Why Not to Lift Your Arches
Written by Becca Sigmund
I used to think that I had the shortest Achilles tendon of all my peers because I had the smallest plié. No amount of stretching ever felt like it would increase my plié, it just felt stuck. It was not until recently that I discovered I had the potential for a much greater plié if I relaxed my arches. Dancers should stand in each position with their arches lifted, however, one should not have to think about lifting their arches if their turnout muscles are properly engaged. When executing a plié or landing from a jump, training the feet and ankles to lift the arches can cause a multitude of issues in the lower legs. Instead, the focus should move from lifting the arches, to thinking about placement and turnout of the hips.
Our bodies have a natural connection between external rotation and lifted arches. If you are standing in parallel and you twist your hips to the right, you will notice that the left leg turns in with the foot flat on the floor. The foot naturally pronates causing the arch to drop. The right leg will turn out and the foot will supinate resulting in a lifted arch. Dancers often drop their arches because they are losing control of their deep rotators at the hip. If you have a student that has poor control of their turnout in center, check that their standing leg is rotated and does not move during exercises like degagés and rond de jambes, to make certain they are holding their turnout. This will ensure they are not just lifting through their arches giving the appearance of rotated legs from their feet.
When a dancer has been training for years to lift their arches and has poor control of their turnout in center, assess whether the student is over-engaging the gluteus medius muscles (image 3.1). The primary function of these muscles is to abduct the thigh and internally rotate. Engaging internal rotators such as these while trying to externally rotate will not be successful and can cause unnecessary tension in the hips. The upper gluteal muscles, gluteus medius, should instead stay relaxed and the dancer should feel their femur or thigh rotate from the top of the leg, using the quadratus femoris (image 3.2). The student can tell that their quadratus femoris is engaged by placing their hand at the lower part of their glute, just above the hamstrings. This area will get firmer when the quadratus femoris is engaged. This engagement will ensure the dancer is holding their true turnout muscles and will result in the desired lift of the arches.
Image 3.1
Image 3.2
Our bodies natural biomechanics are designed to protect us from injury. In addition to there being a connection between the hip and the foot when standing, there is also a connection in a plié. When executing a plié, or even just a simple bend of the leg, the arch should naturally flatten slightly resulting in slight pronation of the foot when compared to standing. When we are lifting our arches, our talus bone moves anteriorly towards the toes. If we execute a plié while the talus is in an anterior position (or with our arches lifted), it could create compression between the tibia and talus, blocking the plié and resulting in possible injury. The muscular engagement also changes when over lifting the arches. As a result, you may see an increase in shin splints and pain through the outer leg muscles, the peroneals, as the dancer may engage these muscles to attempt to get deeper into their plié.
Image 3.3
Image 3.4
When lifting the arches for a prolonged period, injuries can also occur to the back of the ankle. If the plié is shortened by the front of the ankle, the dancer will not feel the release and stretch through the calf muscles. In a basic demi demi grand plié combination a dancer does 32 demi pliés. In a full-length ballet class, there may be 300-500 pliés. This means that the dancer may be missing hundreds of opportunities to stretch their calves each day. Prolonged shortening of the calf muscles can pull on the Achilles tendon resulting in tendinopathy or tendonitis, and in extreme cases, injury to the growth plate of young dancers.
If you notice you or your students have trouble maintaining turnout in center or have injuries to the front or the back of the ankle, check the turnout in the supporting leg at barre and turnout in a plié. Ensure that students are lifting their arches by utilizing control of their deep rotators and this will help prevent unnecessary muscle engagement or potential injuries to the bones. With this, you will likely find your students accessing a deeper plié, easier relevé, and more control in center.
