Dance Anatomy & Kinesiology

206 Dance Anatomy and Kinesiology

thigh as the knee is extended (figure 4.38C) can be

useful. To help build necessary strength to eventually

be able to achieve this height without use of the hand,

similar procedures to those described for standing

front développés can be used. For example, the hand

can be used to help lift the leg with the knee bent as

shown in figure 4.38C, and then the hand is slowly

released as the position is maintained for 4 counts.

As strength improves, this exercise can be progressed

to extending the knee after the hand is released. The

focus should be on using the DOR to maintain the

turnout at the hip and the iliopsoas to maintain the

height of the knee, and only extending the knee as

far as possible without letting the knee drop in height

or without undue sense of muscle strain at the hip.

Rotator disks can also be added to focus on use of the

DOR to maintain turnout on the support leg while

developing height of the gesture leg.

In addition to the specific desired active contrac-

tion of prime movers, passive constraints offered by

antagonist muscles also influence how high the leg can

be brought to the side. Because the stretch across the

hip is not as direct for the hamstrings when the leg is

to the side versus front, the hamstrings will generally

not limit range as soon but still are critical in determin-

ing how high the leg can be raised. The hip adductors

also are critical in determining how far to the side and

high the leg can be brought. So, if adequate range is

FIGURE 4.37 Side développé. (A) With hip excessively lifted, (B) more desired hip placement with trochanter close to

sitz bones on dancer and (C) on skeleton.

A

C

B