Bow Legs
Dancing Smart Newsletter
June 10, 2005
Summer has arrived! It's the time for recitals, conventions, and summer workshops fordancers. I learned a hard lessonthis past month and that is not all conventions are on the up and up. American Dance Slam was scheduled thisweekend in Atlanta. It did nothappen, and many, many people are out their registration money and thedirector, Todd Fischer, has flown the coop. This has been a good reminder for me, to always check thepast history of an organization with the BBB before accepting a teachingoffer.
Later this summer I will be presenting at the Dance TeacherMagazine Convention, held this August in NYC. That is a wonderful opportunity for dancers and teachers tocome together to learn and share. The two workshops I'm presenting are Dancing Smart: Analyzing Turnout and Smart Teaching:Assessment tests for your students. This will be my third year at this convention and have had a wonderfultime each year. Hope I'llget to meet some of you in person at this convention!
One more reminder, shameless as it may be, is my Tune UpYour Turnout book is out and along with it, some special offers. One is buy any DVD and get Tune Up YourTurnout for $1! Go online towww.thebodyseries.com (newly designed) for more info.
Now onto the question of the week from Kristen
Is being bowlegged necessarily the same thing as externaltibial torsion? When reading your description of external tibial torsion, Ithought, "this is me!" My knees do not touch when I stand parallel,and when I plié in parallel, my knees will naturally move closer togetheruntilthey get in the way of each other. Having these "bow" shaped legs hasnot ever caused any pain for me, but I wonder what, if any, relationship my legshape has to my increasingly painful bunions. My feet also "wing" abit when I'm on pointe, causing me to wear out my pointe shoes in an unevenmanner (the shoe breaks down a lot near the big toe/bunion joint and stays hardtowards the pinky toe.) I have been dancing on pointe since I was thirteen. Iam now twenty-three, and while my bunions have never caused me to stop ballet,it does cause pain that I worry about. SO-the main question is: could externaltibial torsion cause/exacerbate bunions and/or winged feet on pointe? Mytheory is that I wing to balance out the odd shape of my legs (bowed outwards),which makes my bunions worse. If so,what can I do to help the bunion pain? No one seems to have any good advice forthis one (except Epsom salts)! Thanks so much for all your advice!
Excellent question! The medical term for bowlegs is genu varum. It is quite common for young children before they beginwalking to appear to be bowlegged. This corrects itself during the first year or so of walking.
When you are looking at the alignment of someone's legs, youare looking to see if the middle of the hip, knee and ankle are all in aline. This is neutral. When a person is bowlegged, the knee isoutside of the ankle and hip. Whena person is knock-kneed, their knees are inside of the ankle and hip.
Now remember from other newsletters talking abouthyperextension, if a dancer allows themselves to go into their fullhyperextension while standing the legs will look as if they are bowed. This is NOT a true bowleggedstructure. This ishyperextension. When a dancer istruly bowlegged and from the side has the hip, knee & ankle in alignment,from the front the legs will look bowed. They cannot 'correct' their bowlegged shape by bending or straighteningtheir knees. This type ofstructural shape to the legs definitely goes hand in hand with pronation andbunions. Why? Because if you have the foot followsthe line of the tibia while pointing, it will look as if you are sickling thefoot. This is why you wing yourfoot out. The weight naturallycomes over the big toe while in that winged position on pointe. I'm not sure that there is anything youcan do to change the placement of your foot, but I would encourage you tolengthen and lift through the ankles as well as the rest of the leg, so youdon't sit your weight even more into the big toe.
External tibial torsion also promotes pronation andpotential bunion creation. (Trysaying that sentence quickly 3 times in a row!) Can you be bowlegged and haveexternal tibial torsion? Yes,although that isn't a typical pattern that I've seen in my experience withdancers. I have seen externaltibial torsion develop in dancers with hyperextended knees, knock-knees, andnormally aligned legs.
Sit on a table, or high surface facing a mirror and seewhere your knee is aligned and the direction of where your foot hangs. On page 49 in Tune Up Your Turnout Ihave a good picture of this. Withthis dancer you will notice that she has more external tibial torsion on herright side.
Getting back to your question about how to care for yourbunions, now that you've got them. My first suggestion is to keep the intrinsic foot muscles in good shapein order to prevent your bunions from getting worse. Try keeping your toes separated as you move into yourpointe. (Most easily done in barefeet) You can practice doming your feet by lifting the base of the toes andyour arch up as you easily draw the toes towards your heel. This is another variation on pulling atowel with your toes, which I don't like as much because you can simply gripwith your toes and not utilize the intrinsic muscles as well. Rolling your foot on a pinkie ball atthe end of the day always feels good, along with the Epsom salt soak that is sohighly recommended. Sometimeswearing a bunion splint at night, which pulls the big toe into a betteralignment, can relieve some stress and strain temporarily. (try googling bunion splints) You wantto keep that toe joint as mobile as possible so using your hands to gentlytraction and move all the toes may be useful and certainly will feel good!
Have a great week!
Deborah