Pointing, Flexing & Intrinsic Muscles

I think that a ballerina’s feet are possibly the most talked about part of the body in class…well after the bottom the tummy! This week I have been taking a deeper look into the muscle composition of the foot to develop my understanding of how to help dancers create a beautiful demi pointe alignment.

Did you know that feet have layers of muscle? The plantar of the foot has 4 layers of intrinsic muscle in total. For dancers, perhaps the most important layer is layer number one. In layer one are the intrinsic muscles which are most superficial to the sole. They include:

1.       Flexor digitorium brevis- Supports plantar flexion of the toes and stables the longitudinal arch of the foot. Plantar flexion allows us to pointe our toes!

2.       Abductor hallucis- Supports abduction and flexion of the big toe.

3.       Abductor digiti minimi- Supports abduction and flexion of the little toe.

On top of plantar layer 1, are 3 other layers of plantar intrinsic muscle plus one dorsal layer. The dorsal layer is also important to dancers because this includes the extensor digitorium brevis. The extensor digitorium brevis helps to extend the toes flexing them upwards… this action is needed for any movement completed on demi pointe: rises, relevé and grand plié in 1st to name a few!

 As you can see the layers in our feet are mega useful in every ballet class. Feet may be smelly and get bad stigma but boy do they work hard for us dancers!