Objective: To investigate how Brazilian dancers and dance staff perceive and deal with injury and its prevention in professional and non-professional contexts.
Design: Qualitative study.
Setting: Semi-structured interviews conducted using an online platform.
Participants: Thirteen participants (8 women, 5 men) from four different dance styles (classical ballet, jazz, contemporary and urban): 6 dancers, 6 staff and 1 classified as both.
Main outcome measures: Interviews were recorded, transcribed and analyzed based on Grounded Theory principles using comparative data analysis.
Results: The main themes and findings were: 1) Injury definition: Injury was defined and classified based on pain, structural damage and consequent limitations and restrictions. 2) Dealing with injury: Dancers' fear of having to stop dancing justifies different behaviours facing injury. 3) Injury factors: Overload and many personal and environmental factors were perceived as related to injury. 4) Injury prevention: it is linked with physical preparation and additional measures and influenced by communication, trust, experience, time, access to preventive programs, dancers' personalities and environmental factors. Responsibility for injury prevention should be shared by all stakeholders.
Conclusions: To improve injury prevention, we need to acknowledge the dancers' drive to keep dancing, consider the multiple factors that influence their behaviours, and develop education and self-efficacy to help them make better decisions to reduce the risk of injury.
Keywords: Athletic injuries; Dance; Injury prevention; Qualitative research.
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