I. BALLET AND PHYSIQUE

Chapter 5. Bow-Legs

There are two main types of bow legs. One is that in which the femur is normal but the tibia curves outward. An occasional boy may come up for audition with this formation but one does not find it amongst girls. Probably they have already been discouraged from learning ballet by a discriminating parent or teacher. The second type is met with in both sexes, though the degree is more marked in boys. In this the bowing includes the thighs so that when the feet are touching there is a space between the knees. This is not strictly a bowing of the legs. The space between the knees occurs by virtue of the fact that the curve of the femur instead of being situated on the front of the thigh has deviated somewhat to the outer side, thus changing the position of the condyles, which then face slightly inward instead of to the front, so causing the space between the knees, (figure 12.) The real drawback to this formation lies in the fact that the hip joint is always by nature in-turned and to that extent this type of bow leg interferes with perfect technical accomplishment; and of course it is ugly in girls and does not add to the charm of the male dancer. However, in the male one usually finds good elevation with some degree of bow leg, in girls it is more variable, depending on whether or no the position of the legs affects that of the feet. Again, as with knock-knees, it must not be imagined that training will correct the bowing. It can be disguised when the feet are both on the ground, close together, toes and heels touching and the whole limb rotated outward in the hips, so that momentarily the legs appear straight, but as soon as this effort is released they will return to the original position, after even twenty years of training.

Figure 12. Bow-legs with in-turned hips which make difficulties for the dancer. Note the "rol­ling" left foot due to this formation of the legs.