A Study of Injury and its Prevention in First-Year University Dance Students
type: CreativeWork
description: The subject of dance and injury has become an increasingly important area of study for sports medicine, education, and dance studies. However, the majority of current research focuses on professional dancers or pre-professional dancers in a conservatory training context. The research typically overlooks dancers in a university setting who pursue baccalaureate-level dance programs. This small-scale research study therefore focuses on collegiate dancers in their first year of study in a liberal arts dance program. As this population often sustains injuries, the thesis project seeks to examine the management of injury strategies and to create injury prevention guidelines for the liberal arts dance department, its dance classes, and a hypothetical syllabus for a first-year injury prevention course. The research methodology adopts three approaches: a survey of the incoming freshman dance class at Temple University; a detailed study of six previously or currently injured dance students through interview; and a critical assessment of the research on dance injury. The injury prevention guidelines developed from the student injury surveys, interviews, and assessments will focus on basic, yet essential, information regarding injury management and misconceptions, and the guidelines will prepare collegiate-level dancers for future injury challenges they may face.
abstract: The subject of dance and injury has become an increasingly important area of study for sports medicine, education, and dance studies. However, the majority of current research focuses on professional dancers or pre-professional dancers in a conservatory training context. The research typically overlooks dancers in a university setting who pursue baccalaureate-level dance programs. This small-scale research study therefore focuses on collegiate dancers in their first year of study in a liberal arts dance program. As this population often sustains injuries, the thesis project seeks to examine the management of injury strategies and to create injury prevention guidelines for the liberal arts dance department, its dance classes, and a hypothetical syllabus for a first-year injury prevention course. The research methodology adopts three approaches: a survey of the incoming freshman dance class at Temple University; a detailed study of six previously or currently injured dance students through interview; and a critical assessment of the research on dance injury. The injury prevention guidelines developed from the student injury surveys, interviews, and assessments will focus on basic, yet essential, information regarding injury management and misconceptions, and the guidelines will prepare collegiate-level dancers for future injury challenges they may face.
author: Henn, Erica D.
language: eng
keywords: Dance, Education, Higher, Physiology, Dance injury, Injury prevention, Liberal arts, MFA education requirements, Syllabus, University dance
license: http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/
date published: 2016
date modified: 2026-07-27T21:21:02Z
provider: Temple University
publisher: Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations
type: WebPage
source organization: Temple University. Libraries

PropertyValue
property ID: Handle
value: http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12613/1421