Straight Knees?
Dancing Smart Newsletter
September 23, 2005
Announcements
I'm traveling to the Dallas/Fort Worth area today for the privilege of working with the dance department at TCU, teaching a "Working Body" course. It's always a pleasure to work intensively with a group of young dancers (Freshman in college) and helping to give them a good start to their college training!
Count down! Only 7 more days until the specials are pulled! Check them out on the website!
Question of the Week
Two similar questions…
My daughter is nine years old and has been taking ballet for 5 years now. Recently her teachers have been telling her to straighten her leg - some of them push down on her kneecaps because they think her leg isn't straight. When she does arabesque often her leg looks "bent" but she swears her leg is as straight as she can make it.
I'm wondering what causes that? Is it anatomical? Is it a bad thing for a dancer to have something like that and will things change as she gets older?
Thank you,
Kandi
**************************
I am a 14 dancer with hyperflexed knees, meaning they don't straighten completely. I have been told multiple times that this problem has come for having tight hamstrings and calf muscles, but I am fairly flexible in these areas. I've even tried stretching behind my knees, but this has only helped a bit. One of my teachers believes the problem is actually tightness in the sartorius muscle. What is your opinion on the matter and if possible, could you give me some exercises to help straighten my knees?
Thanks,
Bridget
Deb's Answer
It is unusual to find dancers (or for that matter, nondancers) whose knees won't straighten all the way. I do see a fair amount of elderly patients who walk with their knees slightly bent because of arthritic changes and their inability to straighten their legs without great pain. Certainly this would not be the case with young dancers!
Let's start looking at the pieces of this puzzle by having the dancers lie down on their backs, feet and legs relaxed and in a straight line underneath their hips. This is essentially their standing alignment, but lying down. Look at the relationship of the knee to the ankle and hip joint. Is it in line, or is the knee flexed with lots of space under it? Realize that there will be some space behind the knee, unless you are hyperextended and lift your heels off the ground as your knee presses into the floor.
Is it possible that these dancers might have the knobby knee look? I clearly remember a young dancer who was frantically trying to straighten her knees – which were already straight – but because she was thin, and had knobby knees, it looked as if her knees were bent just because they protruded forward.
Now a 9-year-old dancer could be growing through growth spurts and it is possible that her hamstrings or gastrocnemius (calf muscle) is temporarily shortened compared to faster growth of the bones. If so, I would have her do more consistent stretching, holding it for at least 30 seconds to 1 minute, and see if she feels any change over a few weeks. Bending the knees in an arabesque is not a normal place where a tight hamstring or calf muscles shows up as they are not lengthening in the arabesque, rather the quadriceps and hip flexors would be lengthening. I'm venturing a guess here, that if she doesn't have super turnout that the knee looks like it is bent, simply because the leg is not turned out as much as is ideal. No matter what – I would not allow anyone to 'push' her knees down.
Jumping to the 14- year-old dancer who feels flexible in her hamstrings and calf muscles, there is something else to check out. I don't think the sartorius would influence the knee in standing by bending it, more often you'll get a hip twist with a tight sartorius muscle. That muscle flexes, rotates and takes the knee out to the side. I do see dancers who incorrectly work the sartorius by pulling their knees out to the side as they plié, but I haven't run across anyone who stands with a bent leg because of a tight sartorius. Which isn't to say that it can't be a possibility, just that I haven't seen it. The answer to that is to stretch the sartorius and see if it makes a difference!
There is an outside possibility that the soleus muscle could be weak. That is a calf muscle that is underneath the main gastrocnemius muscle. It crosses the ankle joint and works strongly in a bent leg relevé. You'll see weakness in this muscle when you ask a student to roll slowly through the foot to relevé, or have trouble landing softly from a relevé or jump. A weak soleus will create a posture where the knee is slightly bent, and the ankles are slightly flexed in standing, bringing the weight of the body more forward on the foot.
If you do have a weak soleus you could do ankle circles and pointing and flexing with your foot in a theraband – but with your knee bent. You could also go into a very slight demi plié and slowly rise towards relevé. See if you can do 10 single leg relevés in this fashion. Single leg relevés are a great strengthener!
More often, though, it has been my experience that the genetic shape of the leg is driving the corrections to straighten your legs in standing, rather than weakness or tightness of the leg muscles. When in doubt, stretch the hamstrings and calf muscles, and check for potential weakness of the soleus muscle.
Hope that helps!
Warmest regards,
Deborah