Traumatic injuries in revue dancers.

Revue productions are a combination of dancing and singing, musical and spoken sequences, and acrobatics, performed with or without a story line, and characterized by a versatility of dance styles and a high number of performances (over 250 in a 10-month season). The aim of this quantitative single cohort study is to evaluate work-related traumatic injuries in this dance genre. Data were obtained from work accident reports of the German Social Accident Insurance Institution for the public sector in Berlin (UKB) involving 440 revue dancers (183 males and 257 females). Analysis was conducted with Excel 2007 and PASW Statistics 18. One out of three female dancers and one out of two male dancers sustained an acute injury in the course of a theatrical season (0.22 injuries per 1,000 hours). The incidence rate was 0.44 for males and 0.31 for females, with the lower extremity as the most commonly injured body region, followed by the spine. Of all occupational accidents, 75.1% happened on stage, with 69% during performances. The dance partner and dance floor were the most common exogenous factors resulting in a traumatic injury. Of all traumatic injuries, 81.7% occurred in the first 3 hours after starting work. Gender specific differences could be observed. Due to the limited availability of comparable studies of other forms of professional dance, in this study revue dance is largely considered as an independent genre.