Matthew Wyon

University of Wolverhampton · Sport and Physical Activity Research Centre

Introduction: The use of neuromuscular interventions in sports induce meaningful motor performance in strength, sprint and power. The aim of this study was to investigate the effectiveness of the “11+ Dance” exercise program versus normal training (control) on possible adaptations in power, lower-body strength, and inter-limb asymmetry in adolescen...

Greater levels of physical fitness have been linked to improved dance performance and decreased injury incidence. The aim was to review the efficacy of physical fitness training on dance injury. The electronic databases CINAHL, Cochrane Library, PubMed, Web of Science, MEDLINE, China National Knowledge Infrastructure were used to search peer-review...

To assess the evidence for the effect of strength and conditioning on physical qualities and aesthetic competence in dance populations, three electronic databases (PubMed, Scopus, SPORTDiscus) were searched (until September 2022) for studies that met the following criteria: (i) dancers aged >16 years; (ii) structured strength and conditioning inter...

Background Fundamental physical functions such as postural control and balance are vital in preserving everyday life, affecting an individual’s quality of life. Dance is a physical activity that offers health advantages across various life stages. Nevertheless, the effects of dance interventions on physical function, postural control, and quality o...

Objective: To investigate the effects of a dance intervention on selected functional parameters during the 180° turning phase of the Timed Up & Go (TUG) test in people with Parkinson’s Disease (PwPD). Methods: Fifteen adults clinically diagnosed with idiopathic PD were allocated into dance intervention (DIG; n = 7 ; age 73 ± 2 years) and control (C...

Relative energy deficiency in sport (REDs) is a potentially severe, challenging, broad-spectrum syndrome with potential negative health and performance outcomes. The numerous research publications and International Olympic Committee consensus statements relating to REDs testify to the challenges faced in early identification or screening, diagnosis...

Introduction The importance and potential benefits of muscular strength in the adolescent’s development for health and fitness has been demonstrated in the literature. Maximal muscular strength and its assessment, however, is not a primary assessment criterium in the selection of young talented dancers. Methods The present study evaluated the with...

This chapter discusses the systematic skills needed to become a dance science researcher. It examines different academic degrees (taught and research) and approaches to research from serving a particular population to contributing to a theory. The chapter emphasizes the importance of choosing a functional team of supervisors as you plan your projec...

The chapter describes between-group comparisons and reviews how different between-group experimental designs (cross-sectional design or longitudinal design) require specific statistical tests and how planning prior to data collection will determine the appropriate tests. The chapter discusses how between-group comparisons are reductionist in nature...

The aim of the present study is to examine the acute effects of a specially designed musicokinetic (MSK) program for patients with Parkinson's disease (PD) on (a) anxiety levels, (b) select kinematic and kinetic parameters, and (c) frontal cortex hemodynamic responses, during gait initiation and steady-state walking. Methods: This is a blind cross-...

Introduction: Dancers have self-reported a link between spinal extension movements and low back pain (LBP). Researchers have not reported the total number or frequency that spinal movements occur in ballet, modern, or hip-hop dance classes or performances. The purpose of this study was to report the number of spinal movements dancers are exposed t...

Introduction: Neuromuscular warm-up programs, such as FIFA 11+ were developed as early as 2006. These programs have been effective in reducing the risk of injury in female athletes by decreasing the moments surrounding the knee and improving neuromuscular control during static and dynamic movements such as jumping and landing. In addition, they ha...

Background: Previous injury survey recall methods often use one-off questionnaires with varying periods of recall. These methods have proven to show injury incidence inaccuracies and limited information on injury etiology. Purpose: The present study aimed to examine the efficacy of a remote weekly self-report injury incidence and etiology tool....

Hip hop is a popular dance genre practiced worldwide that has gained popularity since the 1970s. Despite this, studies related to the area and its physiological demands are still scarce. The purpose of this study was to report the cardiorespiratory profile of a group of male and female hip hop dancers to determine the zones of intensity of a predef...

Research Methods in the Dance Sciences introduces concepts and practices that support effective, empirical research in the dance sciences, including medical science. A valuable new resource for this growing field, this book provides foundational knowledge for anyone who wants to understand, apply, and conduct research with dancers and proposes ways...

Dancing en pointe is an integral aspect of ballet for female dancers and they start pointe training in young adolescence. The primary objective of this review was to investigate the screening tests used to determine pointe readiness in young adolescent female dancers, and the secondary objective was to determine the injuries associated with pointe...

Greater levels of physical fitness have been linked to improved dance performance and decreased injury incidence. The aim was to review the efficacy of physical fitness training on dance injury. The electronic databases CINAHL, Cochrane Library, PubMed, Web of Science, MEDLINE, China National Knowledge Infrastructure were used to search peer-review...

Objectives The aim of the present systematic review and meta-analysis was to synthesize evidence associated with the functional and clinical effectiveness of rhythmic cueing, dance, or resistance training (RT) on motor and non-motor parameters in Parkinson's Disease patients, and to provide a comparative perspective not offered by existing systemat...

Introduction: Low back pain (LBP) lifetime prevalence in dancers reportedly ranges from 17% to 88%. Low back pain can have negative secondary consequences on dancers' lives and careers. Still, how LBP impacts dancer function and medical care-seeking behaviors and whether these issues differ across dance genres, is understudied. Materials and meth...

Falls are increasing prevalent in the elderly but little data has been reported on the effect of previous life experience on balance ability. The aim of the present cross-sectional study was to determine whether participants with historically highly developed postural control (retired dancers) provided protection after activity had stopped by compa...

Objective: The aim of this study was to develop a contemporary dance technique-specific, high-intensity dance fitness test and carry out preliminary testing into measuring the physiological intensity and reliability. The choreography of the Dance Fitness Indicator© (DFI©) is based upon Humphrey/Limón, Graham, and Cunningham techniques and includes...

Specialist dance floors have been promoted to reduce impact forces and reduce lower limb injury for dancers. 18 trained female dancers carried out 70 continuous ballet jumps on 4 different surfaces wearing an XSENS suit. Three specialist dance floors, Floor A (64% force reduction), Floor B (67% force reduction), Floor C (no data) were compared to F...

Introduction: Pre-professional ballet training involves long training hours from an early age that could influence young dancers’ physical performance and injury incidence. This cross-sectional analysis investigated the relationship of year group and sex, with countermovement jump, and injury incidence (primary outcome) in adolescent ballet dancers...

Introduction: It is well documented that there is high prevalence of injuries in pre-professional and professional ballet dancers. Current evidence from high in quality and quantity research on injury prevention in sport, indicates that interventions can reduce injury risks by 30 to 50%. Injury prevention research in dance, is limited. The aim of t...

The training of elite dancers has not changed in the last 60 years; it is often only those that have survived the training that go on to have a career, not necessarily the most talented. It is time to challenge and change how we train tomorrow’s professional dancers. This book brings you the reasons why and all tools to implement change. 10 years a...

Hip hop is a popular dance genre practiced worldwide that has gained popularity since the 1970s. Despite this, studies related to the area and its physiological demands are still scarce. The purpose of this study was to report the cardiorespiratory profile of a group of male and female hip hop dancers to determine the zones of intensity of a predef...

Three years of study showed that female and male vocational dancers displayed lower bone mass compared to controls, at forearm, lumbar spine and femoral neck. Energy intake was found to positively predict bone mass accruals only in female dancers at femoral neck. Vocational dancers can be a risk population to develop osteoporosis. Purpose: To det...

Epidemiological studies over the past decade indicate high injury prevalence in preprofessional ballet (76%) and professional contemporary and ballet dancers (60–69%). Injuries can have detrimental effects both for the dancers and the dance company. Most injuries are in the lower limb and re- ported as the gradual onset of overuse. Professional dan...

Objectives: Although coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has transformed the training environment of dancers worldwide, little is known on how this has affected injury prevalence, causes, and risk factors. Methods: An online investigation involving Chinese full-time dance students was conducted (September–November 2020), which covered two 6-month p...

Dance injury research has mainly focused on ballet and modern dance with little data on musical theatre dancers. The purpose was to assess the incidence and severity of injuries in a musical theatre dance college over a 5-year period; 198 pre-professional musical theatre dancers (3 cohorts on a 3-year training course) volunteered for the study; 21...

Balance testing on dancers has used a wide variety of assessment tools. However, as most field balance tests have been developed for either sport or elderly populations, the evidence of associations between tests and their functional relevance to dance is inconclusive. We assessed possible associations between five such field balance tests. A total...

Breaking is the most physical of the hip- hop dance styles, but little research has examined the health and well-being of its participants. Using a cross-sectional recall design, a self-reported online health and well-being survey was open for a 5-month period (April 2017 to August 2017). Three hundred and twenty adult break dancers (16% profession...

Overuse injuries are the most prevalent injuries in aesthetic sports, due to the repetitive nature of the training. Evidence of their relationship with growth, maturation, and training load is equivo- cal. The objective of this study was to investigate the effects of these factors on overuse injuries in dance and aesthetic sports. A database search...

Although traditional dance training aims to train dancers' legs equally, the recognized practice of predominately starting and repeating exercises on one side more than the other has led to suggestions that technique classes may cause lateral bias. Such an imbalance could lead to a greater risk of injury; however, despite this potential risk, littl...

ABSTRACT Background: Low back pain is believed to be a common complaint among dancers; however, a comparison across recent research is needed to support or disprove this assertion across genres. Purpose: To determine the prevalence of low back pain and low back injury in ballet, modern, and hip-hop dancers through a systematic literature review. A...

Does dance activity participation (including level of performance and previous injuries) increase risk of osteoarthritis?

Background The use of vitamin D supplementation has increased due to greater recognition of widespread deficiency. Aims There has been little research on the effectiveness of different delivery methods and therefore the aim of was to test the efficacy of different delivery methods on serum 25(OH)D. Methods Using a randomised repeated measures dou...

The Fit to Dance survey has been conducted using primarily Western participants and has provided foundation data for other studies. The purpose of the current study was to replicate the Fit to Dance 2 survey focusing on features of health and injuries in pre-professional and professional Chinese dancers of different genres. The survey was translate...

Aims: Musical theatre (MT) combines acting, singing, and dancing within a performance. The purpose of the current study was two-fold: 1) to report on the cardiorespiratory fitness of pre-professional MT dancers, and 2) to examine the cardiorespiratory demand of singing whilst dancing. Methods: Twenty-one participants (16 females, 5 males; age 20...

Understanding the factors that influence player retention within elite youth football can be used to enhance current practices. This study investigated an English Category 1 academy to determine if birth quartile, somatic maturity, anthropometric and physical performance characteristics are associated with player retention across the developmental...

Vitamin D has been shown to benefit a diverse range of health functions including muscle function. The aim of the present study was to identify serum 25(OH)D3 levels in a sample of adolescent dancers and compare them to muscle function and injury incidence. We incorporated a cross-sectional design to study 49 pre-professional male and female dancer...

Fatigue and overwork have been cited as the main cause of injury with the dance profession. Previous research has shown a difference in workload between professional dancers of different rank, but the role of sex has not been examined. The purpose of this study was to determine workload intensity, rest, and sleep profiles of professional ballet dan...

Less is known on bone mass gains in dancers involved in vocational dance training. The present study found that, as young vocational dancers progress on their professional training, their bone health remains consistently lower compared to non-exercising controls. Endocrine mechanisms do not seem to explain these findings.PurposeLittle is known on b...

A professional English football club with Category 1 academy status was investigated to determine the magnitude of relative age effects (RAE) within the club and explore between-quartile differences for somatic maturity, anthropometry and physical performances. Birth dates of 426 players from Under 9 to First Team were categorised into four birth q...

Using electrocardiography and echocardiography, we screened elite men and women ballet dancers for abnormal cardiovascular conditions using an observation design with blinded clinical analysis of cardiac function tests. Fifty-eight (females n=33) elite professional ballet dancers (age: 26.0±5.7 years, body mass index: 19.9±2.2 kg/m2) with no past o...

Aims: Although balance is a key element of dance, it remains to be confirmed which balance components are associated with dance performance. The aim of this study was to assess the associations between different field balance tests and dance performance in an in-house measure in ballet, contemporary, and jazz genres. Methods: 83 female undergrad...

Aims: While a foundation of basic cardiorespiratory fitness is beneficial for coping with the physiological demands of dance training and performance, the extent to which cardiorespiratory fitness levels are related to performance ability is not all-together clear. This study aimed to directly compare aerobic capacity (VO2peak) and anaerobic thres...

Objective: The session rating of perceived exertion (session-RPE) is a practical and non-invasive method that allows a quantification of internal training load (ITL) in individual and team sports. As yet, no study has investigated its construct validity in dance. This study examines the convergent validity between the session-RPE method and an obj...

Aim: Due to movement complexity and the use of interdisciplinary styles, all theatrical dance genres require dancers to have excellent balance skills to meet choreographic demands. The aim of this systematic review was to evaluate the experimental evidence for the relationship between balance and dance performance, including balance testing, balan...

Aims: Dancers need to constantly maintain and develop their physiological capabilities to support their performances. Previously these physiological demands have been investigated only in traditional dance styles such as ballet and modern. The aim of this study was to examine the physiological demands of two types of hip-hop: new style and break d...

The association of genetic polymorphisms with low bone mineral density in elite athletes have not been considered previously. The present study found that bone mass phenotypes in elite and pre-elite dancers are related to genetic variants at the Wnt/β-catenin and ER pathways. Introduction: Some athletes (e.g. gymnasts, dancers, swimmers) are at i...

Purpose: A number of studies have noted low levels of Vitamin D in dancers and this has been associated with increased risk of injuries and decreased muscular strength indices. The aim of the present study was to examine whether vitamin D supplementation over a 4-month period can improve muscle function and injury incidence. Methods: Eighty-four...

Objectives: To explore whether movement quality has influence on heart rate (HR) frequency during the dance-specific aerobic fitness test (DAFT). Methods: Thirteen contemporary university dance students (age 19 ± 1.46 yrs) underwent two trials performing the DAFT while wearing a Polar HR monitor (Kempele, Finland). During the first trial, dancer...

Background: The frequent and intensive training and performance of pre-professional ballet dancers and sportspersons is offered at a time when young ballet dancers and young athletes may be vulnerable to injury due to the progress through adolescence and growth spurts. Hypothesis: There are changes in range of motion during the progress through ado...

Effects of passive static stretching intensity on recovery from unaccustomed eccentric exercise of right knee extensors was investigated in 30 recreationally active males randomly allocated into 3 groups: high-intensity (70%–80% maximum perceived stretch), low-intensity (30%–40% maximum perceived stretch), and control. Both stretching groups perfor...

Dancers often perform powerful and explosive movements that require adequate lower extremity(LE) activity in horizontal and vertical directions. We examined if these measures were interrelated and whether they predicted LE injury status in dancers using binary logistic regressions and Receiver Operator Characteristic(ROC) curve analyses. Forty-thre...

Beck, S, Wyon, MA, and Redding, E. Changes in energy demand of dance activity and cardiorespiratory fitness during 1 year of vocational contemporary dance training. J Strength Cond Res 32(3): 841-848, 2018-Previous literature has demonstrated that the intensity of dance class as well as its discontinuous nature is not sufficient to elicit an aerobi...

Methods: The total of 10 recreational, 24 vocational, and 10 professional ballerinas volunteered. They were subjected to: a) lower limb-length measurements, b) power tests (vertical jump-sautés and unilateral countermovement jump-temps levé), c) dexterity tests (tendus and double battement frappes), and d) flexibility tests (lateral active and pas...

Background Professional dancers are at risk of developing low bone mineral density (BMD). However, whether low BMD phenotypes already exist in pre-vocational dance students is relatively unknown. Aim To cross-sectionally assess bone mass parameters in female dance students selected for professional dance training (first year vocational dance stude...

Introduction: The aims of this study were to (a) assess bone mineral density (BMD) in vocational (VBD) and professional (PBD) ballet dancers and (b) investigate its association with body mass (BM), fat mass (FM), lean mass (LM), maturation and menarche. Methods: The total of 152 VBD (13 ± 2.3 years; 112 girls, 40 boys) and 96 controls (14 ± 2.1...

Acute whole body vibration (WBV) is an increasingly popular training technique amongst athletes immediately prior to performance and during scheduled breaks in play. Despite its growing popularity, evidence to demonstrate its effectiveness on acute neuromuscular responses is unclear, and suggestions that athlete ability impacts effectiveness warran...

Screening a Pre-vocational Dancer: A Case Study

An athlete's cardiorespiratory profile, maximal aerobic capacity, and anaerobic threshold is affected by training regimen and competition demands. The present study aimed to ascertain whether there are company rank differences in maximal aerobic capacity and anaerobic threshold in elite classical ballet dancers. Seventy-four volunteers (M 34, F 40)...

Purpose: Research suggests that dancers are at higher risk of developing low bone mineral density (BMD) compared with the general population. However, the associated factors contributing to low BMD in dancers are not fully understood. We aimed to assess the association of single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in the Wnt/β-catenin and oestrogen rec...

Background: Dance is a physically demanding activity, with almost 70% of all injuries in dancers occurring in the lower extremity (LE). Prior researchers report that muscle function (e.g. muscle endurance) and anatomical factors (e.g. hypermobility) affect physical performance (e.g. balance) and can subsequently influence LE injury risk. Specifica...

Objective: Indoor athletes have been shown to be prone to vitamin D3 deficiency. The aim of the study was to examine the acute effects of vitamin D supplementation on muscle function using isokinetic dynamometry. Design: Randomized placebo-controlled, double-blind study. Setting: Institutional. Participants: Adult male white national level j...

Background and objective: In DanceSport, athletes train for many years to develop a very specific posture. Presently there are few data as to whether these adaptations are habitual or cause permanent anatomical changes to the spine. The aim of the current study was to evaluate lumbar lordosis and thoracic kyphosis of the international level DanceS...

Background: The aim of the study was to examine the effects of an intense stretch on selected serum-based muscle inflammation biomarkers. Methods: A randomised within-subject crossover trial was conducted with 12 healthy recreationally active males (age: 29±4.33yrs, mass: 79.3±8.78kg, height: 1.76±0.06m) participating in both an intense stretching...

Stretching exercises to increase the range of motion (ROM) of joints have been used by sports coaches and medical professionals for improving performance and rehabilitation. The ability of connective and muscular tissues to change their architecture in response to stretching is important for their proper function, repair, and performance. Given the...

Previous research has explored the intensity of dance class, rehearsal, and performance and attempted to document the body's physiological adaptation to these activities. Dance activity is frequently described as: complex, diverse, non-steady state, intermittent, of moderate to high intensity, and with notable differences between training and perfo...

The intensity of stretching is rarely reported in scientific literature. In this study, we examined the effects of stretching intensities at 30%, 60%, and 90% of maximum range of movement (mROM) on the inflammatory response of the right hamstring muscle. Methods: A randomised within-subject trial was conducted with 11 healthy recreationally active...