Dancers’ health guide

This Dance and Health Guide is published with the support of the French Ministry of Culture

Why this guide?
To ensure that health issues are better taken into account in the world of dance
To enable everyone to grasp the basic concepts and develop good habits and practices
To raise awareness of the risks during training and throughout a dancer’s career

Fo who?
A toolkit for dancers, teachers, students, employers, choreographers, ballet masters…

How?
A concise format, with the following for each topic covered:
An informative text
Recommendations and advice

Dancers possess a certain amount of practical knowledge derived from their experience and years of physical training, which they share informally. This guide helps to organise this knowledge in a more formal way and, in some cases, to correct it, to suggest other tools or approaches derived from research, and to identify key elements in prevention. It thus facilitates the sharing of knowledge and expertise to collectively consider the role of health in dance, taking into account, as far as possible, the diversity of employment conditions, dance styles and contexts.
When it comes to health and care, everyone has a responsibility: dancers as well as employers, institutions as well as practitioners. It is indeed essential to be both supported and self-reliant in prevention. 
This guide therefore aims to help everyone find their way around by sharing general information, practical advice, resources and recommendations. It is intended to be a general guide and covers all forms of dance. The specialists who have contributed to this text are experts in their fields and come from a variety of disciplines (medicine, paramedicine, psychology, sports science, humanities and social sciences, and movement analysis), ensuring a multidisciplinary approach. This guide therefore brings together different practices and draws on a range of perspectives and knowledge, as only a cross-disciplinary approach can enable us to collectively consider and support the health of dancers.