Dance Anatomy & Kinesiology

The Skeletal System and Its Movements 21

knee would allow the motion of bending the knee

(knee flexion) in a sagittal plane such as used in a

first-position parallel plié. Examples of dance move-

ments occurring primarily in sagittal (L. sagitta, an

arrow, in the line of an arrow shot from a bow; e.g.,

in an anteroposterior direction) planes are a parallel

brush (dégagé) to the front; torso “contractions”;

raising the arm from a position down by the side,

forward, to an overhead position (shoulder flex-

ion); a forward roll; a forward leap; and performing

a triplet moving forward. These can be thought of

as movements of body segments (an example for the

torso is provided in figure 1.11A) or the whole body

in primarily a forward and backward direction.

• Anteroposterior axis (sagittal axis). An antero-
  posterior (AP) axis runs in a front-to-back direction
  in a sagittal plane, perpendicular to a frontal plane
  and allowing motion in a frontal plane. For example,
  the AP axis running through the shoulder allows the
  movement of raising the arm to the side (shoulder
  abduction) in a frontal plane. Examples of dance
  movements occurring primarily in a frontal plane

are a parallel brush (dégagé) to the side, a lateral

bend of the torso (figure 1.11B), a jumping jack, a

cartwheel, and a Russian split. These can be thought

of as movements of body segments or the whole body

in a side-to-side or lateral direction.

• Vertical axis (longitudinal axis). A vertical axis
  runs in a superior-inferior direction, perpendicular
  to a horizontal plane and allowing motion in a hori-
  zontal plane. For example, the vertical axis running
  through the spine (from top to bottom) allows the
  movement of trunk rotation in the horizontal plane.
  Examples of dance movements occurring primarily
  in horizontal planes are a torso twist (figure 1.11C),
  turnout (hip external rotation), a turn (pirouette),
  and a turning jump. These can be thought of as
  movements of body segments or the whole body in
  a twisting or turning manner.

Students new to anatomical terminology often do

well at picturing these planes relative to anatomical

position as shown in figure 1.9, but have difficulty under-

standing how these planes correlate with functional

TABLE 1.7 Basic Anatomical Axes

Name Definition

Plane

of motion

Movement example

(axis running through hip joint)

Mediolateral (ML) Passes through body from side to side Sagittal Parallel dégagé (front)

Anteroposterior (AP) Passes through body from front to back Frontal Parallel dégagé (side)

Vertical Passes through body from top to bottom Horizontal Turning out while standing in first

position

FIGURE 1.11 Dance vocabulary showing movement of the trunk in the (A) sagittal, (B) frontal, and (C) horizontal plane.

A B C

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