advice Archives - Safe in Dance International

So What is Safe and Healthy Dance Practice?

Obviously, we at SiDI use those terms all the time, but what are we actually talking about? Are we the health and safety police? Do we want to spoil dancers’ fun? Do we want to stop people taking artistic and creative risk? Definitely not! Lots of people think of “health and safety” as a set of policies that are put in place to protect workers - necessary but also maybe restrictive and stifling. But healthy and safe dance practice is so much more than industry rules and regulations. It’s the best way to reduce injury risk and to enhance performance. There’s no getting round the fact that dancers get injured. Injury rates are high in our profession. So what can [...]

Should I ice an injury?

Research in any field is constantly evolving and in time, the important findings will filter down to everyday practice. Recently in the popular press, several articles have suggested that putting ice on an injury may in fact have little beneficial effect or even delay the healing process. These suggestions aren’t new – we’ve known for some time that the evidence for the effectiveness of cryotherapy (cooling of injured tissue by ice application) on muscle injuries is limited. The question mark is over whether we should interfere with the body’s natural response to injury (inflammation) by trying to reduce it. Looking at the responses in the literature, there are mixed reactions. Some researchers state that as much of the research was [...]

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