Dance is a specific expression of human motor behaviour. This artistic physical activity
depends upon an effective technical training with important postural components and
necessitates the codification of sensory inputs to build mental representations of
the action to be produced. Proprioception and vision being two fundamental sensory
modalities im classical ballet, this study attempted to determine the importance of
the visual input for postural control during the practice of this activity. First,
this work compared the performance's of 18 professional ballet dancers and 46 non-dancers
on a platform of forces during static posturographic tests in open or closed eyes
situation. Then, we studied how professional damcers achieve balance in postures specific
of classical ballet: on demi-pointe and on pointe. The results indicate that visual
inputs are important in classical ballet since dancers only performed better than
controls in eyes open conditions. The similar results obtained on pointe with eyes
open or closed conversely suggest that training in classical ballet develops specific
modalities of balance which are not transferable to posture control in daily life
situations.
Dance - balance - posturography - visual afferences
