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Preface
muscular systems. Similarly, kinesiology can be con-
sidered the science of human motion and tradition-
ally involves the study of the principles of anatomy
and mechanics in relation to human movement.
Even though the broader use of kinesiology includes
anatomical principles, anatomy is listed separately
in the title of this text because of the greater focus
given to anatomy than seen in some kinesiology
texts. Kinesiology is included in the title of this
text because of the more applied focus and inclu-
sion of aspects of mechanics that generally exceed
the scope of traditional anatomy texts. Mechanics
is a branch of physics concerned with energy and
forces and their effect on bodies and motion. When
mechanics is applied to the study of the anatomical
structure and function of living organisms, such as
human beings, it is called biomechanics. This text
selectively includes aspects of biomechanics that
relate to movements of joints, dance technique, and
injury prevention.Chapter Content
This book contains eight chapters. The first two chap-
ters provide a foundation for the rest of the text by
presenting anatomical and kinesiological concepts
and terminology that are particularly relevant for
dance and that are utilized in the remaining text.
Chapter 1 covers bones, joints, body orientation
terminology, and joint movement terminology.
Chapter 2 focuses on muscle structure, levers, types
of muscle contractions and their function in human
movement, and an approach to learning muscle
names and actions.
Chapters 3 through 7 deal with the various regions
of the body. The first of these chapters (chapter 3)
focuses on the spine because of its central structural
and functional role in movement. The next three
chapters (chapters 4 through 6) cover the lower
extremity, moving proximally to distally from the hip
to the knee and then to the ankle and foot. A single
chapter (chapter 7) covers the upper extremity. The
lower extremity is discussed first and in more detail
because of the preponderance of injury in this area,
the important use of the lower extremity for weight
bearing and force generation in many dance forms,
and the tendency to emphasize the spine and the
lower extremity in dance anatomy and kinesiology
courses due to time constraints.
Each of these five chapters addresses the pri-
mary bones, joints, muscles, alignment deviations,
and mechanics for the given region, with special
considerations for dance. Sample strength and flex-
ibility exercises are also presented. These exercisesDance is physically demanding and involves many
styles of movement. The vocabulary of dance
requires tremendous versatility, strength, range
of motion, balance, neuromuscular coordination,
and kinesthetic awareness. To measure a successful
performance is difficult. It is not simply a matter
of how high a dancer jumps or how fast a dancer
runs, but rather includes elusive qualities such as
expressiveness, movement connectivity and phras-
ing, aesthetic demands for specific body segment
positioning, dynamic versatility, and stage presence.
This is to say that the dancer is an artist as well as
a technician. However, the human body is still the
instrument of expression, and some basic anatomi-
cal and biomechanical principles apply to optimal
performance. Hence, this text has been written to
provide scientific information that dancers can use
to better understand their bodies and consequently
reduce injury risk while they enhance longevity and
performance.
This book emerged from the difficulty that I and
many colleagues had in finding a single text that
could be used to teach anatomy and kinesiology
classes for dancers. Many dancers are visual learners
and so often request texts that are rich in graphic
materials. However, there was also the desire for the
written material to be adequate in depth, as scientifi-
cally accurate as possible, and specific for dancers.
This text has been developed to meet these criteria
and to provide many practical exercises to allow danc-
ers to apply the material on their own bodies.
Scope, Structure,
and OrganizationThe focus of this book is dance movement, so
selected aspects of the broader disciplines of anatomy
and kinesiology that are most vital for developing an
understanding of dance movement are included.
For example, human anatomy is the science of the
structure of the human body and traditionally covers
all of the systems of the body. However, the scope of
this text is narrowed to cover just the skeletal and