Biomechanical Effects of Flamenco Footwork

Abstract

Footwork is one of the basic features of flamenco dancing and is performed in traditional high-heeled shoes. The purpose of this study was to analyse the mechanical profile of flamenco dancing in terms of vertical ground reaction force, and knee joint kinematics of the supporting limb in footwork technique in order to understand causes which predispose injuries derived from the practice of flamenco dancing. The participant in our study was a professional female flamenco dancer (34 years, 58 kg, 1.65 m) who performed the ZAP 3 test, a sequence of single strikes of the feet performed continuously for 15 s. 3D lower extremity kinematic data were collected using a five-camera motion analysis system (Vicon; Oxford Metrics Ltd., Oxford, UK). Ground reaction forces were recorded using a Kistler force plate. Our analysis was based on 30 cycles of each lower limb consisting of 177 footwork steps. The vertical component of the ground reaction force did not reveal any significant differences between the left and the right limb. The most dynamic strike was provided by the heel (twice the participant's body weight). The mean angular displacement of the supporting limb’s knee was ~27°. Results reveal that these impacts could make the knee joint more prone to injuries.

External Load of Flamenco Zap-3 Footwork Test: Use of PlayerLoad Concept with Triaxial Accelerometry

“…These are practices that are currently observed in sports with high injury incidence. One of the main contributions of this biomechanical study was the involvement of six professional flamenco dancers, while a previous study analyzed the case of professional flamenco dancers with only one participant, as a case study [13,15,36]. The second contribution was the comparison between the professional and amateur groups, which allowed the assessment of the association between technical progression and biomechanical variables.…”

“…Therefore, practicing the required footwork in flamenco may cause chronic repetitive pain and injuries of the feet, knees and spine, mainly at the lumbar and cervical levels [4,[7][8][9][10][11][12]. Previous studies regarding flamenco's technical movements have focused on analyzing them from the perspective of electromyography, kinematics and epidemiology [9,[13][14][15]. However, questionnaires and labor-intensive methods were often used in these studies.…”

Step type is associated with loading and ankle motion in tap dance

“…Biomechanics have been studied in other styles of dance including ballet, modern, Irish, Flamenco, and Bharatanatyam, among others [23][24][25]. Irish dancers, for example, experience ground reaction forces of up to 4.5 times body weight when performing the rock step [6,26].…”

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“…About "physical" and "biomechanical" aspect as hotspots, there are some main reasons. Flamenco dance has its unique characteristics with strong emotion and the footwork technique (Baena-Chicón, Gómez-Lozano, Cano, & Vargas-Macías, 2021), which requires dancers strike the floor to make a loud and rhythm voice (Vargas-Macías et al, 2021). Therefore, dancers were usually required to have a high level of physical conditions (Forczek, Baena-Chicon, & Vargas-Macias, 2017), there is research indicate that the require is similar to those of elite sports (Pedersen, Wilmerding, Kuhn, & Enciñias-Sandoval, 2001).…”