Prevention and management of dance injuries.

Dancing is the loftiest, the most moving, the most beautiful of the arts, because it is no mere translation or abstraction from life; it is life itself (Ellis, 1923). Despite the "magic" that professional dancers display, they, too, are subject to physical limitations. As an old German proverb suggests, "If you want to dance, you must pay the piper." In a recent interview, Samuel Bennett of Ballet Chicago speculated that many dance injuries are the result of attempting to achieve a physical ideal that probably doesn't exist. The following is an overview of dance injuries, their prevention, and their treatment. The focus is on ballet.