An anthropometric comparison between young female spanish and brazilian dancers

Abstract

Not much is known about the influence of dance on the morphological and anthropometric development of young and teenager dancers. Bibliography on the subject is almost nonexistent, given the difficulty to find studies about this type of population. It is very important to control the morphological development of girls that study dance in order to quantify, qualify and achieve better results. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to compare the anthropometric characteristics of two populations: one group of classical ballet dancers, average age 11.12 ± 1.00, from Porto Alegre, Brazil, and the other group including dancers of Spanish dance and classical ballet, with an average age of 11.50 ± 0.94, from Cordoba, Spain. A parallel was established between the populations, comparing and relating the data obtained. Fifty anthropometrical variables were measured, including body weight, stature, height, skinfolds, girths, breadths and lengths, based on the ISAK (International Society of the Advancement of kinanthropometry) protocol, proposed by Ross and Marfell-Jones (1991). Descriptive statistical methodology was used in order to obtain a database for the two samples studied and the t test was used to compare their data. The conclusion was that the two groups are very similar despite the fact that a few statistically different variables were found. These differences were mainly related to breadths.