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Dance is an art, formed through body language, communication, and expression that becomes a possibility for the establishment and development of motor skills, with specialized aesthetic and artistic qualities, feelings, and ideas (Trevisan &Schwartz, 2012). Classical ballet is one of the most complex dancing styles, requiring specific skills which are dependent on the development of strength, flexibility, and resistance (Misigoj-Durakovic et al., 2001). The complexity is enlarged by the necessity of performing all movements in the en dehors position (Santos, 2017).
The en dehors, or hip external rotation (HER), is required in the majority of classical ballet movements (Aquino et al., 2010). The five basic initial positions in classical ballet are based on the en dehors (Sutton-Traina et al., 2015) (Figure 1), in addition, jumps, pirouettes or balance are also performed in the en dehors, despite the support of one or two feet (Bennel et al., 1999; Lin et al., 2011).
Figure 1. En dehors and feet position Source: Bárbara Pessali-Marques personal arquive
The en dehors is a posture in which the dancer performs an external rotation of the hips, whilst positioning the feet 180º from each other (Aquino et al., 2010; Bennel et al., 1999; Bennel et al., 2001; Hamilton et al., 2006; Sutton-Traina et al., 2015). Due to this position, the degree of HER is considered an important physical demand for ballet dancers, and a requirement for dancers who aspires professionalization. The literature concerning the capacity of performing the en dehors, however, is scarce.