Bharatanatyam Dancers

Background: Anterior knee pain is one of the common knee injuries in dancers. It is a repetitive strain injury, with incidence of 33% of dancers. Bharatanatyam is an Indian classical dance form which has semi squatting with foot in toe out position called Aramandi. Aramandi position exerts pressure on knee, which could be a reason for anterior knee pain. Therefore screening of dancers is necessary to identify musculoskeletal problems in dancers. The main purpose of this study was to find out the correlation of toe out and anterior knee pain. Methods: 50 Bharatanatyam dancers were included in the study. Their degree of toe out, and hip external rotation was measured. They were asked to answer Kujala questionnaire and pain score was taken. Results: The correlation coefficient between VAS and Kujala was 0.0001, VAS and compensated toe out was 0.3183, and Kujala and compensated toe out was 0.5677. There was no association found between VAS and toe out, Kujala and toe out. Conclusion: Our study concluded that there is no correlation between the degree of toe out and anterior knee pain in dancers. Clinical implication: Learning Bharatanatyam does not cause knee injuries.