Research: A Yoga Intervention for Music Performance Anxiety in Conservatory Students

This pilot study sought to determine the effectiveness of a 9-week yoga program with respect to reducing music performance anxiety among undergraduate and graduate music conservatory students. The 17 subjects who completed the entire study demonstrated decreases in performance anxiety (especially associated with solo performance) and in trait anxiety. Follow up at 7-14 months indicated that the improvements experienced by the program completers were sustained. The positive feedback received from the participants about the program and its effects on general well-being and performance anxiety were encouraging to the authors.

Research: Survey of Health Problems in Musical Theater Students, A Pilot Study

Musical theater performers face a wide variety of injury risk factors as they dance, sing, and act and perform a wide variety of repertoire both musically and physically. To obtain a clearer picture of the health problems faced by musical theater students, the authors surveyed the 37 students attending one musical theater school in Germany. Of all of the students, nearly half reported suffering an orthopedic or internal illness up to twice per year. The students cited the pressure of expectation and performance from their peers, family members, and school administrators and fears regarding casting or exams as the highest-rated problems that may contribute to the onset of illness or injury. In this cohort, the lower extremity was the most common site of injury, with nearly two-thirds of the students reporting acute injuries there and almost as many students reporting a chronic injury to the lower extremity. Strains, sprains, and contusions were the most commonly reported injuries. Interestingly, 76% of the injuries reported in this cohort occurred during well-known movement sequences.

Research: Fatigue Effects on Quadriceps and Hamstrings Activation in Dancers Performing Drop Landings

To examine fatigue’s effects on the quadriceps and hamstrings in dancers, this study had subjects perform single-leg drop landings before and after a dance-specific fatigue protocol. The authors examined the co-contraction ratios using EMG electrodes placed on the vastus medialis, vastus lateralis, and biceps femoris muscles. This study only examined 7 female dancers, but they found that dancers use a quadriceps-dominant landing strategy both before and after a landing protocol. They also found an increase in the quadriceps-hamstring contraction ratios following the fatigue protocol. The authors felt that this change could be explained by an increase in quadriceps activity with no associated change in hamstrings activity. The authors theorized that the reason dancers demonstrated a quadriceps-dominant landing strategy during this single-leg drop landing task both before and after a fatigue protocol is related to the way dancers are taught to land in dance. Dance technique dictates that the dancer lands with an upright trunk and minimal hip flexion. Landing with these mechanics reduces the ability of the hamstrings to activate and absorb landing forces.


McEldowney KM, Hopper LS, Etlin-Stein H, and Redding E. Fatigue effects on quadriceps and hamstrings activation in dancers performing drop landings. J Dance Med Sci. 2013;17(3):109-114.