Training adaptable ankles is very relevant in the world of dance. The ankle is a highly important joint bearing our weight and transferring forces between the legs and feet. Absorbing shock of walking, running, jumping and soo important in balance. To a dancer- the ankle is even more precious. It is the determiner of going onto pointe, the ever desired banana foot enhancer, and ever had to balance in relevé? Yeah, you want your ankles to be strong….but also flexible….but can you have both? The answer is in the ADAPTABILITY.
In this year-long study of 184 professional modern dancers, 82% of the dancers had suffered between 1-7 injuries that past year. The highest prevalence of injuries were the feet/ankles which totaled 40% of all injuries. In this article, it sites multiple articles that have everywhere from 34% to 62% of prevalence of ankle injuries. So again- ankles are super important for dance- with the amount of injuries that are in the dance world today, clearly there is something dancers are missing about training for the ankles.
I think a huge aspect that attributes to injuries in the dance world is misinformation/no information. This post is for sharing information about the ankles and maybe after reading it, you will be more aware of the anatomical structure of your ankles!
Alignment in the Sagittal Plane
The motion of the ankle is categorized as a “hinge joint”. When people are talking about the true ankle joint, they are most likely talking about the talocrual joint. It is made up of the fibula and tibia articulating with the head of the talus. When you point and flex your foot you are articulating through this joint. As you can see from the graphic- the tib/fib are connected with each other through the interosseous membrane. This makes the two bones to connect as one to the talus. (although small movements between the tib/fib can happen as well, especially at the distal end.)
Put each finger on your “ankle bones” or medial/lateral malleoli. Imagine a line drawn between them like in the picture. Notice the lateral malleolus is lower than the medial malleolus. Now try to dorsiflex and plantarflex (flex and point in kinesiology terms) the ankle. According to the book “Dynamic Alignment through Imagery” by Eric Franklin, the ankles naturally have about 40 degrees of plantar flexion. In weight bearing this can increase 10 degrees. For dancers, (of course we have to be extra about everything) “Dance Anatomy and Kinesiology” by Karen Clippinger, recommends for dancers to have 90 to 100 degrees of plantar flexion. (Double the norm!)
Alignment in the Transverse Plane
Where the fun stuff happens is in the subtalar joint- the lower part of the talus articulating with the upper part of the calcaneus (heel bone). This joint plays a super important roll in training adaptable ankles, because simply, it adapts to whatever the body needs by “rolling in/out”. The motion in this joint is supination (which is a combination of inversion, adduction and plantar flexion) and pronation (which is a combination of eversion, abduction and dorsiflexion). You can think just think simply lifting the medial/lateral sides of the foot off the ground.
I love this image because you can see that when the foot is supinated- the lower leg rotates laterally and when your foot is pronated- the lower leg rotates medially. Stand and feel this relationship for yourself! “Due to the oblique axis of the subtalar joint, the shapes of various bones, and soft tissue interaction, there is a coupling of movements between the leg and foot when the foot is fixed and weight bearing” (Dance Anatomy and Kinesiology- Karen Clippinger).
Now sit down or lay down and put your feet in the air and try to move through supination and pronation to further understand this motion the ankle joints hold. You can think you are trying to make the bottom of the feet look at each other and then look away from each other. Try to isolate just the feet and keep the lower legs from moving with it since you are not weight bearing. (It’s harder than you think!). Notice how the ankles and lower legs mostly move together.
So with the considerations so far, I see two “problems” that usually arise for dancers:
1. Why do dancers “roll out” their ankles at the top of a relevé?
It could be there is not enough awareness in the motion of the subtalar joint (or fibularis longus is weak, maybe posterior tibialis is shortened… that’s for another post- coming soon!). When the ankle is flexed, it is more stable because of the shape of the talus. When the ankle is plantar flexed- non-weight bearing as in a tendu, or weight bearing as in relevé- it is less stable. So maybe someone just standing there seems to be in alignment but as soon as they go up into relevé that alignment is gone. This indicates that even though static alignment is present, it doesn’t transfer during movement.
The key to achieving dynamic alignment is awareness. Ask an inexperienced dancer to rise up on relevé and chances are they will demonstrate rolling out. I encourage teachers of young ones to instead of just informing them that they are not in alignment and correcting their alignment, guide them through experiencing and eventually controlling their own ROM. Maybe it won’t be the quickest “fix”, but I believe it will be the most permanent. I am currently teaching beginner contemporary kids, and I have them stand in parallel first position and take time to move the ankles through their full range of motion, feel what it feels like to let their ankles rock through pronation and supination and finding a balance between them both to find “neutral” alignment. Understanding and controlling dynamic alignment is such an important tool, one that can help keep the body from getting injured. Imperitive for dancers!
2. Why do dancers get injured landing from jumps?
Sometimes too much training leaves the ankle too rigid and non-adaptable. Dancers are trained to think that sickling is the worst thing you can possibly do so they train themselves to be in alignment at. all. times. Which is a good thing right?
Well.
The problem is, you have these ranges of motion in the feet/ankles to use. This is why you want to focus on training adaptable ankles- so your body is able to adapt to what you need. Limiting access to certain ranges of motion your body needs can cause compensation issues to arise, and could potentially lead to injury.
Let’s take the most basic movement for example: Walking. During your walk or your gait, you are actually moving through supination and pronation with each step you take. It’s very small, only about 1-2mm of motion, but there IS motion. Same thing with landing from a jump. The purpose of this is to absorb shock. If the feet are too rigid, there is no way to absorb and distribute the weight so even simple movements will be super hard on the joints.
In conclusion, what you should keep in mind when training adaptable ankles, is being able to access all ranges of motion of the ankle joint, whether you need proper alignment in dance to everyday motion of walking and running the ankle needs to be adaptable. This can be achieved through education and awareness, and mindful training!
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2 Comments
This is really good information! I think the awareness of what is going on with my ankles will really help my movement. Thanks for the great post.
Thanks! Yes, awareness is key, the brain is very interested in what is going on!