Unilateral jump behavior in young professional female ballet dancers.

In the field of dance, lateral body actions should be differently influenced by training. Classes should develop symmetrical jump behavior by the alternate working of the two body sides. In contrast, asymmetrical training effect linked to hemispheric laterality should be also expected. Indeed, for aesthetic reasons, the preferred led has to give the jump direction while the other leg has to carry out the impulsion during take-off. In addition, and for functional reasons, the preferred leg also has to ensure a soft landing and to avoid imbalance upon landing. To address the question, we studied ten professional right-footed female ballet dancers in a unilateral experimental task: the maximal vertical jump (MVJ). The MVJ height was compared for each leg in ten trials. In addition, the side of the leg usually involved in a choreographic bilateral task was determined. All these right-footed dancers selected their left leg as the impulsion leg for the choreographic jump so as to reserve the right leg for the expression of the artistic gesture linked to emotional laterality. However, ANOVA did not show differences between the right and left legs in MVJ. In these young ballerinas, jump actions of the two body sides seem to develop symmetrically by class training effects.