FOOT ALIGNMENT AND UNIPODAL POSTURAL STABILITY OF DANCERS TRAINED IN CLASSICAL BALLET.

Abstract

Eight female dancers (mean ± SD age 21.6 ± 3.0 years; body mass 55.4 ± 4.4 Kg) and eight female physically active non-dancer controls (age 20.5 ± 1.8 years; body mass 66.5 ± 8.6 N) participated. Dancers had 15.6 years of classical ballet training and currently performed 3.5 hours of ballet per week. In walking gait the dancers right foot progression angle (mean ± SE) was greater at 9.7 ± 1.30 than that of the left foot 7.2 ± 1.20 (P<0.05). Less out-toeing was recorded in the physically active control group with smaller progression angles (4.4 ± 1.20 right foot and 2.9 ± 1.50 for the left foot). For both the dancer and control groups the right and left unipodal postural sway were not significantly different, indicating that the morphological differences did not influence stability.