Before we can understand how biomechanics plays a role in dance performance, let’s be clear about the meaning of a few important terms.
Biomechanics is “the science concerned with the internal and external forces acting on the human body and the effects produced by these forces.” (Sutton, 2022).
Kinesiology is “the study of movement as it relates to anatomy and physiology” (Sutton, 2022).
So how do these ideas help us better understand our movements in dance? Understanding the biomechanics and kinesiology of your body helps you make stronger connections between your mind and body, which can improve your movement in so many ways, like contextualizing corrections, help you to feel the muscles and the difference between one muscles vs another or one posture vs another, improve alignment, prevent common dance injuries, and so on. Let’s take a look at the ankle as an example.
The ankle is made up of the lower leg bones (tibia and fibula) and the upper foot bone (talus). It is a hinge joint, meaning it moves similarly to a door hinge. The ranges of motion for the ankle include dorsiflexion, or a “flexed foot”, and plantar flexion, or a “pointed” or relevé position.
When “flexed”, the talus creates a wedge between the bony structures due to its shape, causing the joint to be more stable in this range of motion. There are a number of muscles that assist in stabilizing the ankle when in plantar flexion, like the muscles of the calf (soleus and gastrocnemius) and the peroneal muscles, which wrap around the ankle joint to create cross stabilization. These muscles are crucial for any dance movement that requires this range of motion, especially for a long duration.
How does this apply to dance movements? Great question! In order to turn in any way without falling or dropping your relevé, you need to balance in relevé, which all comes from stabilizing the ankle and endurance strength in the calf. Understanding what muscles are involved in the stability of the ankle can help you engage those muscles, and understanding the correct alignment in the ankle allows you to achieve and maintain that position correctly.
Now when it comes to jumps, understanding what muscles in your lower leg, as well as your upper leg, are involved in jumping can help you engage those muscles and jump higher and more efficiently. Furthermore, understanding how your ankle should be aligned during the landing of your jumps (deeper than ‘toe ball heel’) can help you avoid ankle injury. And overall, these two ideas can help avoid injuring the ankle in common, repetitive movements in dance.
Additionally, now that we know the ways that the ankle moves and what muscles help to stabilize the joint, and how this can improve our dance technique, we can also incorporate exercises into our training to strengthen and feel these ideas in action, and over time this strengthens the connection between our minds and our bodies. The more we understand which muscles are at work, and which are not, the less effort we can put into our movement. We also now know that without strengthening the stabilizing ankle muscles, we will never be able to efficiently and properly perform these movements, as they all begin at the ankle.
So how do we strengthen these muscles? Here are three exercises for the ankle and foot to get you started:
1. Sitting Dorsiflexion
Start seated with a band around your feet. Bend one knee to your chest and hold on to the leg. Bring your toes slightly up towards you, then away to return to the starting position. This movement should be small and controlled, making sure that your ankle moves without rotating inward or outward.
2. Little Toes Away
Start seated with a resistance band around your feet. Bring your pinky toes/feet outward and away from each other, then return to the starting position. This exercise focuses on strengthening the peroneus longus muscle, which runs on the outside of the calf from the tibia to the foot.
3. Negative Calf Raise
You can do this with a step, stair, or yoga block. Stand on the block with just the balls of your feel. Drop your heels below the surface then press to relevé. The focus of this exercise is to strengthen the soleus and gastrocnemius in the calf.
Bottom line: understanding what is happening in your body biomechanically helps you optimize your movement, move more efficiently, and helps to avoid injury.
If you’re interested in learning more about your body and how to improve your technique, BodyKinect has a few different options for you depending on what you’re looking for! Check out our 6-week online training plans for dancers here. Or if you want something a little more comprehensive and longer, we have a 3-month training program called BodyKinect Blueprint. As always, feel free to message Kendall on Instagram if you have any questions or send me an email!
Sutton, B. G. (Ed.). (2022). Nasm Essentials of Personal Fitness Training (7th ed.). Jones & Bartlett Learning.
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