Sinking Arches
Dancing Smart Newsletter
January 6, 2006
Announcements
Happy New Year! Can't wait to jump right into the first newsletter of 2006! For those of you who didn't receive the survey link from last week please go to http://www.thebodyseries.com/survey/ . All the Comcast.net subscribers were blocked from getting the last 2 newsletters, but the glitch with the servers has been fixed. I have really appreciated the comments and suggestions and will continue to digest them over the next few weeks.
I want to clarify that I will continue to offer the newsletter as a free service. The only change is that they will arrive every other week, rather than weekly. The different options in the survey that I wanted your opinion on would be totally separate from the newsletter. The workshop option that I suggested would be in different regions of the country, not just in NY or my home state of Ohio. Hearing about what you are looking for is very helpful for helping to design the format of possible workshops, or anatomy/technique articles.
Again, I appreciate you taking the time to comment and make suggestions. I'll be keeping the survey up for a couple more weeks - but whenever you have a suggestion or comment you'd like to share you can send it to me at DeborahVogel@thebodyseries.com or click on the askDeb button on the website and it will find me!
Question of the Week
Onto the question of the week from Charlotte..
I have been en pointe for the past 3 years and at first I experienced no problems at all but after a year or so I started to feel as if I was sinking into my shoes while I was en pointe. My teacher tried everything from getting me to pull up more to correcting each part of me, but nothing worked. It feels as though I am screwing up my toes inside the shoe and can't do anything to straighten them out no matter how carefully I roll up through my feet. I went back to the shop to have a new pair of shoes fitted and changed to a harder shoe with a full back rather than the three quarter back (from Gamba 97 to Gamba 93) which worked at first - then that wore off as the shoes got softer. I stuck with the same brand and tried different types (full back, three quarter back in various strengths) and nothing seemed to work. At my last fitting I was changed to a Bloch shoe, which is harder than the Gamba and seemed at first to suit me perfectly as my Gambas had first done. They had wings too which really made a difference but since the shoes have gone softer I'm sinking again and its really getting to me. Also I have been told to get my feet checked for fallen arches since I get a cramp like pain in my arches when I'm en point or pointing my foot. I used to have high arches but they do seem to have gone less arched. Do you think this could be contributing to my "sinking" problem?
Charlotte
Deb's Answer
Pronating your feet could be a reason that your feet are cramping when you're pointing your foot. Pronation, which often happens when dancers are turning out more with their feet than at their hips, ultimately weakens the arch muscles of the feet and that's why they cramp when you work them. The fact that you feel like your high arches have gotten lower leads me to believe that you may be pronating.
The golden rule with feet is that you stand evenly on the three points of the feet. Those are the pads of the big toe, little toe and heel. When you are standing in first position the tendon that runs down the front of your ankle shouldn't be engaged either. When standing you should have even weight between the front and back of the foot with no strain at the ankle.
I'd encourage you to practice pointing your foot in bare feet so you can watch your toes. Try sitting on a chair and extending one leg in front of you. It will be in parallel. First you extend the ankle, and then slowly separate the toes, keeping them straight and long as you begin to point. You may not be able to get to your full regular pointe. That's okay. I want you to break the habit of crunching the toes under as you pointe your foot. Don't be surprised if your arch muscles cramp while doing this. Good! You've found the muscles you need to strengthen. Simply reach down and hold then massage your foot gently until the cramping is gone, and try again.
The second suggestion I have is what I think your teacher was trying to get you to do, and that is to 'pull up'. Let's describe it a different way, though, and that is the idea that everything holds its own weight. Your pelvis is not allowed to sink into your legs. Personally, I love the image of having a bungee harness around my pelvis that is lifting the weight of my pelvis upwards while my legs hang down towards the ground.
It is amazing how often we sink into one hip, or slouch into our lower backs and slump. I just finished teaching a Body Reeducation and Alignment course in December where we would periodically walk around the studio in a casual fashion, and then walk with an image such as the pelvic harness that I just described. Sometimes the students imagined keeping the pelvic bowl with water in place of their organs upright, not allowing anything to spill out the front of the abdomen. When I would tell them to walk normally, everyone got shorter! When they went back to their elongated, position of power, they were taller. It was amazing to see the whole room shift!
Charlotte, I would encourage you to notice whether you might be slumping or dropping into your pelvis. It's not your knees or quads that will pull you up and out of your feet, but your pelvis staying lifted and holding it's own weight, which allows the weight of the body to easily be transferred through to the legs, and ultimately, the floor.
Maintaining that core control, while working on pointe is challenging. Start by working on this anatomically efficient alignment pattern in your daily movement. Pilates training can be very useful for reinforcing the pattern of stretch and support from the pelvic/abdominal region and freedom in the extremities. I'm particularly fond of work on the reformer or with theraband for this. (I have a dear friend, Anneliese Burns who is working on a DVD using theraband at the barre that I can't wait to tell everyone about as soon as it's done!)
As you improve the strength of the arch muscles and the lift of your pelvis, it will improve your pointe work, no matter what brand of shoes you wear. I look forward to hearing how your pointe work is progressing after a few months of focused attention on these areas.
On with the dance!
Deborah
"Education is the key to injury prevention"
Have a Question?
Email your questions to Deb at AskDeb@thebodyseries.com or visit her online at http://www.thebodyseries.com.
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Deborah Vogel is a dancer, author, and master teacher who conducts workshops across the U.S. for both student and professional dancers. Her numerous articles on dance technique and injury prevention have appeared in Dance Spirit and Dance Teacher magazines. She is the Director of the Institute for Performance Studies and a faculty member at Oberlin College and the OC Conservatory of Music. During her years in NYC she co- founded the Center for Dance Medicine. Deborah makes her home in Oberlin, Ohio.
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