Book excerpt: Dance is a dangerous business. The scientific and medical communities are now beginning to acknowledge that many forms of dance are as strenuous and physically demanding as most sports activities. Indeed, several scientific and dance studies report that dancers face a greater risk of suffering long-term disabilities than other elite athletes. Certainly it is fairly safe to assume that most professional and pre-professional dancers will be injured at some time in their careers. The Fit and Healthy Dancer is a long overdue contribution to dance literature that empowers dancers and their tutors. For the first time, the authors treat dancers as performing athletes and present essential exercise science information in a user-friendly style to help readers prevent injury and maintain good health. This volume will help dance and drama students and their teachers, professional dancers dance fitness instructors and choreographers, physiotherapists and medical practitioners appreciate the importance of a whole host of fitness-related concepts including: energy and energy production nutrition to fuel dance principles and training of endurance, strength and power, mobility and flexibility the importance of warm-up and cool-down weight balance and the effects of reduced body weight in dancers bone density, osteoporosis, amenorrhoea and the most common injuries in dancers the causes of injuries, overtraining, exercise induced asthma life after a professional dance career "Yiannis Koutedakis and Craig Sharp have written a very comprehensive and informative book that delves into the reasons behind dance injuries and also provides readers with an understanding of methods to improve their standards of fitness and eliminate unnecessary dance injuries." —Cynthia Harvey "The time has come to take advantage of all the knowledge contained in this book to ensure that our dancers are fitter and healthier in the future." —Sir Peter Wright CBE, Director Laureate, Birmingham Royal Ballet