Letter to the Editor

The entertainment industry is evolving at an unprecedented pace, placing ever-greater physical, psychological, and sometimes logistical demands on performing artists. From the relentless scrutiny of global media to the high-stakes reality of live performance, artists are expected to deliver “Olympic-level” performances night after night.1 These demands extend beyond artistic mastery: performers must manage fatigue, injury and illness, and maintain performance precision under intense public visibility. Such physical and mental demands closely mirror those experienced in sport.

Several domains offer clear opportunities for knowledge transfer between elite sport and the performing arts. These include training load management, the use of wearable technologies, and the monitoring of sleep and wellbeing.2 Biomechanics and movement analysis have also been extensively investigated in both fields, providing a strong foundation for interdisciplinary collaboration. Furthermore, sport science and sports medicine have generated substantial evidence relating to physical preparation, periodisation, recovery, and performance optimisation, much of which has relevance for performing artists.2 Applied performance psychology offers another area of overlap, as both athletes and artists are required to perform under conditions of intense scrutiny and pressure, often in the presence of large audiences and heightened media attention.3 Over the last few decades, performing arts medicine and science has advanced considerably, also reflected in a substantial increase in peer-reviewed publications and scholarly resources.2,4 In some instances performing arts researchers have drawn on sport science principles. At times, one-way knowledge transfer has evolved to a collaborative approach that support reciprocal learning and the two-way exchange between disciplines. Even greater integration and purposeful collaboration between these disciplines5 may accelerate the adoption of practices and knowledge generation that enhance health, performance, and career longevity among performing artists.

Science coordination can be understood as the strategic alignment of research efforts, expertise, and resources to improve the generation, integration, and application of knowledge.5 In the recent Nature Human Behaviour article, A systemic approach to better coordination in science, the authors argue that improved coordination can make scientific work more cumulative, efficient, and impactful.5 Coordinated approaches help address complex research questions that are difficult for individual disciplines to tackle in isolation, enhance the prioritisation of research questions and agendas, increase specialisation and expertise, foster constructive criticism, and promote collegiality and transparency across research communities.5

Establishing formal, interdisciplinary partnerships between artistic institutions and schools of sport science/sports medicine may provide a valuable framework for advancing multidisciplinary approaches to health and performance across the broader performing arts sector. By integrating expertise across disciplines, these collaborations could facilitate knowledge exchange, support the translation of evidence-informed approaches from elite sport to the performing arts, and generate innovative approaches to optimising health and performance outcomes for performing artists and athletes.

Successfully establishing such partnerships would require bridging cultural and disciplinary differences between the performing arts and sport science communities. In particular, efforts might need to address the perceived dichotomy between art and sport, including concerns that the application of sport science principles may lead to the “sportification” of artistic practice and potentially compromise artistic expression. A collaborative and mutually respectful approach is therefore essential. Such initiatives should ideally be co-designed with a performer-centred perspective, recognising the importance of performers’ preferences, values, and lived experiences in shaping effective and acceptable practices. Within this framework, sport science/sport medicine practitioners and researchers should be viewed as contributors to an integrated multidisciplinary team, working alongside artistic directors, educators, healthcare professionals, and performers to support health, wellbeing, and performance while preserving the creative and expressive integrity of the art form.

Achieving this vision requires engagement across a broader ecosystem, where researchers, universities, journals, and funders/policy-makers play critical roles in strengthening science coordination, fostering collaboration, and enabling systemic change.5 Academic work is often siloed and, in some areas of research, individualism is rewarded over collaborative efforts.5 While interdisciplinary collaboration between performing arts researchers and sport scientists offers clear benefits, barriers such as limited research capacity, funding constraints, and academic incentive structures can hinder these partnerships. Addressing these challenges requires coordinated action across the research ecosystem, including mapping expertise across institutions, creating forums to develop shared research priorities, aligning funding schemes with community-defined needs, incentivising collaborative and interdisciplinary research, and supporting training in research coordination and team science.

Despite potential challenges, there are successful examples of integration between disciplines and coordination in science. We acknowledge current initiatives, such as Athletes and the Arts, which is a collaborative initiative of the American College of Sports Medicine, Loyola University, and Performing Arts Medicine Association. An Australian example is the partnership between sport science and medicine researchers at La Trobe University and the healthcare team at The Australian Ballet. The partnership has led to advancements in wellbeing monitoring, strength and conditioning approaches, and injury management and rehabilitation for dancers. It has also created opportunities for PhD students to be involved in interdisciplinary collaborations, while facilitating knowledge transfer to the broader dance community, sport, healthcare practitioners, and the general public.

In conclusion, performers face many of the same health and performance challenges as elite athletes and deserve comparable access to scientific expertise, evidence-informed practices, and multidisciplinary support systems. This article serves as a call for purposeful collaboration across the performing arts, sport science and sports medicine sectors, both in research and in practice. Such partnerships have the potential to accelerate relevant knowledge generation and translation, ultimately improving performer health and wellbeing, extending career longevity and enhancing performance outcomes while respecting and preserving artistic expression.

Competing interests

Paolo Menaspà is employed as Chief Science Officer at the Australian Institute of Sport, Australian Sports Commission. He holds a voluntary position in the National Executive Committee of the Australian Society for Performing Arts Healthcare. He is also a member of the Queensland Society of Magicians.

Joanna Nicholas is a Lecturer in Dance and Performance Science at the Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts, Edith Cowan University, and presents at industry forums which includes research on performing arts science, and the health and wellbeing of performing artists.

Funding

No financial assistance was received in support of this project.

AI Statement

The authors used AI tools solely to assist with language editing, grammar correction, spelling and feedback on readability. All intellectual content was developed, verified and approved by the authors, who take full responsibility for the work.

Author contributions

PM project conception, manuscript writing and reviewing: JN contributing to conception, manuscript writing and reviewing.