Dancers in Poland are taking part in a research project to help scientists understand the pressures and strains placed on the performers body while dancing.
At the Silesian University of Technology a special costume has been developed, an initial motion capture suit made of sensors.
Classical dancers put huge pressure on joints and bones with the vertical ground reaction force reaching up to ten times the weight of the dancer.
Robert Michnik is part of the research team:“We have already prepared a mathematical model allowing the calculation of the forces generated by the muscles and it allows us to show the reaction in the joints. These results, which we get here from these experimental measurements, will also be used to set numerical simulations about the direction the weight takes in the joints and the forces generated by the muscles.”
Researchers were aware that the body of a dancer underwent great strain before the project began, but were astonished by the results and the
