Twirling, Turning and Spinning

Twirling, turning, and spinning is my favourite part of classical ballet. There is nothing quite like feeling the breeze across your face as you master a double or (if you’re lucky) a triple pirouette turn. But twirling and turning is not for everyone, and many of my adult learners feel nervous about falling or becoming dizzy when practicing pirouettes. So, I thought I would do a short blog today on acing a pirouette in 5 steps.

Step 1: The Posture- Before even thinking about turning make sure that your body is in classical ballet posture. Core engaged, back lengthened, long neck, shoulders down and glutes squeezed together.

 Step 2: The Relevé- Starting from 4th position, ensure that your knees are bent in plié and your weight is distributed evenly across the front and back foot (your bottom should sit in the middle of both legs). From here, you should be able to take a quick and precise relevé.

Step 3: The Turn- Use your head to spot something in front of you. The head should complete a ‘whipping’ action as you turn. The arms need to be held strongly in first and the foot should stay on the demi pointe until a full pirouette has been completed.

Step 4: The Landing- What goes up must come down right? So when landing do so on bent legs in either in 4th or 5th position (the ending position will be deciphered by how you started the pirouette and the type of turn that you are doing).

Step 5: The Applause- Accept an applause graciously from your audience: even if this attempt didn’t work out how you wanted!!

These steps are not focused on a particular type of pirouette and can be used for en dehors or en dedans turns. If you are one of my online improvers reading this we are currently doing en dehors turns. Keep practicing and good luck xx