Physical Demands Of A Single Ballet Exercise In Adolescent Female Dancers

Abstract

Classical ballet is one of the most ancient, performed and standardized system of dance. In spite of its long history and high diffusion, only limited studies give us information on the physiological aspects of ballet dance exercise. Purpose The purpose of this study was to compare the energy cost and the energy sources of the same ballet dance exercise performed by two different groups of dancers. Methods Two groups of adolescent female dancers ranging from 13–16 years of age performed a ballet dance exercise (210 seconds of “grand adage”). Subjects had different ballet practice: twelve advanced dancers (Group A: VO2max 46.2 ± 2.1 ml.kg−1·min−1) were training at least 10 h per week, while thirteen beginner dancers (Group B: VO2max 38.1 ± 1.9 ml.kg−1·min−1) were training on average of 4 h per week. Oxygen consumption (VO2) was measured by a telemetric system (K4 b2 COSMED system) before, during and after the dance exercise. The blood lactic acid concentration was measured at rest and at 3, 6, 10 minutes of the recovery phase. The overall energy requirement of dance exercise (VO2eq) was obtained by adding the amount of VO2 during exercise above resting (aerobic source: VO2ex) to the VO2 up to the fast component of recovery (anaerobic alactic source: VO2al) and to the energy equivalent of peak blood lactate accumulation (lactic source: VO2la) of recovery. Results Energy cost (VO2eq) of exercise performed by advanced dancers was 107 ± 4 ml.kg−1. The higher fraction of VO2eq was represented by VO2ex (65%). The remaining energy requirement (35%) was made up of VO2al (31%) and VO2la (4%). Energy cost (VO2eq) of exercise performed by beginner dancers was 106 ± 5 ml.kg−1. Fractions of aerobic, anaerobic alactic, and lactic energy sources were 50%, 41%, and 9% respectively. Between groups, significant differences (p<0.01) in VO2ex, VO2al and VO2la were found. Conclusions The overall energy cost of dance exercise performed by advanced and beginner dancers was similar. However, metabolic power requirement represented the 66% and 80% of VO2max for advanced and beginner dancers respectively. Moreover, the percent of energy source contribution was significantly different between groups. The utilization of aerobic energy source prevailed considerably in advanced dancers (group A). The aerobic energy source, was the most utilized also in group B, but the contribution of anaerobic alactic source was rather high. Only a limited contribution was offered by anaerobic lactic energy source in both groups.