Expert: Dianne M. Buxton - 10/31/2007

Question
I've been dancing for about 8 years now, but not until about 2 years ago did I notice my horribly inflexible ankles.  My ballet teacher in high school has tried stretching them and was amazed that they really wouldn't budge. My releve is terrible, and I don't know how to impove it.  My toes are flexible, but my ankle is really stiff.  We've been doing a floor exercise in modern where we do a forced-arch into a releve and back down, and then releve, forced arch back down (with our bodies curving forward and then arching backward).  I basically can't do a forced arch with how bad they are.  I don't have trouble doing things across the floor or doing warm-ups but I'm really frustrated with my ankles, and nothing seems to help.  What should I do? I don't want to quit dance because of this.

Answer
Hi Gissel. The actual structure of your foot bones may have more to do with the degree of flexibility you have than the muscles that are involved.

If you stretch and relax the anterior tibial muscles (Shins) and the muscles that go down the top of your foot, you may get some more flexibility, as much as the structure will allow.

One way to do this (I got this from Deborah Vogel's article) is to get a small soft rubber ball. Kneel on the floor, and put the ball under the knee end of your shin muscle. Put a little pressure onto the shin muscle, and the ball will work on the muscle, and tension will be released. If there are tender spots, that's where you are holding tension. Just work the ball gently all the way down the shin to the ankle.

Then, place the ball under the center area of the foot just above the metatarsal joints. A little pressure here will stretch the muscle on top of the arch area.

Relaxation is important to muscle tone. Relaxing the tibial muscles before and after class will increase their length, and give more flexibility to the ankle joints.

Unfortunately, dance techniques assume there will be a certain amount of flexibility. Please let me know if you feel any difference after stretching/relaxing those muscles for a couple of weeks. I would also do the stretches twice a day at least, on days when you don't dance. Just daily walking and general movement tighten them up.

All the best, Dianne

A brief follow up - I've recommended to almost everyone to read my articles and blog entries at http://www.theballetstore.com You have to create a user name to log in to see all the blog entries - your privacy is safe! I really apologize that I didn't tell you this - I'm not a technical person!