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Ballet Dancers Shouldn't Be Turned Down When They Can't Turn Out

Forcing the body to move past the available range of motion usually isn't a good idea. Ballet dancers are especially likely to do this. However, it can be the cause of pain and injury.

Ballet looks so graceful. The dancers move seemingly without effort, but ballet is very athletic. It requires strength, agility, and endurance. Dance injuries are so common that 90 percent of all professional dancers have had an injury from dancing. More than half of all student dancers have also had injuries.

Dancers use a position called turnout. The hips, legs, and feet are rotated out as much as possible. The ideal turnout is 180 degrees. This means the heels are touching and the toes are pointed out to form a perfectly straight line.

A dancer can rarely achieve this position without compensating somewhere else. Sometimes, the feet and legs are turned out farther than the motion in the hips will allow. This is the most common cause of dance injuries. Full turnout forces the knees and lower legs to twist and move the feet when the hips can go no further.

Another way to get more turnout is to tilt the pelvis. The stomach moves forward and the back increases its swayback position. This increases the risk of low back pain and injury. Dancers may also roll the arches of the feet inward. This puts the feet in a position of being flat-footed. Injuries of the ligaments and soft tissue of the feet can occur.

Physical therapists who study dance injuries have some suggestions. Dancers should only turn the feet and knees out as far as the hips go naturally. This motion may improve with a program of stretching and strengthening--not by forcefully straining to attain ideal turnout. Instructors need to know the potentially harmful results of stressing ideal turnout when hip motion is the limiting factor in its achievement. This may ultimately help reduce pain and injury among dancers. More studies are needed to find strategies to safely increase hip rotation.

References: Julie A. Coplan, PT, MA. Ballet Dancer's Turnout and Its Relationship to Self-reported Injury. In Journal of Orthopaedic & Sports Physical Therapy. November 2002. Vol. 32. No. 11. Pp. 568-575.

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