Conditioning and Cross-Training for Dancers: Oh, those feet!
From the dancer’s viewpoint:
Dancers are proud of their good posture – or of what they have been taught is good posture for dancers.
Depending on what form their dance expression takes, this can assume widely varying forms. Ballet dancers are known for their regal posture. Modern dancers work for the word “centered.” Musical theatre performers need to maintain a controlled torso while performing a variety of styles. Scottish Highland dancers usually strive for the same bearing that ballet dancers have while Irish dancers can exhibit a range from the overly strict military posture with lifted chins, tight necks and chests out, to a more relaxed torso in spite of those straight arms and tight fists. Tap dancers and cloggers are allowed a greater leeway, often encouraged to throw their arms and torsos about.
One common denominator that all postures in all disciplines, sports and daily life share is that base of support – the feet.
Ballet and Celtic dancers work for 180 degree turnout from day one, often whether or not their hips – the true source of turnout – will allow it. Workings from that inefficient and incorrect base upward, ankles begin to roll, “flattening” the arch, causing the ligaments that hold those bones in place to stretch out. Ligaments do not retighten. Pressure on the bones begins to change the shape of the foot, stretching connective tissue. This misaligned force translates farther upward toward the knee as it begins to face forward instead of properly and safely aligned over the foot. The extremely crossed fifth position, sometimes called “Russian fifth”, that some in ballet and many in Celtic dance love, further forces feet, ankles and knees into very distorted alignments as the end of the big toe is expected to meet and sometimes pass the heel of the other foot in fifth position. From there, the hips will soon suffer as they may begin a subluxation process to allow the impossible position.
Add to that the demands of pointe work for female ballet dancers, and the high ball-of-foot positions for Celtic dancers, the need for damage control is evident. Musical theatre females and showgirls aren’t any better off in three-inch heels for eight shows a week. Modern dancers suffer split calluses, floor burns, blisters under calluses and more from unprotected work. Being barefoot is natural, but turns, falls, brushes and more for 8 to ten hours a day is not.
Tappers, cloggers and step dancers have thousands of shock waves hitting their feet with every beat. And their toes as they hit ‘toe stands’ in shoes not designed for that job, without the benefit of the training that those on pointe receive – or should.
Another common denominator is that dancers tend to wear their shoes one to two sizes too tight, often encouraged to do so by teachers. They mistakenly feel that this gives their dancers “a better arch,” when in reality it is curling the toes and causing calcium deposits among other problems.
At one Dance for Wellness seminar that the New York City Ballet Education Department has begun presenting for dancers and teachers, each of the NYCB performers participating in a Q & A session raised a hand when they were asked who had had injuries. Dancers tend to focus on the area of pain not realizing that the source may be some place different. One young company member noted how conditioning had helped him. He was surprised to find “all sorts of little muscles I didn’t know about” that also had an effect on his pain and rehabilitation.
Jan Griscom, who has taught classes in Conditioning and Cross-training for Dancers at those seminars, has some explanations and solutions for Dancer’s readers.
From the trainer’s viewpoint:
Undoubtedly a dancer’s foot is one of the most important elements of the craft. Whether it is because it is the shock absorber for the body as it comes in contact with the planet, preventing the planet from pulling us down into its surface… or if it serves as an instrument for the performance itself, a dancer’s foot is used and abused. Tap dance, Irish, and ballet all have a tremendous impact on feet each in their own way.
Ballet dancers are on their toes or the ball of the foot constantly causing horrible injury to the toes themselves and overdeveloping the calf musculature. Tap is done by the articulate contact of the floor with the foot. Rebound forces increase because the foot hits so many times. Again, the calf muscles are well developed in relation to other muscles of the foot. Irish dancers share a common thread with the ballet world in that they will develop hammer toe from the foot pushing in to the front of the shoe. This comes from wearing shoes that are too small in an effort to make the appearance of the foot small and graceful. Whether it is one or more of these things that contribute to pain in the foot and ankle, injury to the foot becomes one of the most common injuries to dancers.
In order to prevent some injury to the foot and ultimately to other parts of the body, we need to tune up our feet.
Exercise 1: While sitting with the legs extended in front of you,; place a piece of Dynaband over the toes. Tighten the quadriceps to lift the heel off the floor. Go to a plantar flexed position and hold that while flexing and extending the toes.
Exercise 2: While in that same position, take the toes and try to separate them as wide as possible.
Exercise 3: Still in the seated position, hold the Dynaband to the inside of the foot and turn the foot out while maintaining the knee in its upright position. This is an external rotation at the ankle.
Exercise 4: Once again from the same position, hold the Dynaband to the outside of the foot and rotate the foot toward the other foot. The knee should stay in the same position to prevent the hip from internally rotating.
Exercise 5: In a standing position try to lift the forefoot off the floor as far as possible without shifting your weight back to assist you. Try to balance in that position for as long as you can. Or try walking only on your heels. These are difficult to do when one has spent their lives on their toes. Just keep trying! It helps.
For each of the exercises, they should be performed until the toes are fatigued or for about 20 repetitions. These should be increased over time until one can repeat 3 sets of 20 repetitions. And for those who enjoy walking they should be done as pre-hab for the rest of your life twice or three times weekly. Dance your heart out; not your foot out.