i don't understand how ballet dancers get these bad injuries like breaking their ACL joint in the knee, breaking their leg etc. I mean ballet dancers twirl around and jump around, but how can u actually break something doing that?

I am no medic, but I think most of the fractures are due to "fatigue".

Other hypothesis: because of their too strict diet, maybe some dancers have weak bones.

Last thing: Figure out your doing a manege on an old floor. It can happen that your foot (expecially on pointe) gets jammed between two planks, while your leg is turning. Ouch!

Finally, you can get real bad injuries if you slide down when on pointe.

The answer is that ballet is very athletic - it may look effortless & easy, but it's not! And so injuries can happen.

The jumping, turning, and other movements, combined with the sometimes un-natural turnout required, can put a great deal of strain on joints and ligaments/tendons (which are torn, not broken). The height which many dancers, especially the top men, can reach in jumps is stunning, and coming down from that height all it takes is to land bit off in order for an ankle or knee to give.

The strain is even more so for the woman when she must balance her weight on her toes on pointe and for the man in partnering where the woman can be lifted high, tossed and held is all sorts of difficult positions.

And yes, a lot of injuries are of repetitive nature and partly due to fatigue. Many hours of rehearsal a day, plus performances can wear away at the body and tired bodies/brains are more likely to take mis-steps. And old injuries sometimes don't get time to heal properly.

I think backs are the number one most injured body part for ballet dancers, followed by knees/hips/ankles. Shoulders can be a problem spot for men.

Kate

Stress factures in the feet a very common in the women. Neck and back injuries are very common for both (slipped or bulging disks, broken vertebrae, muscle pulls). Knee injuries are very common for the men who often come down out of jumps wrong and snap goes the ACL. Concussions often happen when girls get dropped by their partners.

The only athletes that are injured more often than ballet dancers are football players.

I'm moving this discussion to our Studio forum and closing it here. We don't have a yellow brick road, but you can follow this link:

http://www.ballet-dance.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=25377