The ideal ballet dancer.

Desirable physical characteristics for a ballet dancer include long arms and legs, a long neck, and a comparatively short torso. The ideal body for ballet is flexible, slim, and strong. Dancers cannot change their body proportions, but they can develop most other desirable physical features by proper training. Every great dancer began with a less than perfect body for ballet.

Ideal dancers also have certain mental characteristics. They have a feeling for rhythm and an understanding of music. They are aware of the relationships between objects in space so that they can move exactly in any direction on the stage. Like good actors, they can express a mood and make a character believable. Above all, they love ballet and dedicate themselves to it completely. Otherwise, they could not train their bodies to move beautifully and expressively in unnatural ways.

Some ballet schools do not accept beginners whose physical and mental characteristics differ too much from those of the ideal dancer. Most of these schools are operated by ballet companies, which train students for work in their organizations. The schools give children a complete physical examination to make sure nothing is seriously wrong with their bodies. Most of them also test the beginners' feeling for rhythm and space relationships. Expressive abilities are harder to discover.

The professional ballet dancer's ideal body is identified by the following:

· Proper proportions - Small head, long neck, shortened torso, long, thin, lean (not emaciated) and attractive legs. Less acceptable aesthetically is long torso, short legs, big buttocks, swayback, round shoulders, spinal curves, big heads and a short neck.

· Loose joints - This could be a matter of genetics or training, either way it is important for the dancer to have enough strength to control motion.

· Turnout of the leg - This is the cornerstone of classical ballet. The turnout begins at the hip and moves down to the knee, tibia, ankle then foot. If hip motion is limited then turnout comes from the floor up. This is more stressful to the knee and other parts of the leg and increases the risk of injury. The ideal dancer is "duck footed" (toes point outward) which is caused by femoral retroversion (leg is naturally angled outward) or anterior capsule stretching (extending flexibility through stretching). Hip version (ability to rotate at the hip) is probably genetically determined and set by age eleven. If it can be changed training needs to begin before this age.

· Slight knee hyperextension - When leg is straight the knee is bent slightly backward. This produces more visually pleasing "S" line of the leg on pointe. It also moves the center of gravity above the knee which gives the dancer's torso and upper body a forward and upward appearance. The dancer must have strength and proper technique to control the knee and avoid injury.

· Genu Varum (bowlegged) - Bowleggedness (riding a horse) is favored for the ballet dancer for both practical and visual reasons. External tibial torsion (outward rotation of the lower leg) is favorable in that it can increase turnout of the leg.

· Adequate plantar flexion of the ankle and foot - A dancer must be able to flex the foot far enough forward to be vertical from knee to toe while on pointe.

· Foot shape - The best foot shape for a dancer is broad and square. This allows forces to be shared by all the metatarsal (foot bones). The first toe must flex 80 to 90 degrees to allow a full releve (from tip of toe to flat foot) and from pointe (standing on toe tip) to demi-pointe (half toe). This flexibility usually results from dancing while the musculoskeletal system is forming.