Highlights From the 2024 IADMS Conference on Dancer’s Physical and Mental Health
In October 2024, 600 dance medicine professionals and educators gathered by the Adriatic Sea in Rimini, Italy, for the 34th annual International Association for Dance Medicine & Science conference. Attendees could participate in more than 100 lectures and 50 movement sessions as they shared the latest research and best practices to promote health for dancers and dance for health. This year’s conference highlighted the intersections of mental and physical wellness, as well as advocating for dancer autonomy and safety.
Hot on the heels of its debut in the summer Olympics, breaking enjoyed time in the spotlight as well. In his keynote, Antonio de Fano, ATC, PhD (“B-boy Goodfella”), a performance coach for the Italian Olympic Breaking team and a researcher in sport and movement sciences, presented both data and performance. Alternating between his PowerPoint and dance demonstrations, De Fano outlined the history of breaking, the components of a battle and how it is scored, and recommendations for how and why breakers should better implement warm-up time and rest into their practice.
De Fano touched on conversations that arose in many sessions that followed, discussing the necessity of meeting dancers’ needs as individuals. “The main aim in breaking is to be unique and recognizable as yourself,” he said. “You can’t do my moves because they are me. The goal is to break the rules.”
In its third year, the Linda and William Hamilton Annual Dance Wellness Symposium, an annual IADMS component which spotlights dance medicine professionals’ emerging research on wellness, recognized three projects with a $1,000 monetary prize. Here is a brief rundown of this year’s awardees’ research:
- A study of 207 aesthetic performers, including ballet dancers, circus and aerial artists, and gymnasts, looked at the relationship between perfectionistic climates and injury. The study, run by Charlotte Downing, PhD, Sanna Nordin-Bates, PhD, and Ulrika Tranaeus, PhD, concluded that the more participants viewed their training environments with perfectionistic outlooks, the more likely they were to perform while injured.
- Emily Davis, PhD candidate, professor Lorna Paul, and Dr. Bethany Whiteside evaluated dance’s impact on people with multiple sclerosis. Long-term dance-program participants reported physical and mental improvements, a sense of belonging in their dance group, and improvements in self-perception and overall MS management.
- One study evaluated 64 breakers over a one-year period. Sophie Manuela Lindner, Nadja Schott, Jens Nonnenmann, Sebastián Morales-Castillo, and Claudia Steinberg found that 100 percent of breakers at an elite performance level had sustained injuries in the past 12 months. The most-injured body part was the shoulder, followed by the wrist/hand, and the neck.
The next IADMS conferences will take place September 25–28, 2025, in Las Vegas, Nevada, and September 24–27, 2026, in Melbourne, Australia.
