June 23^rd marks International Women’s Day in Engineering (INWED), a day to celebrate the achievements of women engineers and the incredible and diverse work they do. This year’s theme is ‘Engineering Intelligence’.

“Under the 2026 theme, Engineering Intelligence, we are bringing together organisations, educators, industry leaders, and communities to showcase the expertise, creativity, and leadership women bring to engineering every day.”- INWED 26

In light of this monumental day, we highlight the fascinating work carried out by Eileen Wanke, a dancer-turned expert scientist who now explores the biomechanics behind professional dance at Goethe University Frankfurt. Prof. Wanke now approaches the field from a medical perspective to understand common injuries and how they can be prevented.

In a study published in the Open Access journal Sensors, Prof. Wanke and her team explore the extreme physical demands of professional dancing by carrying out precise ergonomic assessments of ballet dancers.

Professional dance is a high-risk sport

Professional dancers spend hours training, where they carry out repetitive, rotational, high strain and high force movements, often exerting immense stress to their muscles and joints.

Ballet dancers training on barre whilst fitted with 17 sensors for Prof. Eileen Wanke’s study on ergonomic risk in dancers. (credit: figure 1, Sensors 2026, 26(1), 70)

Long-term exposure to these complex and stressful movements puts dancers at high risk of developing acute and chronic injuries. Among these include sprains – injury or tearing of ligaments, and strains – overexertion or tearing of muscle fibres.

Injury is extremely common in dancers, as seen in a year-long study which found that 81% of dance students experienced at least one injury in an  academic year, with 58% of students being substantially injured and unable to carry out normal activities.

Many dancers continue to train even after injury, demonstrating their fortitude, and unwavering commitment to their craft. This, however, can have long-lasting physical repercussions.

“Professional dance is a high-performance sport,” says Prof. Wanke. “It requires exceptional physical control and athleticism, developed through many years of intensive training.”

Understanding the specific physical demands of dancing is important for rehabilitation and instilling strengthening training programs to prevent future injury. The study led by Prof. Wanke involved the analysis of professional dancers from the German ballet companies of Oldenburg State Theatre and the Kiel Theatre, where they assessed the ergonomic risk of professional dance.

Using sensors to assess movement

A total of 28 participants,16 female and 12 male, between ages 22 and 38 were included in the study. The researchers used inertial motion capture systems to record complex movement sequences during training. This involved attaching 17 sensor units to the dancers from head to toe to record each movement.

These data were combined to produce Rapid Entire Body Assessments (REBA). This is widely used to assess the ergonomic risk of tasks within other working industries, such as agriculture, fishing, and health and social services.

However, methods of assessing movement usually entail video analysis of static momentary measurements, rather than in-depth motion capture like this study uses.

As described in the study, each movement carried out by the dancers was assigned a score based on the level of strain to the muscle, ligaments, or joints. The greater the level of strain, the higher the REBA score and level of ergonomic risk.

Highly sensitive sensors enable precise visualisation of complex movements (Credit: Eileen Wanke, Goethe University Frankfurt).

Professional ballet poses significant ergonomic risks

Classical training consists of 3 phases. Phase 1 involves controlled slow movements at the barre, while phases 2 and 3 are carried out in open spaces encompassing more dynamic movements with higher cardiovascular strain. These phases demand more coordination, concentration and physical control, which usually all drop after extended hours of training, putting dancers at high risk of injury within phase 3.

“Our participants spent more than 60 percent of their training time in a moderate-risk, and a further 30 percent in a high-risk range. Studies show that concentration tends to decline in Phase 3, leading to more frequent errors and inaccuracies,” explains Wanke.

Both male and female dancers trained at considerable risk, with an average REBA scored of 6.31 and 6.03 respectively (scores at 4-7 sit within medium risk zone). Interestingly, female dancers trained significantly longer within high-risk ranges compared to the male dancers and were therefore subjected to greater ergonomic stress and chances of injury.

This could be down to unique anatomical gender differences, where the same types of movements could be putting higher levels of strain on the joints or muscles of the female dancers.

Dance training requires careful planning for injury prevention

Prof. Wanke’s study describes the integration of inertial motion to generate REBA scores and assess the ergonomic risk of professional dancers.

Overall, the research shows that professional ballet dance exerts considerable ergonomic strain on performers. Furthermore, it prompts future reassessment of dance routines to include more dynamic movements earlier in training to avoid injury. Additionally, increased gender-specific exercises could be implemented into routines for injury prevention.

Prof. Eileen also comments on how future research should also focus on the role of flooring in dance. With dance routines often entailing exceptionally dynamic high force and high impact movements, designing specialised flooring to ease strain on vulnerable anatomical components is important to avoid injury.

Prof. Wanke is a guest editor of the Special Issue: Sports Medicine and Injury Prevention, published in Applied Sciences. which entails research exploring sports injury and the rehabilitation of professional athletes.

To read more research on biomechanics and ergonomics, you can access the journal Biomechanics. Alternatively, you can browse the full MDPI journal list.