and aetiology of medical attention and time-loss injuries across five consecutive seasons at a professional ballet company.
Methods: Medical attention injuries, time-loss injuries and dance exposure hours of 123 professional ballet dancers (women: n=66, age: 28.0±8.
This study investigated effects of mirror and metronome use on spontaneous upper body movements by 10 preprofessional dancers in a motor task in which maximally diverse upper body movement patterns were targeted. Hand and trunk accelerations were digitally recorded utilizing accelerometers and analyzed using polar frequency distributions of the realized acceleration directions and sample entropy of the acceleration time. Acceleration directions were more variably used by the arms than by the torso, particularly so when participants monitored their performance via a mirror.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe aim of this study was to investigate the convergent validity of session rating of perceived exertion (s-RPE) with objective measures of internal training load (TL) in professional classical ballet dancers. Heart rate and s-RPE data were collected in 22 professional classical ballet dancers across a total of 218 ballet class or rehearsal sessions. Eleven participants completed at least 9 sessions, and were therefore included in analyses of individual relationships between s-RPE and objective measures.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe motor system's natural tendency is to move the limbs over equal amplitudes, for example in walking. However, in many situations in which people must perform complex movements, a certain degree of amplitude differentiation of the limbs is required. Visual and haptic feedback have recently been shown to facilitate such independence of limb movements.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFVegetarianism provides a catchall term for a variety of diets that exclude the consumption of some or all animal products. Contrary to popular claims, appropriately designed and managed vegetarian diets contain foods nutritionally sufficient for health, well-being, and physical performance. Vegetarian dancers can meet their protein needs from primarily or exclusively (vegan) plant-based sources when a variety of these foods are consumed daily and energy intake is adequate.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFMed Probl Perform Art
December 2017
Gender identity forms an important aspect of still developing youths. Gender is traditionally classified into two distinct categories, female and male. Transgender is a general term that describes individuals who self-identity as male, female, both, or neither (i.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIn this study we investigated the effects of a mirror-mediated, partial view of one's dance partner on interpersonal coordination in dance duets. Fourteen participant pairs (dyads) were asked to perform a reflectionally-symmetric eight-segment dance-relevant arm movement sequence in two visual conditions: with one dancer facing the mirror and providing a partial view on the dance partner, or both dancers facing back to back with, for both dancers, no view on one's partner. During an eight-count beat-preparation phase, the task was paced via a metronome at three TEMPI; 1.
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