Before our study of twenty advanced female folk dancers, we hypothesized the results would be similar to the deviations within ballroom dancers. Thus, there would be more Hallux Valgus shown and less Pes Planus because of the character shoes worn and certain movements within folk that put pressure on the metatarsals. We discovered nine dancers out of the twenty had Hallux Valgus and ten dancers had Pes Planus. This concluded that five dancers had both deviations and six dancers had none.
Dancers: 20
With Hallux Valgus: 9
Dancing for more than 10 years with Hallux Valgus: 4
Dancing for less than 10 years with Hallux Valgus: 5
Dancers: 20
With Pes Planus: 10
Dancing for more than 10 years with Pes Planus: 5
Dancing for less than 10 years with Pes Planus: 5
Based on our study, our hypothesis was proved incorrect for the reason that there were more dancers with Pes Planus than with Hallux Valgus. Clearly, dancers who have either deviation or both deviations, are not experiencing enough pain to stop them from dancing. In a study done by Harry Piggott from London, the severity of pain was measured within Hallux Valgus patients and found that even severe pain only caused "occasional complete cessation of normal activity"(Piggott). Also, with moderate pain from Hallux Valgus, he found "some restrictions such as avoiding dancing or long walks"(Piggott) were needed. Indeed, none of the dancers we studied were in this pain range and were still able to dance with the deviations they had. While we encouraged dancers to study family history for hereditary tendencies, we were happy to discover that dancers are not being limited by these deviations.
