Safe dance practice meaning

The words ‘safe dance’ mean many different things to different parts of the dance community.
It could be safe dance practice recommendations for teachers and studio owners, safe physical dance environments, injury prevention and safe return to dance practices, supporting the mental and physical development of dance students, the list goes on.

The term “safe dance practice” often conjures up the vision of a checklist of boring, restrictive, and often unnecessary health and safety regulations.
As dancers, choreographers, and teachers, we certainly don’t want to be held back in our artistic endeavours by recommendations that we think will limit our creative risk-taking capacity.

Safe Dance Report IV examines the Australian context and occurrence of injury in professional dancers (independent dancers and those based in companies), and how dancers manage their injuries and return to dance practice.
It makes recommendations to support sustainable, healthy, and productive dancing careers.

But healthy and safe dance practice is so much more than industry rules and regulations.
It’s the best way to reduce injury risk and to enhance performance.
There’s no getting round the fact that dancers get injured.
Injury rates are high in our profession.