(OMG CLICKBAIT!!!)

Wednesday evening, Señor BeastMode gave us a really useful note for improving our turns.

It goes like this:

Before your free foot leaves the ground, rotate the heel forward.

Before your free foot (the one that gets pulled up to passé) leaves the ground, rotate the heel forward. (This works from 5th as well, but I thought that would make a very cluttered diagram.)

That’s all. Simples! Basic ballet technique, amirite?

…Only, it would seem that I wasn’t really doing it before—because as soon as I added that in consciously, my en dehors turn improved shockingly. It wasn’t bad before, really, but this detail makes for reliable, clean, controlled turns.

Also makes en dedans, already my stronger turn, even nicer.

In the diagram, I’ve drawn both rotation arrows for clarity, but you probably won’t have to think about the supporting leg (that’s the front leg, except when you’re turning from 2nd and everything gets kind of ambiguous). If you don’t keep rotating the front leg, you’ll wind up with some kind of crazy jazz turn.

If you do have to actively think about rotation of the front leg, think about rotating both heels forward as you launch.

In short, this approach makes you skip the weird bit where the free leg doesn’t have clear instructions beyond “open the knee; passé” and can become wibbly as it leaves the ground. It also forces you to actively engage all the turnout muscles.

You’re welcome.

Mmmh … tender, flaky rotation…

This approach worked well enough that BW was actually impressed with my turns last night. Coincidentally, it also helps with passé balances that don’t turn, even from fifth.

Next up: brisées demystified, if not quite rendered easy-brisée easy-brizayzay easy-breezy.

Like, seriously, after a lifetime of being horribly confused about brisées, I can now do them devant & derrière, closing to 5th or to coupé, thanks to BW’s explanation (and to the fact that he made us do literally a million … okay, literally at least 36 brizayzays at each of our most recent classes).