Evaluating the Relationship Between Ballet Dancers and Incidence of Femoroacetabular Impingement

Abstract

Dance demands performers engage in rigorous artistic and physical movement patterns. Classical ballet dancers repeatedly perform extreme ranges of motion, which can lead to irregular stresses on the hip joints that may cause pathologies, such as femoroacetabular impingement of the cam, pincer, or mixed type. These pathologies can be detrimental in the long term to the dancing body. Is participation in classical ballet correlated to the incidence of femoroacetabular impingement? This paper will appraise the current evidence regarding hip injury incidence to identify potential factors, which may correlate with incidence of femoroacetabular impingement in ballet dancers.