Dancers' perceptions of injuries

Abstract

Dance socioculture encourages dancers to perform through pain and injury and influences whether dancers will take time off in the event of an injury. The purpose of this study was to examine the impact dancers' mind-set and enculturation had on their decision to continue to train and perform through injury. Fifteen trained dancers (5 males and 10 females), age 27.7±14.25 years, completed a survey to determine the dancers' perceptions of injury and rehabilitation decisions post-injury. Findings indicate that enculturated perceptions may play a significant role in dancers' response to injury.   Key words: Dancers, injury, perceptions, enculturation, rehabilitation.