Characterization of a dance movement using a Kinetic camera^*

Dance is an art form considered as a form of language since it can sometimes reflect a culture of a population or even a celebration that accompanies humanity from its earliest times and which requires of the dancer a high physical and emotional dexterity. However, it is expected that the dancer performs rigorous and repetitive technical movements that often lead to painful injuries.Due to the high number of injuries, it is essential to study and analyze base movements for this type of dance in order to prevent injuries and to optimize the dancer’s choreography and productivity. These movements are precedents of more complex movements. In this work, the study of a basic jump, the Grand Jeté, using biomechanical techniques is carried out by finding the kinematics of the movement.For the data collection, three dancers (2 females and 1 male) voluntarily participated and the movements were capture using a 2nd Generation Kinect camera that allows the capture of 3D movement. The biomechanical analysis was performed for the movement recorded and the results were presented to show the adequacy of the methodology proposed. By using this methodology, the aim is to characterize the movement and to be able to promote a better understanding of everything involved in the performance of the movement with the performers and teachers.