(D-146) Heels up vs. heels down: landing style of small ballet jumps impact kinetic measures

Introduction:: The number of professional ballet dancers in the United States is estimated to surpass 30,000.¹ In ballet, jumps often lead to common leg and foot injuries due to the landing impact. Among the various jumps practiced in ballet training, the petit allegro (small jumps) includes sautés (jumping upward without changing the feet) and changements (jumping upward while changing the feet). While several studies have investigated the mechanics and dynamics of jumping in ballet,^2-4 the specific impact of different landing styles remains unexplored. The objective of this study is to compare two techniques of sauté jumps in ballet: one involves landing with raised heels, following the Balanchine pedagogy, while the other involves landing with heels down, as advocated by several other ballet studios. We hypothesize that landing a more traditional way (heels down) will increase the relative time on the ground, decreasing jump height, and decreasing vertical landing impulse.


Materials and Methods:: Fifteen dancers from the Oregon Ballet Theater’s summer intensive (age 13-20 yrs, height 1.65 ± 0.06 m, training 11 ± 4 years, body mass 57.2 ± 7.7 kg) participated in this study. The University’s Institutional Review Board approved the research, and all participants provided written consent. Each dancer performed 16 sauté jumps to music on a dance floor, with their right foot on a 3-axis force plate (Bertec Corporation, Columbus OH). The dance floor had a wooden subfloor topped with EVA foam, polypropylene tiles, and Marley dance flooring. Each trial alternated between two styles: heels up (HU) and heels down (HD). Force plate data was filtered using a 4^th order Butterworth low-pass filter with a 50 Hz cutoff frequency in MATLAB. Dependent measures included time in air (s), time on force plate (s), maximum vertical ground reaction force (GRF) normalized to body weight (N/BW), impulse normalized to body weight (N·s/BW), and jump height (cm). A one-way ANOVA in JMP 16.0 Pro compared jump styles, with significance set at p< 0.05.


Results, Conclusions, and Discussions:: Significant differences were observed between jumping with heels up (HU) and heels down (HD) for all measured variables (Table 1). Jumping with heels down resulted in a longer time in the air and higher peak vertical ground reaction force (GRF), impulse, and jump height. Most participants (14 of 15) were trained in the more traditional HD style. Within subjects, while the majority (n=12) exhibited higher peak vertical GRF when jumping with HD, only eight had higher jump heights with HD and seven had higher jump heights with HU. The mean jump height difference between HU and HD was 0.60 cm for those who jumped higher with HU and 1.76 cm for those who jumped higher with HD. The prescribed tempo for jumps may have minimized inherent dancing style differences. Peak vertical GRF were similar to experienced dancers who completed 10 sautés in second position.³


While all measures were statistically significant, the differences across groups were minimal and may not be meaningfully different. Subsequent studies should explore older dancers with a larger background in the Balanchine pedagogy to delve into these patterns further and incorporate kinematic analysis.


Acknowledgements (Optional): : Funding provided by Shiley Grant for Faculty Research and Development.




References (Optional): : 1. Weiss DS. J Dance Med Sci. 2008;12(2):41-6.

2. Abergel RE. J. Sports Sci. 2021;39(9):1021-9.

3. Jeon D. J Dance Educ. 2021;12:1-6.

4. Smith J. Internet J Allied Health Sci Pract. 2021;19(4):5.