BMC Sports Science, Medicine and Rehabilitation (Stellenbosch University)
Research study · 2024 · Western Cape
Stellenbosch University physiotherapy researchers interviewed ten professional South African ballet dancers. Dancers told mental and physical tiredness apart, linked much of it to outside pressure and expectations, and recovered through rest, food and mental strategies.
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Prospects (Stellenbosch University and UCT)
Research study · 2024 · Western Cape
A dancer reflects on two of her own works and how ballet norms from the colonial and apartheid eras shaped and silenced her, and argues for decolonising dance teaching so that hip-hop and community dance are valued alongside ballet.
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University of Johannesburg
Research study · 2023 · Gauteng
A UJ biokinetics study ran a 12-week stretching programme with 76 Gauteng belly dancers. Both static and dynamic stretching improved spine flexibility, which may help with low back pain. A journal article from the study followed in 2026.
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Wits University (WIReDSpace)
Research study · 2022 · Gauteng
A Wits sports and exercise science study surveyed dancers at two South African competitions. Most had had pain during their dance careers, about half were sore when surveyed, the foot and ankle were the most common problem areas, and almost a third had never seen anyone about an injury.
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University of Johannesburg
Research study · 2021 · Gauteng
A University of Johannesburg chiropractic study asked 80 South African dancers about their injuries and who treats them. Ankles, knees and lower backs were hurt most often, and dancers went to physiotherapists far more often than to chiropractors.
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University of KwaZulu-Natal (ResearchSpace)
Research study · 2020 · KwaZulu-Natal
A UKZN master's study looks at how Zulu and Sotho rituals and spiritual practice shape contemporary dance, through the work of Vincent Mantsoe and Moeketsi Koena and the author's own choreography.
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University of Cape Town (OpenUCT)
Research study · 2020 · Western Cape
A UCT physiotherapy study followed 18 professional female ballet dancers in South Africa for three months. Almost all injuries were overuse injuries, mostly in the legs and feet, at about 3 injuries for every 1,000 hours of dancing.
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University of KwaZulu-Natal
Research study · 2018 · KwaZulu-Natal
Flatfoot's founder reflects on 24 years of dance in KwaZulu-Natal after 1994: community dance teaching, choreography and efforts to decolonise dance training, linked to the idea of 'embodied democracy'.
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Flatfoot Dance Company on DAN
University of Cape Town (OpenUCT)
Research study · 2016 · Western Cape
A UCT doctoral study built on interviews with dancers, choreographers, directors and critics. It looks at age as a new form of difference in South African contemporary dance and at prejudice against older dancers.
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University of the Free State
Research study · 2014 · Free State
A UFS drama study tested whether dance can help reconciliation: students from different backgrounds devised a dance theatre work together, with interviews and observation before, during and after.
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Journal for Transdisciplinary Research in Southern Africa
Research study · 2014
This paper introduces performing arts medicine, the care of musicians' and dancers' health problems, and proposes a plan for more South African research in a field that still has few specialised clinics.
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Durban University of Technology
Research study · 2004 · KwaZulu-Natal
An early South African study from DUT's chiropractic programme measured how often ballet dancers in the Durban area are injured and looked for personal factors linked to their injuries.
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University of Durban-Westville (now UKZN)
Research study · 1985 · KwaZulu-Natal
An early study that documented selected Zulu social dances so they could be taught in school physical education programmes.
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