Assessment of Foot In Female Kathak Dancers

Abstract

Background: Kathak is the art of storytelling and conveying it to the audience in a different way. Now a days kathak is spreading worldwide, and people are learning and chasing the challenges at top level for this the kathak dancers are focusing more and more over the riyaz followed by intense practice. Tatkar is an important component of this dance form which is performed by foot of dancer, commonly called as footwork. The population increasingly demand the repetitive rhythmic movements at ankle joint and to maintain the ankle stability there is requirement of heavy muscle work. This study examines postural deviations in the foot of female kathak dancers. Methods: The design was quantitative descriptive study utilizing Self Made Questionnaire developed specially for the research and foot posture index scale with the navicular drop test. The questionnaire contained questions related years of practice and frequency of practice with the pain associated to lower limb. Results: Percentage of people with normal and supinated conditions for both right and left feet across the different variables. It's notable that the categories for Pronated, Highly Pronated, and Highly Supinated feet were not observed in the datasets. Conclusion: In the present study it is found out that about 80% of total population have no postural changes found out in the foot the reason behind that can be the regular warm up cool down sessions, stretching and much more postural awareness. To avoid the foot problems and postural deviation now a days institutes are taking great warm up and cool down sessions with stretching for at least 1 hour and then startup with the forceful riyaz. Further research is warranted to make standardized warm up and cool down protocols for kathak dancers. KEYWORDS: Tatkar, kathak, Riyaz, Postural changes, footwork.