INTRODUCTION AND OBJECTIVE: A ballet dancer with great potential of efficiency for technical transitive movement should show muscle area percentages of body segments in some range of spatial volume that does not classify him /her as an ugly figure. The purpose of this article is to compare the volumetry and percentages on the muscle composition of body segments for elite ballet dancers, with modern-folkloric dancers. METHODS: The best dancers of the Cuban National Ballet (BNC), National Dance (DN) and National Folkloric Group (CFN). The best dancers -ages between 18 and 40 years - were measured following the selection criteria of expert teachers about body shape and technical-artistic performance. An anthropometric protocol of 10 measurements was applied. The equations of geometric model to estimate the total and muscle cross sectional areas of body segments were used, in order to determine the volume and muscle composition. RESULTS AND CONCLUSIONS: The quantitative expression of total cross sectional areas for body segments -in their many relations of similarity and difference- confirmed the empirical statements about a specific criterion of body scenic beauty for both sex dancers from BNC comparing with DN and CFN. Data demonstrated that morphological linearity of an elite dancer is independent from a less potential-except for female dancer from CFN- of efficiency for technical transitive movement.
anthropometry; kinanthropometry; body composition; dancer
