5 Signs Your Body Needs a Pre-Pointe Assessment

pre-pointe assessment

Progressing to pointe work is one of the most exciting milestones in a dancer’s journey. However, it’s not just about age or the number of years you’ve spent training, it’s about whether your body is truly ready for the physical demands of dancing en pointe.

Dance physios at Performance Medicine possess extensive expertise in understanding how ballet creates distinct physical stress on the body. We strongly advise every dancer to seek pre-pointe assessment testing which evaluates their strength together with flexibility as well as alignment and movement control abilities. The pre-pointe assessment provides essential information which enables teachers along with dancers to decide when they can progress to training en pointe.

A pre-pointe assessment is about timing in your ballet training. It should be performed after you have started your preparation training for pointe but before you purchase your pointe shoes and actually dance en pointe. Listening to your teacher and your body indicates when you should attend your assessment.

How to Tell If Your Body Needs a Pre-Pointe Assessment for Ballet

You’ve Recently Increased Your Training Load

Moving up class levels, joining additional performance routine rehearsals, or adding school holiday classes are all signs that you are progressing in dance and working towards that you are preparing to progress en pointe.   The positive effect of training produces new and different stresses on your muscles, joints and tendons.

Ensuring that you are recovering sufficiently is important to prevent common overuse injuries. Your dance physio can assess and detect your current body and muscle strength through a pre-pre-pointe assessment and they can determine if you require further exercises, recovery or strategies to keep you strong and progressing onto pointe.

Regular Foot Or Ankle Pain

Your ability to stay stable and strong in both feet and ankles and have strong (and artistic) alignment in your legs, back and arms must be established before you attempt pointe work. Any persistent pain together with weakness or “wobbliness” during demi-pointe rise benefit from an assessment with your physiotherapist.  Your symptoms may result from unbalanced muscular strength and stiffness, or, hypermobility in the joints of the foot and ankle meaning that the muscles and joints may not work efficiently when adjusting your movement patterns in your dance technique.

pre-pointe shoes

A pre-pointe assessment with a dance physio will measure your ankle position as well as your calf strength, foot joint movements and weight-bearing capacity in demi pointe and loaded positions.

In many cases, a course of physiotherapy — combined with a personalised exercise plan—can make a significant difference in preparing the foot and ankle for safe pointe work.

You Have Hypermobile Joints or Unusual Flexibility

Many dancers have significant flexibility or hypermobility in the ankles and feet which may increase injury vulnerability if good muscular strength (calf and foot intrinsic muscles) is not available to support the additional movement in these mobile feet and ankles.  Learning en pointe technique may require additional effort for those who experience joint hypermobility because they need to learn how to control their excessive motion (that is why you do class and strength work!).

A pre-pointe screening will assess whether your neuromuscular control and muscle strength are working together to manage your motor pattern and hypermobility.  After your assessment, your physiotherapist may recommend specific muscular and tissue release to then provide control-based exercises that can control the additional passive joint motion.  

You’ve Never Had a Dance-Specific Physical Assessment

A professional assessment performed by a dance physio provides different insights beyond the feedback received from teachers and the confidence you might have about your technique. Our dance physiotherapists understand the complex details of ballet movements, together with the requirements to move safely to pointe and therefore, you can rely on us to support your dance goals.

Our Pre-Pointe assessment involves several areas for the dancer, including:

  • Range of motion testing (hip, ankle, foot)
  • Postural alignment
  • Core stability and pelvic control
  • Muscle strength and endurance
  • Turnout range and control
  • Functional pointe readiness tests

Following this assessment, we will develop a specific training program to protect you from injuries.

Your Dance Teacher Has Suggested It

Many leading ballet schools have made assessment mandatory for students seeking approval to start pointe work to reinforce dance-safe principles. Although your teacher is aware of your movement capabilities in class, a clinical pre-pointe profile assessment verifies that your muscular strength and foot and ankle biomechanics are also ready.

Collaboration and communication between teachers, dancers, and health professionals, improve the outcome and program of an pre-pointe assessment so that everyone is safe in the studio and has the support that they need. If a student has an area of weakness, tightness or restriction, additional physiotherapy or a remedial massage sessions may be recommended to overcome any issues before progressing to pointe work.

Why Choose Performance Medicine?

Performance Medicine is a multi-disciplinary practice that includes sports medicine, dance medicine and dance physiotherapy to support dance schools and performing arts organisations. Our team of dance physiotherapists are movement experts, and our remedial massage therapists have substantial experience working with dancers from beginners to professionals. We speak the language of dance—and more importantly, we understand the physical demands of dance. So call us whether you require:

  • A pre-pointe assessment
  • A programme of manual therapy, soft tissue massage and a strengthening program
  • Preventative physiotherapy treatment programming for injury prevention and recovery.

Ready to Step Up?

If you’re dreaming of dancing en pointe, make sure your body is physically ready to be challenged, reach out today to book a pre-pointe assessment with our experienced team—you’ll thank us later!

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