Grouping young ballet dancers by their biological rather than chronological age could help lower their risk of injury, a study has suggested.
The technique, known as bio-banding, is growing in prominence for other sports including football and rugby.
Researchers from the Universities of Bath and Bristol said that current practices for grouping and evaluating young dancers could be counter-productive.
Their work suggests that late maturing girls are potentially placed at a significant disadvantage during important phases of their development and at a greater risk of injury.
Ballet teachers have a pivotal role at this time and further education regarding the implications of puberty upon dance training may be helpful, the researchers said.
Dancers in vocational training are grouped by age and can begin full-time training – for up to six days per week – from as young as 11.
Girls of the same chronological age do vary greatly biologically, with some maturing in advance or delay of others.
Ballet has traditionally favoured late-maturing girls, who tend to be slimmer, with lower body fat and comparatively longer legs in relation to their torso.
But the study found late maturation poses challenges for dancers, with auditioning and an increase in training often coinciding with key developmental stages.
This can place young dancers at an increased risk of injury at crucial points in their development, the researchers said.
Lead researcher and former ballet dancer Siobhan Mitchell, a PhD student at the University of Bath’s Department for Health, said: “Traditionally many people have assumed there is a bias in ballet towards late maturers, but the reality is less clear. Of the teachers we spoke to, many saw late maturation as a disadvantage, as later maturing girls experience their growth spurt at a point where training schedules become more intense and when auditions take place, which can often make performance difficult.
“Similarly, others considered early maturation as advantageous, as those dancers had already ‘got most of the growing out of the way’ and were better placed to perform and cope with a heavier training load during this time.
“These findings point to the importance of further research in this area with the aim going forward to apply these findings to enable dance teachers to better support young dancers as they transition through puberty.”
The study, published in the Journal of Adolescence, highlighted how time differences in maturing have important implications for talent identification and development, as well as self-esteem.
Anne Haase, from the University of Bristol, said: “The ability of dance teachers to manage maturation in dancers can reflect through the girls’ self-esteem and confidence in their own abilities.
“Finding more positive approaches for dance teachers to support girls through this stage will allow for development of improved self-esteem and confidence in dance.”
Sean Cumming, also at the University of Bath, is currently working with major sports teams and the English Premier League to develop new bio-banding approaches to selection.
“We think there is potential for vocational dance schools to apply some of the elements of bio-banding not only to improve the experiences of dancers and reduce injury risks but also to ensure talent is not wasted,” he said.
“This is not about favouring late or early maturing girls, but rather levelling the playing field and providing the most developmentally-appropriate learning contexts so that dancers, irrespective of physicality, have the same opportunity and aren’t put under undue stress at the wrong points in their development, which can cause injury.”
The researchers, who are working closely with national dancing body One Dance UK, are now looking to develop further education resources on the topic of growth and maturation for dance.