This study conducted by a group of scientists from Italy, Croatia and Qatar, investigated the acute effect of the use of different types of toe caps among professional ballet dancers on pain perception and toe deviation angle. Ten young professional dancers (18.6 ± 3.8 years old; 14.4 ± 2.9 years of training; 10.3 ± 3.9 hours of training per week) volunteered to participate in the study. Among the inclusion criteria was the diagnosis of hallux valgus by an orthopedist and/or sprain of the medial collateral ligaments of the first metatarsophalangeal joint (MTP) verified by a sonogram or magnetic resonance imaging. In two sessions separated by 72 hours, each participant used a  standard commercial or a customized prototype toe cap . During these sessions, an anteroposterior x-ray was taken and a visual analog scale was administered for pain perception after each situation. Significant amelioration was obtained when the customized toe cap prototype was used both for toe deviation angl...

This research, conducted by the Institute of Sports Exercise and Health of the University College of London, carried out the Delphi technique (presenting a questionnaire to a group of pre-selected and informed people or experts to obtain their opinion on a given subject) to obtain the most required physical characteristics for classical ballet, grouped and classified in order of importance. 148 participants completed the questionnaire. Most of the respondents were physical therapists and ballet teachers (46 and 44, respectively). Although 6 continents were represented, the majority of respondents were from Western Europe and North America (82 and 34, respectively). The 148 participants listed 34 attributes in total, the most frequent being: overall flexibility, overall strength, turnout, body proportions, and foot and ankle flexibility. Overall flexibility was the attribute most frequently recommended by the expert group. The demands of ballet technique require that dancers have a ...

This descriptive epidemiological study was conducted between January 1, 2005 and October 10, 2010. The study included dancers who were members of the main Spanish ballet companies and who suffered injuries and were diagnosed and treated in the  Trauma and Orthopaedic Surgery Service at Fremap  in Madrid. To evaluate the influence of age and years of professional practice on the occurrence of injuries, the researchers divided the subjects into 3 age groups: junior (≤ 21 years with a professional average of 2.5 years), intermediate (between 22 and 31 years with a professional average of 7.83 years) and senior (≥ 32 years with a professional average of 16.19 years). Taking into account that the population of these three groups experienced certain variations during the study period, the values of the different parameters were obtained based on the number of registered injuries and not on the number of dancers studied. The prevalence of overuse injuries was 0.239 injuries per 1000 ...