IADMS Miami 2000   [back to the Category]

Establishing Heel-Rise Standards for Dancers   [read the french version]

Author :   Victoria E. Aranda, M.S., P.T.L.A., et al.

Authors: Victoria E. Aranda, M.S., P.T.L.A., Deborah Diaz, M.P.T., Rene Alvarez, M.S., P.T.L.A., Frank Peronetto, M.S., P.T.L.A., and Phyllis Browne, Ph.D., P.T.; Chapman University, Orange, CA, USA

The standard test for gastroc-soleus endurance used in the physical therapy setting today is the heel-rise test. A normative value has been established as a baseline for healthy individuals from the general population. It is not well established if a dancer’s gastroc-soleus differs in endurance from the general population. Thus, the current standard is potentially not sensitive enough to use as a baseline for dancers. This may have serious implications for injured dancers who are able to perform the standard number of heel-rises set by the general population, but are not able to return to the physical demands of dance. This study strives to establish a standard number of heel-rises for dancers in order to have an impact on physical therapy rehabilitation protocol for injured dancers.

It was hypothesized that ballet and modern dancers could perform significantly more heel-rises than a normal population. Twenty-seven adult dancers, between 18 and 46 years old, from dance studios, schools, and companies, performed one set of heel-rises on each leg. A Student’s t-test revealed a significant difference (p > 0.01) between the dancers’ mean number of heel-rises of 40 (SD = 9.85), and the generally accepted standard of 25. This demonstrates that a higher standard may be necessary to represent the demands of dancing.

In addition, an analysis of variance was performed to compare the effect of gender, leg dominance, dance institution, leg sidedness (right vs. left), and leg testing order on the number of heel rises. Only testing order revealed a significant difference, with dancers’ second leg performing more than the first (p = 0.009). Notably, heel rise values for both legs were similar whether considered by leg dominance or leg sidedness. This result is not surprising as dancers are expected to perform all dance functions symmetrically, and indeed, has some clinical use. In the case of a unilateral injury, the unaffected leg may be used as a reference for normal. Also following a unilateral injury, symmetry of heel-rise values could be used as an indicator of readiness to return to dance.

This is the abstract of a paper presented at the Tenth Annual Meeting of the International Association for Dance Medicine and Science, held 27-29 October 2000 in Miami, Florida, USA. All rights are reserved by the individual author(s).