Screening

Screening helps dancers maintain health, fitness and optimum performance, available as an add-on to your chosen membership.

What is Screening?

Screening complements the support available at the NHS Dance Injury Clinics, organised by the National Institute of Dance Medicine and Science (NIDMS).

It can be especially useful for dance professionals and students who don’t have healthcare provided for them by a school or company.  

Screening is available to anyone with a One Dance UK membership, and we can also support companies and schools to add it to their offering for students. 

Screening has been specifically designed to help dancers maintain health, fitness, and optimum performance, and offers you a chance to get to know your body better.

 

Screening locations

Screening is delivered in partnership with the National Institute of Dance Medicine and Science (NIDMS). NIDMS Screening Partners include the University of Wolverhampton, Walsall Campus, West Midlands, Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance, London and Queen Mary University, London. 

 

Screening levels

There are two different levels of screening to choose from, Level 1 or Level 2. 

Level 1 screening includes: 

  • A 30-minute physiotherapy assessment 
  • A 20-minute fitness testing session 
  • A 10-minute feedback session 

Level 2 screening includes: 

  • A 1-hour physiotherapy assessment
  • A 1-hour fitness testing session 
  • A 15-minute feedback session 
  • A written feedback report 
  • A training plan 

(see below for more details)

What to expect at your one-to-one musculoskeletal and fitness screening

You will travel to our screening centre at the University of Wolverhampton, Walsall Campus (West Midlands), where you will meet with a dance-specialist exercise physiologist and physiotherapist on the following areas

A dance-specialist physiotherapist will investigate previous injury history and evaluate potential risk for future injury. Assessments are designed to uncover weaknesses, tightness, range of motion restrictions and muscular imbalances that may impact your performance and potential for injury. The aim is to provide invaluable information about the body so that steps can be taken to reduce injury risks through specific training.

Dance-specialist physiotherapist sessions are 30 minutes when you book Level 1, and 1 hour when you book Level 2

This assessment helps performers maintain a healthy BMI and body fat percentage in order to optimise performance. 

This assessment is a part of your screening with a dance-specialist exercise physiologist.

Screening sessions are 20 minutes long when you book Level 1, and 1 hour when you book Level 2

Range of motion and muscle flexibility are essential aspects of dance performance. This series of tests focuses on the range of motion and surrounding muscle flexibility in various planes of movement.

This assessment is a part of your screening with a dance-specialist exercise physiologist.

Screening sessions are 20 minutes long when you book Level 1, and 1 hour when you book Level 2

These tests measure core muscular endurance, upper body strength and endurance, lower limb power and lower limb endurance. These elements are important in many dance movements, mainly performing lifts and weight-bearing actions and being able to propel the body through space, such as in jumps or travel sequences.

This assessment is a part of your screening with a dance-specialist exercise physiologist.

Screening sessions are 20 minutes long when you book Level 1, and 1 hour when you book Level 2

You will complete an incremental treadmill test (a standardised measure of aerobic fitness) whilst wearing a Metamax gas analyser to measure your aerobic capacity, providing information on your ability to delay the onset of fatigue, which has been linked to injury.

This assessment is a part of your screening with a dance-specialist exercise physiologist.

This test is a part of Level 2 screening only.

Once the screening has been completed, a one-to-one feedback session will be provided.  This will allow time to discuss the screening results in the context of your training or work and give personalised recommendations for optimising training and performance.  

When you book Level 1 Screening, this is a 10 minute verbal session.

When you book Level 2 Screening, this is a 15 minute verbal session, plus a written report and training plan. 

Still unsure? See Screening in action!

Taster Screenings 

Screening with Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance

 

Screening at the University Wolverhampton and Birmingham Royal Ballet

 

POP Screening attendee, Wolverhampton

quote mark As a slightly more mature dance artist at forty-something, I felt supported, I was heard, and my needs were completely met. I learnt invaluable things about my body and health that blew my mind! On the back of this, I look forward to seeking further guidance and care through one of the POP Packages. I just have to choose which one suits my needs. Thank you for an inspiring and informative session.

POP screening attendee - Trinity Laban

quote mark I had an amazing experience at the POP Taster Screening Day. I really enjoyed seeing the dance science facilities and hearing all about the work of Trinity Laban, One Dance UK and NIDMS. The best thing was to be able to undertake some of the screening tests and to get feedback about them. These are really helpful in understanding some of my current physical capabilities in the context of my dance practice. Now that I’ve given some of these a try and seen what the screening programmes entail, I’m really keen to book a full Performance Optimisation Package because I’m sure the highly personalised information could benefit my dancing and help me get to the next level.

Professor Matthew Wyon, Course Leader and Senior Lecturer in Dance Science – University of Wolverhampton

quote mark POP allows us to support dancers to achieve their goals and potential by providing them with individualised training and rehabilitation programmes based on the comprehensive POP screen. It also provides us with new data to continually improve our knowledge. This is the exciting side of working with dancers when you are helping them along their journey. It is always great to see them year after year and help them monitor their progress and fine-tune their training

Nick Allen
, Clinical Director, Birmingham Royal Ballet, Jerwood Centre

quote mark NIDMS partners undertook research looking at the impact of screening in dance – such as the POP screening- as part of an injury prevention strategy. The results showed that when combined with a specifically designed conditioning programme, we saw a significant reduction in injuries. Given that injury can be one of the challenges to a dancer's performance, screening can be an important step forward to enhancing performance capacity“.  

Global majority male dancer holding up white blonde female dancer behind his head as she hugs his back and legs come out to the left. Wearing neutral casual clothes on greay backdrop.

Image One Dance UK, Dani Bower. motionhouse dancers Junior Cunningham and Berta Contijoch