Cross-college collaboration helps George Mason dancers stay ready for the stage

Body

Photo by Evan Cantwell/Office of University Branding

As the athletic trainer for the George Mason School of Dance, Jena Hansen-Honeycutt is one of the first to notice when something's not quite right. So when she started seeing an influx in injuries among dance students, she approached College of Education and Human Developmentprofessor of athletic trainingJatin Ambegaonkar and then-student Kelley Wiese, PhD Kinesiology'25, hoping to find a solution.

Dancers are "aesthetic athletes," meaning they have the high workloads and high injury rates like traditional athletes. "They dance for at least three hours a day in classroom practice alone," said Hansen-Honeycutt. "And that doesn't account for their extracurricular work: rehearsals, choreography, or additional practice."

And like athletes, the dancers are also trying to balance heavy physical demands with their classes, sleep schedules, dietary needs, and social lives.

Despite this, dancers are often medically underserved.

"The blend of artistry and athleticism separates them from traditional athletes, yet they have the same physical demands often without a dedicated medical team to support them," explained Ambegaonkar.

In exploring data collection opportunities to help answer Hansen-Honeycutt's inquiry, Wiese found that workload monitoring-common for traditional athletes-was underutilized in dance. And because fatigue is the number one self-reported cause of injury in dancers, she thought this would be the best place to start.

"We can recognize there's a correlation between fatigue and injury, but you need data in order to make a stronger case for implementing cultural and systemic changes," said Wiese. Wiese, a trained dancer and now an assistant professor of athletic training at Shenandoah University, worked with Ambegaonkar during her doctoral program at George Mason on various studies at the intersection of kinesiology and dance.

Dancers were given wrist-worn biosensors to wear 24 hours a day for seven days. They repeated the study four times throughout the semester. "We wanted to understand the cycles of the body breaking down and recovering as workload increased and decreased throughout their semester," explained Ambegaonkar.

Participating students were also given surveys to provide subjective perceptions of their workload, sleep habits, and energy levels.

Photo by Evan Cantwell/Office of University Branding

Reviewing the data, Wiese found that at peak times throughout the semester, students were spending more than seven hours a day completing moderate to vigorous physical activity between class, rehearsals, practice, and choreographing. As a result, energy levels decreased and fatigue increased, indicating a need for integrated recovery times and programs.

Another key finding from this study was the dissonance between students' perceived sleep and the biosensor data. While students self-reported great and sufficient sleep, the biosensors reported insufficient sleep.

"Over time, insufficient sleep can lead to difficulty recovering and therefore higher rates of injury," said Wiese. "Particularly when they're already struggling to recover."

As a result, the research team worked together to develop what Ambegaonkar calls "micro-interventions" through improved sleep health education programs to help students become aware of the issue and develop better sleep habits. Hansen-Honeycutt has created sleep health resources for students around the impacts of good sleep on their academic and physical performance and is working with the faculty to incorporate this messaging into their classrooms.

"It's so important to have this collaborative, teamwork approach with dance faculty, because they're setting the culture in their program or in their studio. They will be the ones imparting these changes," said Wiese.

"This study proved to me that us dance majors are extremely active, more than I often realize!" said senior dance major Sanaa Fairley. "I learned that I could develop a much more consistent sleep schedule to set up my space and therefore my mind, in a healthy way each day to prepare for rest." Fairley has implemented other recovery techniques, such as cold showers, into her routine as well because of the study.

Senior dance major T'aja Williams also reported improved sleep hygiene through a consistent bedtime, as well as making her more aware of how academic, socio-emotional, and physical activities impact her schedule and technology use. "This study allowed me to see where potential pockets of homework, rest, social media engagement, and phone calls can take place and making active decisions regarding where and when is healthiest for each activity," she said.

Building good habits now will help George Mason dance students have long and fulfilling careers in dance. And Ambegaonkar and Wiese think this study might help pave the way for further research into the physical demands and impacts of dance.

"I think George Mason is a pioneer in the field of dance medicine," said Ambegaonkar. "We're broadening the scope of what kinesiology is in the public health domain and what it can do in the public health domain."

Jena Hansen-Honeycutt (top left), Kelley Wiese (top center), and Jatin Ambegaonkar (top left) with dance students. Photo by Evan Cantwell/Office of University Branding

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