Balance control profiles of University and Conservatory dance students

de Melo, Filipe PhD, Faculdade de Motricidade Humana, Lisbon, Portugal  

Balance, good or poor, will reflect more on your dancing than many other things. Before you get serious about turning you need to master balance.

A common idea transmitted by every dance teacher is that a good dancer can stop or turn at any moment of a movement with the weight on only one foot or the other. 

Hoffman et al. (1998) data concerning postural control of functionally dominant and non dominant legs suggest no differences between the right and left legs of healthy subjects, but what happens between professional dancers (experts) and non dancers or novices?

The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of dance experience (15 University vs 15 Conservatory dance students) in balance, and more specifically in the postural control of a single-leg stance (right and left) in two dance specific balance tasks. Each subject is required to balance on both legs, weight shift to the supporting leg and then balance on the anterior part of the foot, maintaining the other leg extended in front (attitude) or backwards (arabesque).

Strength contributes to balance control by increasing muscular stiffness and proprioception sensitivity. The limits of stability are also dependent from the capacity of sustaining the total body mass in leaning positions.

References

Gribble, P.A., Hertel, J. (2004). Effect of lower_extremity Muscle Fatigue on Postural Control. Arch Phys Med Rehabil, 85, 589-592.

Hoffman, M., Schrader, J., Applegate, T., Koceja, D. (1998). Unilateral Postural Control of the Functionally Dominant and Nondominant Extremities of Healthy Subjects. Journal of Athletic Training, 33, 4, 319-322.

Mc Curdy, K., Langford, G. (2006). The Relationship Between maximum unilateral squat strength and balance in young adult man and woman. Journal of Sports Science and Medicine, 5, 282-288.