Trained Dancers Research Articles

Towards a critical pedagogy of global citizenship: Breaking the silence as a trained dancer in post-apartheid South Africa

AbstractThis article reveals a reflective journey of a dancer through unpacking two performances experienced over the course of two years. It examines and navigates ways of decolonizing oppressive dominance and investigating the ramifications of indoctrination in dance. It depicts how a trained dancer evolved and became more conscious by breaking the “culture of silence” and changed in becoming a more critical reflective dancer in a post-apartheid South Africa. This project aligns itself with global citizenship education (GCE) as it re/imagines traditional forms of civic and citizenship education in a more critical and decolonial perspective. In writing this paper, we are reminded of “the myriad shifts of thinking, strategies and back-and-forth debating” with each other and can also see our “encounters as a dance” (Waghid in Dancing with doctoral encounters: Democratic education in motion, African Sun Media, 2015). In breaking the silence surrounding dance and its conservative elements, we question the technocratic practices and accepted norms in the performance arts and the dancing arena. How does a classical dancer redress the colonial past in a performance arts classroom? The significance of this paper lies in the argument that decolonization becomes an imperative within GCE if one is striving for social justice and intends to commit oneself to a more equitable society where crossing borders must be a seamless act.

Weighting of visual and auditory inputs in dancers with and without previous ankle injury

Elite dance requires highly controlled balance performance in dynamic visual and auditory environments characterized by the use of stage lighting and music. Perturbing visual input is known to influence balance in dancers, but the effects of sounds have not been clearly established. Ankle inversion injuries are common in dancers and may also play a role in dancers' ability to respond to sensory perturbations. The aims of this study were to identify changes in static balance in response to visual or auditory perturbation in elite collegiate dancers with and without a history of ankle injury, and to describe coupling of measurements obtained from the waist and head during balance. Thirty-seven dancers: 22 controls and 15 with a history of ankle sprain, performed single-leg balance under static and dynamic visual and auditory conditions. Dancers demonstrated increased waist sway when viewing a dynamic visual scene and when presented with moving sounds and increased head sway with dynamic visuals. These results did not vary by history of ankle sprain. While dancers appear to dampen the impact of waist sway on head motion during single leg stance, even highly trained dancers may experience challenges controlling balance under perturbing visual and auditory conditions like those present during stage performance.

Inspired by Dance: A Future for Kinesiology

Although the beginning of North American post-secondary level dance education is often traced to physical education, dance programs have since migrated to Fine Arts Faculties. Despite these developments, dance has not entirely disappeared from physical education contexts which are now often under the umbrella of kinesiology. This context can hold new possibilities for dance-inspired movement education. In this paper, I, as a trained dancer with a research degree in the broad field of kinesiology, reflect upon my experiences of designing an undergraduate dance-inspired movement fundamentals course in a multidisciplinary, research-led Faculty of Kinesiology, Sport, and Recreation in Canada. I further contemplate possible positive implications of including dance research, dance practices, and dance education in this context and the undergraduate kinesiology curriculum.

Research Proposal: Exploring Phenomenological Change and Improving Attunement Through the Use of Dance/Rhythmic Movements

A description of a proposed research study is provided and feedback is welcomed. The research aim is described as an exploration of whether dance, defined here as movement of the body in a rhythmic way, can become a tool for a practitioner to use with clients within a model of the sub-symbolic communication. A literature review beginning with psychoanalysis and coming up-to-date with trained dancers working with dementia includes references to a range of TA materials. The author emphasises the need for self-reflection, ethical considerations and cultural implications. The article also includes an initial draft of the research methodology to be used, initially by the author, and how it might then be used by colleagues.

Understanding dance semantics using spatio-temporal features coupled GRU networks

The efforts are taken for cultural heritage preservation lead to many digitization initiatives. Indian Classical Dance and its tradition has proven historical importance. Computer-aided archiving and preservation of Indian classical dance resources open enormous opportunities for computational analysis. With the help of recent computational advancements in the field of Computer Vision, these archives can be transformed into intelligent information retrieval systems. In this work, we propose a novel method for understanding the dance semantics by making use of the Spatio-temporal variations of dance features. A video archive is created as a part of this work, from live recordings of different trained dancers and clippings from the internet. The Deep Pose Estimator coupled GRU Model deals with the spatial aspects with a deep learning pose estimator and handles the temporal perspective with GRU Network. The efficiency of the proposed method was compared with benchmark methods such as A 3D-Convolutional Neural Network-based Model, Time Distributed CNN-LSTM Model, and Hybrid Transfer Learning - LSTM Model and the results show the proposed method outperformed others even with different video resolutions.

Review: A Revolution in Movement: Dancers, Painters, and the Image of Modern Mexico, by K. Mitchell Snow

Review: A Revolution in Movement: Dancers, Painters, and the Image of Modern Mexico, by K. Mitchell Snow

Dancing in Quarantine: Performance Training across the Digital Divide

Dancing in Quarantine: Performance Training across the Digital Divide Sebastian X Samur (bio) In March 2020, reacting to increasing COVID-19 lockdown measures imposed by the New York state government, I found myself turning to an unexpected resource for activity: dance video games. With gyms, pools, children’s parks, and indoor play facilities closed, I needed to find new sources to keep my daughter active, which was especially challenging on cold, rainy days. Dancing at home provided one solution, which surprisingly yielded several discoveries pertaining to my own work in performance training. The game has served to underline essential qualities of in-person performance training, which live-streamed training substitutions have only been able to emulate with limited success. These insights have arisen in large part because both video games and in-person studio training are tailored to their respective performance spaces (home and studio), while live-streamed adaptations are a makeshift hybrid combining the two. In this short essay, I will present an initial analysis of four disruptions arising from live-stream training that have been highlighted through video-game training. These include breaks in: shared space, physical contact, rhythmic flow of experience, and establishment of stage presence. Under lockdown conditions, the video game my daughter and I enjoyed together is Just Dance, a game that is released with annual editions, featuring choreographies for one to four people set to a mix of popular international dance songs. The game follows a similar gameplay format as titles such as Dance, Dance, Revolution; Guitar Hero; and Wii Fit. These games take advantage of increasingly improved controller and motion-capture technology to allow players to move their body in response to onscreen cues. In Just Dance, players select a song they wish to dance to––alone or in a group––and then copy the movements of an onscreen avatar dancing in time to the music (fig. 1). The series is aimed at a younger, amateur audience, yet can feature sophisticated, high-level choreographies performed by professional dancers. This mix of an advanced level for a beginner audience demands that the game designers find a means to quickly and simply make the game accessible to players who are not necessarily experienced gamers nor trained dancers. The solution that has proven successful is in presenting silhouetted dancers for players to mirror, coupled with a series of simplified two-dimensional body illustrations (called pictos) showing each movement and a (generous) star scoring system that gradually awards points up to five stars when player movements match up with the video choreographies. Combined with the motion capture technology, Just Dance provides a digital means for quickly transmitting choreographies in a way that “analog” systems–– such as text-based descriptions, early twentieth-century mail-in dance lessons, or labanotation, for example––cannot (fig. 2).The result has been the creation of a community of millions of amateur dancers dancing at home, breaking a sweat, and improving, to varying degrees, their movement vocabularies as they try to obtain higher scores. Indeed, some players can reach a remarkably high degree of competence, as evinced in live world-cup events the developers have organized, demonstrating that the game can lead to genuine performance improvement through a scoring system that encourages repetitive practice. Of course, this form of learning is no substitute for in-person teaching and rehearsal. In addition to lamenting the absence of performances during quarantine, lockdown alternatives such as Just Dance bring an appreciation for the performer’s behind-the-scenes work training and rehearsing in [End Page E-23] Click for larger view View full resolution Fig. 1. A screenshot from Queen’s Don’t Stop Me Now in Just Dance 2017. Players copy the movements of the central avatar and can use the lower-right pictos to anticipate upcoming movements. A star-based score appears in the lower left. Click for larger view View full resolution Fig. 2. Even a hundred years ago, alternatives to in-person teaching were attempted, as evinced by this example of steps from an early twentieth-century mail-order dance lesson offered by the Arthur Murray Dance Studio. (Source: https://www.amdancing.com/exactly-arthur-murray-know-name/.) [End Page E-24...

Bilateral Differences in Dancers' Dynamic Postural Stability During Jump Landings.

Although traditional dance training aims to train dancers' legs equally, the recognized practice of predominately starting and repeating exercises on one side more than the other has led to suggestions that technique classes may cause lateral bias. Such an imbalance could lead to a greater risk of injury; however, despite this potential risk, little is known about the effects of bilateral differences on dancers' postural stability during jump landings, a key dynamic action in dance. Therefore, the aim of this study was to examine the effects of possible bilateral differences on dynamic postural stability during single-leg landing using a time-to-stabilization protocol. Thirty-two injury-free female university undergraduate dancers (19 ± 1.9 years; 164.8 ± 6.7 cm; 62.6 ± 13.6 kg) volunteered for the study. They completed a two-foot to one-foot jump over a bar onto a force platform while stabilizing as quickly as possible. The landing leg was randomly assigned, and participants completed three trials for each leg. No significant differences in dynamic postural stability between right and left legs were revealed, and poor effect size was noted (p > 0.05): MLSI: t = -.04, df = 190, p = 0.940 (CI = -.04, .04, r² = 0); APSI: t = .65, df = 190, p = 0.519 (CI = -.06-, .12, r² = .09); VSI: t = 1.85, df = 190, p = 0.066 (CI = -.02, .68, r² = .27); DPSI: t = 1.88, df = 190, p = 0.061 (CI = -.02, .70, r² = .27). The results of this study do not support the notion that dance training may cause lateral bias with its associated risk of injury. Furthermore, dancers' self-perceptions of leg dominance did not correlate with their ability to balance in single-leg landings or to absorb the ground reaction forces often associated with injury. Even when biased training exists, it may not have detrimental effects on the dancer's postural stability.

СТАНОВЛЕННЯ ТА РОЗВИТОКНАЦІОНАЛЬНОЇ НАРОДНО-СЦЕНІЧНОЇ ХОРЕОГРАФІЇ

У статті проаналізовано джерела та історичні передумови розвитку національної народно-сценічної хореографії. Визначено етапи становлення й розвитку виконавської школи народно-сценічного танцю та балету в Україні, відповідно, проаналізовано зміст та форми народної хореографії, визначено місце і роль танцювального мистецтва у культурному надбанні українців.Визначено плеяду видатних балетмейстерів, які внесли значний вклад у розвиток та пропаганду хореографічного мистецтва. Зокрема, відзначається праця Б. Ніжинської «Рух і школа руху», в якій висвітлюються педагогічні й естетичні погляди авторки та її увага до використання характерного тан-цю у створених нею балетах «Дванадцята рапсодія» на музику Ф. Ліста та «Похоронний марш» на однойменну музику Ф. Шопена. Наголошено про збагачення танцю новими рухами та його поєднання з виразними засобами, якими є слово, музика, світло, танцювальні костюми, бутафорія тощо, за допо-могою яких більш виразно передаються складні почуття та певні життєві ситуації.Велику увагу приділено відстеженню джерел та шляхів становлення й розвитку системи підготов-ки танцюристів від танцювальних студій і шкіл до професійних навчальних закладів та їх засновни-ків: І. Іваницького, Д. Ширая, М. Піона, В. Верховинця, М. Мордкіна, Б. Ніжинської, О. Гаврилової, І. Чистякова.Акцентується увага на побудову та малюнок українських танців (під пісню, під музику, лінійні, геометричні, коло, вуж, ланцюг, лави тощо), їх тематичну направленість (сюжетні, побутові, релігійні, патріотичні, хороводні, національні тощо).Проаналізовано виділення театрального танцю з побутового та його перетворення на самостійний вид сценічного мистецтва – балет, а також подальший розвиток балету шляхом доповнення мораль-них проблем філософськими, казкових сюжетів реалістичними, наповнення національною тематикою балетних вистав.Підкреслено, що засади, на яких ґрунтувалася виконавська школа народно-сценічного танцю на початку ХХ ст., мали глибоке історичне коріння, зокрема, народна хореографія завжди була невід’єм-ною частиною культурного розвитку українського народу. The article аnalyzes the sources and historical prerequisites for the development of national folk-choreography. The stages of formation and development of the performing school of folk-dance and ballet in Ukraine are determined, the content and forms of folk choreography are analyzed accordingly, the place and role of dance art in the cultural heritage of Ukrainians are determined.A galaxy of outstanding balletmasters who have contributed significantly to the development and promotion of choreographic art has been identified. Particularly noteworthy is the work of B. Nijinsky’s Movement and the School of Movement, which highlights the pedagogical and aesthetic views of the author and her attention to the use of characteristic dance in her ballets. Emphasis is placed on enriching the dance with new movements and combining it with expressive means such as words, music, light, dance costumes, intercommunication, etc., which more clearly convey complex feelings and certain life situations.Much attention is paid to tracing the sources and ways of formation and development of the system of training dancers from dance studios and schools to vocational schools and their founders I. Ivanitsky, D. Shirai, M. Pion, V. Verhovynets, M. Mordkin, B. Nizhynsky, O. Gavrilova, I. Chistyakov.Attention is paid to the construction and drawing of Ukrainian dances, their thematic orientation (story, household, religious, patriotic, dance, national, etc.).The separation of theatrical dance from everyday life and its transformation into an independent form of the performing arts – ballet is analyzed, as well as the further development of ballet by supplementing moral problems with philosophical, fairy-tale subjects realistic, filling the national theme of the ballet performances of “Lily” by K. Dankevych. Svechnikov, “Sorochinsky Fair” by V. Gomolyak, “Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors” by V. Kireyko, “Dawn Lights” by L. Dychko, “Kamianar” by M. Skorik.It is emphasized that the foundations on which the performing school of folk-dance at the beginning of the twentieth century was based had deep historical roots, in particular folk choreography has always been an integral part of the cultural development of the Ukrainian people.

Balance in Bharatanatyam dancers and non-dancers: A comparative study

Background and Objective: Bharatanatyam is a classical Indian dance form that traces its roots to the 2nd century and is still one of the most popular and widely practised dance forms in India. It uses a lot of movements in different stances with superimposed limb movements. There may seem to be a logical link between balance and the practice of Bharatanatyam, but the paucity of research on this topic, especially concerned with Indian classical dance, thus prompted us to conduct the research to assess and have an objective measurement of comparison of balance between Bharatanatyam dancers and age- & gendermatched non-dancers. Materials and Methods: A sample size of 50 Bharatanatyam dancers and 50 age and gender-matched non-dancers were assessed on the Neuro-Com Balance system for 3 parameters- weight-bearing (at 0, 30, 60 and 90 degrees of knee flexion), unilateral stance and Limits of Stability. Results and Conclusion: Bharatanatyam dancers showed decreased sway velocity in unilateral stance compared to non-dancers. They also had quicker reaction times, higher movement velocity, better end-point and maximum excursion as well as higher directional control (in the Limits of Stability test) compared to the non-dancers. The acquired results prove that trained Bharatanatyam dancers have better balance than age- and gendermatched non-dancers. Keywords: Bharatanatyam, Balance, Dancers, Balance master, COG, Movement, Comparison.

From how we’ve made it here to where we stand now: The presence of the Alexander Technique in higher education in Brazil

This article traces the arrival of the Alexander Technique in Brazil in the 1980s and its later insertion in higher education in the country. It focuses on two experiences: one at Universidade Federal do Estado do Rio de Janeiro – UNIRIO (Federal University of the State of Rio de Janeiro) – as a university extension course for musicians and one at Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais – UFMG (Federal University of Minas Gerais and State University of Campinas) as an elective subject for dancers as part of the undergraduate dance course. The article aims to discuss the particularities as well as the challenges of introducing the Alexander Technique for the first time to trained dancers and musicians. The methodological approach included interviews with Alexander Technique teachers working and living in Brazil as well as the author’s personal experiences teaching the Alexander Technique in a university setting, articulated with the literature on this topic. The article hopes to contribute to the reflection on the role of somatic practices in higher education in order to collaborate with strategies that may help the teaching-learning process in an artistic-pedagogical academic environment.

Achieving the Split Position in a Saut de Chat Leap.

Dancers frequently perform complex jumping skills that involve achieving specific body positions while in the air. An examination of how skilled dancers achieve these aesthetic demands can provide information useful for dance training. The purpose of this study was to examine the temporal coordination of the hip and knee joints during the flight phase of a saut de chat leap, where dancers aim to achieve a split position in the air when the center of mass (COM) reaches peak height. Thirty healthy, experienced dancers with 22.5±4.5 years of dance training performed 5 saut de chat leaps. The timing of peak hip and knee joint angles and velocities for the takeoff and leading legs were extracted and compared to the time when COM reached peak height in the leap using a repeated measures ANOVA, with post-hoc comparisons made using paired t-tests. Dancers demonstrated significant differences in timing associated with achieving the split position (main effect p<0.001), with only peak leading leg hip flexion occurring at a similar time to the COM reaching peak height (paired t-test p=0.074). The results of this study provide insight into coordination patterns used by trained dancers. Trained dancers demonstrate patterns in timing that may be important for successful performance. The hip and knee coordination patterns during flight demonstrate how dancers work to achieve the desired aesthetics of a saut de chat leap. However, it appears that dancers do not reach the full split position at the height of the leap, as would be aesthetically desirable.

What Do We Know About How Acute Physical Fatigue Affects Movement in Dancers?: A Systematic Review of the Literature.

Dancers are skilled athletes who train, rehearse, and perform extensively and often repeat the same sequences of movements in class or while learning and rehearsing choreography. Fatigue is thought to be related to an increased risk of injury due to altered movement patterns and distributions of joint forces. However, little research has examined the effects of fatigue on dance performance. The purpose of this study was to review the relevant literature and characterize what is known about how the movement patterns of trained dancers are affected by induced acute physical fatigue. Four electronic databases were searched for studies that investigated any protocol or method designed to induce acute fatigue and examined the effects fatigue had on dancers. Two reviewers independently assessed the methodological quality of and extracted data from the included studies. Of 440 search results, 12 studies were included in the final review. The mean score for methodological quality was 9.2/13. A variety of methods have been used in an effort to induce fatigue in dancers, but many of the fatigue protocols or movements studied were not specific to dance or have not been studied using a functional approach. Several studies identified changes in mechanics after fatigue, but a consistent pattern is not yet apparent in the literature. Studies examining fatigue in dancers have found contradictory results in terms of shifting contributions from the lower extremity joints, indicating that more research is needed to determine the effects of fatigue on jump mechanics in dancers.

Effects of auditory rhythm on movement accuracy in dance performance

The present study addresses the impact of the rhythmic complexity of music on the accuracy of dance performance. This study examined the effects of different levels of auditory syncopation on the execution of a dance sequence by trained dancers and exercisers (i.e., nondancers). It was hypothesized that nondancers would make more errors in synchronizing movements with moderately and highly syncopated rhythms while no performance degradation would manifest among trained dancers. Participants performed a dance sequence synchronized with three different rhythm tracks that were regular, moderately syncopated, and highly syncopated. We found significant performance degradation when comparing conditions of no syncopation vs. high syncopation for both trained dancers (p = .002) and nondancers (p = .001). Dancers and nondancers did not differ in how they managed to execute the task with increasing levels of syncopation (p = .384). The pattern of difference between trained dancers and nondancers was similar across the No Syncop and Highly Syncop conditions. The present findings may have marked implications for practitioners given that the tasks employed were analogous to those frequently observed in real-life dance settings.

Orientalized Aztecs: Observations on the Americanization of Theatrical Dance

The opening decades of the twentieth century saw a passing fashion for “Aztec” dancing in the vaudeville theaters of the United States. Russian classical dancers Kosloff and Fokine tapped the orientalist currents of the Ballets Russes, adopting the Aztec as superficial signs of the American. Conversely, works by Shawn and film director Cecil B. DeMille, which served as points of reference for the Russians, represented a continuation of equally orientalist attitudes toward Mexico's past, forged during the realization of the United States’ policy of Manifest Destiny. The emergence of a cadre of trained dancers from Mexico, trained by students of Kosloff and Shawn, would bring a distinctively different perspective on the presentation of their heritage to the dance stage, one that was no longer based in the imagination of an expansionist America.

I can’t. I have dance: dance competition culture as serious leisure and pre-professional training

ABSTRACT This article provides an introductory contextualization to dance competition culture’s evolution since the early 1980s in relationship to serious leisure. Dance competition culture (which includes the for-profit regional and national competition events focused on jazz, contemporary or lyrical dance, hip hop, tap, and ballet and the dance studios that train dancers for these events) is a significant site for dance training in the United States. Using a physical cultural studies lens in relation to the conceptualization of serious leisure, the article suggests that dance competition culture is shifting towards pre-professional dance training thereby changing dance competition culture from a serious leisure pursuit into vocational training.

Reflective Documentation as a Movement Potential: Two Digital Platforms Building a Professional Learning Community

Creating dance and training dancers is a collaborative and co-creative process, and teaching has a central role in the co-creative artistic processes. Yet dance teachers, whether free-lance or working in an institution, often develop and maintain their physical teaching practice in isolation. Additionally, because of the ephemeral nature of dance and the relational nature of dance education, these practices usually do not end up being recorded or documented as a body of knowledge. In the face of such a reality the online database IDOCDE.net provides a platform for the development and maintenance of an inclusive professional learning community through a process of shared documentation. Its sister digital publication MINDTHEDANCE.com guides the reader towards development of a personal and sustainable documentation practice. IDOCDE.net seeks to establish a knowledge base, a living archive and encourages collaboration and dialogue for fostering of both individual practice and the work field. MIND THE DANCE inspires educators to develop their personal, creative and reflective documentation practice via a variety of examples from professionals from different backgrounds, covering a wide range of approaches from writing, drawing, notating, video art to creating scores and templates. This article examines these digital publications and how they influence a meaningful and creative approach to reflective documentation.

Dancing with hyperobjects: Ecological Body Weather choreographies from Height of Sky to Into the Quarry

Abstract Timothy Morton claims that hyperobjects – things ‘massively distributed in time and space relative to humans’ such as global warming, the total sum of all the nuclear materials on earth, a weather system – have completely altered how we think and experience, forcing us into confronting the fact that we must relate to them as fellow objects. In this article I argue that Body Weather-based dance practices, developed by Japanese dancer Min Tanaka on his Hakushu farm in Japan between 1985 and 2010, attempt to form corporeal and kinaesthetic relationships with hyperobjects through training dancers to sensitize their bodies to their existence as part of what Morton calls the mesh. I discuss two Body Weather-related projects: Morleigh Steinberg’s 2004 film Height of Sky about Oguri’s two-year danced investigation of the Mojave and Colorado Deserts of Southern California, and my own work in North Texas, Into the Quarry. This work, I suggest, provides a model for how to develop a radically different relationship with our environment, one based on the mutual interconnection of interobjectivity.

Ballet E-learning using fuzzy set induced posture recognition by piece-wise linear approximation of connected components

The paper proposes a novel strategy of ballet e-learning for novices in remote areas. The present work is concerned with a training dataset of thirty four different ballet postures, obtained from images of trained dancers. A four-step procedure is primarily followed to extract features from the training images describing a specific posture p. First, the acquired images of K trained dancers of a specific posture p are pre-processed. The connected components (CCs) of the pre-processed images are then identified, followed by piece-wise linear approximation of their respective boundaries. After that, the internal angles of the polygonal boundary are used to characterize features of the given posture. This is repeated for all images of K trained dancers, all performing the given posture p. The merit of the paper lies in recasting the problem of selecting the CC boundary points for polygonal approximation as an optimization problem. The inter-subject uncertainty observed in the feature values extracted from the pre-processed images of a large number of experts/trained dancers, all executing the same posture p, here has been modeled by Gaussian fuzzy membership curve. The class of an unknown posture (obtained from the image of a novice) is determined by computing the support of each known posture class to the given unknown postural expression. The class with the maximum support (above a pre-defined threshold value) is declared as the conqueror. Experiments undertaken reveal that the accuracy of recognizing an unknown ballet posture of a novice, captured by a stereo camera, by the proposed stratagem is as high as 91.23%.

Comparison of Lower Extremity Muscle Flexibility in Amateur and Trained Bharatanatyam Dancers and Nondancers.

This study compared lower limb muscle flexibility between amateur and trained female Bharatanatyam dancers and nondancers. Subjects consisted of 105 healthy female volunteers, with 70 female Bharatanatyam dancers (35 trained, 35 amateurs) and 35 controls, with a mean (±SD) age of 16.2±1.04 yrs, height 155.05±4.30 cm, and weight 54.54±2.77 kg. Participants were assessed for range of motion (ROM) in hip flexion, hip extension, hip abduction and adduction, hip external rotation, hip internal rotation, knee flexion, knee extension, ankle dorsiflexion (DF), and ankle plantar flexion (PF) by using a standardized goniometer. To assess for significant difference between groups, one-way ANOVA was applied, and multiple comparisons were made using Bonferroni correction. Trained dancers had a significantly greater hip flexion, extension, abduction, and external rotation ROM than amateurs and nondancers (p<0.05). Also, internal rotation and adduction were markedly less in trained dancers (p<0.05). Knee flexion, extension, and ankle DF were higher and ankle PF ROM was lesser in trained dancers. However, not much variation was found in ankle DF and PF between amateur dancers and nondancers (p>0.05). Results showed that there are significant differences in lower limb muscle flexibility between trained and amateur Bharatanatyam dancers and nondancers. These differences may be due to individual dance postures such as araimandi and muzhumandi.