Injury Epidemiology in Professional Ballet: A Five-Season Prospective Study of 1596 Medical Attention Injuries and 543 Time-Loss Injuries

Objectives To describe the incidence rate, severity, burden, and aetiology of medical attention and time-loss injuries across five consecutive seasons at a professional ballet company. Methods Medical attention injuries, time-loss injuries, and dance exposure hours of 123 professional ballet dancers (female: n = 66, age: 28.0 ± 8.3 y; male: n = 57, age: 27.9 ± 8.5 y) were prospectively recorded between the 2015/16 and 2019/20 seasons. Results The incidence rate (per 1000 h) of medical attention injury was 3.9 (95% CI: 3.3–4.4) for females and 3.1 (95% CI: 2.6–3.5) for males. The incidence rate (per 1000 h) of time-loss injury was 1.2 (95% CI: 1.0–1.5) for females and 1.1 (95% CI: 0.9–1.3) for males. First Soloists and Principals experienced between 2.0–2.2 additional medical attention injuries per 1000 hours and 0.9–1.1 additional time-loss injuries per 1000 hours compared to Apprentices (p ≤ .025). Further, intra-season differences were observed in medical attention, but not time-loss, injury incidence rates with the highest incidence rates in early (August and September) and late (June) season months. Thirty-five percent of time-loss injuries resulted in over 28 days of modified dance training. A greater percentage of time-loss injuries were classified as overuse (female: 50%; male: 51%) compared to traumatic (female: 40%; male: 41%). Conclusion This is the first study to report the incidence rate of medical attention and time-loss injuries in professional ballet dancers. Incidence rates differed across company ranks and months, which may inform targeted injury prevention strategies.