Curtin-developed wearable sensor finds dancers are dancing through pain

A new Curtin-developed wearable sensor system has tracked the movement of dancers, providing valuable insights into how they adapt to dance through disabling pain. The study, published in PLOS ONE, analysed the movement of 52 pre-professional ballet and contemporary dance students from the Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts (WAAPA). The wearable sensor system was developed as part of a collaboration between the Curtin School of Allied Health and the Curtin Institute for Computation. Lead researcher PhD candidate and former professional ballerina Danica Hendry, from the Curtin School of Allied Health, said that while almost all dancers experienced pain, only half of them had to stop or modify their movements. "Fifty out of the 52 dancers said they experienced pain, with 26 reporting that this pain impacted their training/performance. Our findings indicate that the dancers are often able to continue dancing when in pain, and do so by adapting their movements, such as reducing their load" Ms Hendry said. "Despite a high prevalence of musculoskeletal pain, dancers' levels of pain severity and disability was generally low with the lower back and ankle/foot reported as most common." Ms Hendry said that existing measures, such as activity diaries and schedules, did not capture the specific movements that the dancers performed.