Dance Spirit Magazine wrote an article featuring the most common injuries of tap dancers and how to prevent them. They give a lot of detail about common injuries to watch out for, but we want to spotlight three of their tips of how to prevent these injuries from happening.
- Get a proper warm up. We can’t stress how important warming up is for any dancer, and tap dancers are no exception. If you dance with tight muscles, you are much more likely to have an injury.
- Use a loose-ankle tap style. If you have most of the movement originate in the hips, you will have less pressure on tight ankles and less chance of hurting your ankles or feet. One dancer shared that he was able to overcome a knee injury by switching to a loose-ankle style.
- Only dance on a proper floor. Make sure it is a hard surface that has some give to it. The article reminds tappers, “do NOT tap on concrete.” Many injuries can result from tapping on the wrong type of floor.
Be sure to read the rest of the article for more tips and descriptions of common tap injuries. Then come out to one of our tap classes and have a blast!