The Biomechanics of Salsa Dancing - From the Hips Down
Salsa dancing is a very specific niche in the dancing community - one that I belong to and grew up in. As a PT, the biomechanics of this particular style of dance fascinate me because when it comes to analyzing the movement, it is very different from what we assume a dance PT sees in the clinic.
Starting from the bottom up, the part of the foot that is in contact with the floor is mostly the balls of the feet. This means the normal foot alignment is heels lifted with toes extended back. This foot position places a dancer’s calves in a shorten position and in a state of constant contraction. This is where it would end if you are dancing on flat shoes. However, for the people who prefer to wear heels, you are looking at anywhere from 2.5 in. to 4 in. heels. Our poor calves and soles of our feet!! There were many times I left with sore soreness and pain after a night of social dancing. This position also does not afford much stability while dancing - more on that in another post!
Moving up the body, the knees are slightly bent. Combining this with the position of the ankle, and you have a biomechanically even more shortened calf muscle!!! Now, while social dancing was never meant to include jumps (and still doesn’t), the current shift to the stage calls for many of the feats you see in ballet, gymnastics, and acrobatics. The dancer that wears heel is usually required to jump. From a length-tension relationship, the dancer already starts with shortened calf muscle from the footwear. This is compounded by the position of the knees, which doesn’t allow the dancer to take full advantage of the power of the calf muscle - a muscle made for jumping!!! This is one of the major differences from ballet and modern because in those dances, for the most part, the ankle can go through the whole range of motion - flat to on pointe. Therefore, salsa dancers the have to compensate through recruitment of other muscles. Which muscles? Mostly the quad muscles and a little of the glutes, based on the position of the legs. Oh hello possible front knee pain!!
Next up are the position of the hips, which are also slightly bent, placing the hip flexors (quad and iliopsoas) in a shorten position. (Tight front hips or labral tears anyone?!) Moreover, this is where this analysis becomes a bit involved. In salsa dancing, when a step is taken, the knees go into a more or less bent position, depending on the length of the step and which step you are performing. Full knee extension is not seen in the basic step. Since the style of dance is one that does not bob up and down on every step, the vertical displacement of the knees needs to be absorbed and displaced elsewhere, and that ends up being in the hip and lower spine. There is a constant and repetitive motion being executed as a standard in this particular style of dance’s basic step.
This basic analysis of only the lower extremity of a salsa basic is from many years of dancing, teaching, and observing. I offer only a fleeting glimpse into the biomechanics in this particular subset of dancers in a very narrow point of time during a dance. This article, in no way, scratches the surface of what many salsa dancers both recreationally or professionally put their body through when salsa dancing. My hope with this blog is to educate salsa dancers and help prevent injury by teaching some simple exercises that can undo some of the stress this particular dance puts on a human body. And if you ever need someone to analyze your dancing and help you figure out why something hurts while salsa dancing - contact me - I’d love to help!
