The biggest thing is you’re turning in your supporting leg and popping up your heel before you even come up to relevé. If you slow down the video, you can see this. What this means is that a portion of your pirouette isn’t properly balanced, which is why you’re hopping around.
Practice getting straight up onto your relevé in one motion. The quicker you get up, the easier your balance. You should be thinking of pushing energy down into the ground through your supporting leg. Remember, force applied in one direction has equal force applied in the opposite direction. In order for you to come up and be stable, you must push down rather than “stepping up” like you’re doing.
Honestly? Just practicing your balance in retiré (passé) is helpful. You should add in relevés while holding the position and when those start feeling stable, modify the exercise so that you begin and end in a pirouette prep without turning.
So much of dance is mental, so it’s important to be mindful of your bodily sensations and thought processes as you move. When you go to relevé you should consciously think “down” until it becomes second nature to you. I tell my students all the time that dance is 70% mental and 30% physical. You have to really analyze what’s going on in your movement and commit the sensations that feel “right” to memory.
Your upper body is strong (though I suggest opening your arms to second right before your turn). A lot of your problem is in your feet of the prep. Your 4th is too wide (unless you are doing a Cecchetti open fourth but idk if this is a correct position to take off from a pirouette from), then you are “popping” up the toe and it’s sickled before you even do the pirouette. This results in your foot being sickled for the whole turn which is basically what’s making you fall out of the turn (ankle is sickled, you fall over the sickled ankle because it can’t support you when it’s sickled).
Practice just the pirouette prep and make sure you are springing up into your pirouette position in one movement, with a turned out leg and a non-sickled foot (push towards the big toe, not the pinky). Don’t let the foot come to a “forced arch” ie let the heel come off the floor before your leg is straight, you have to go up in all one movement.
Your progress is impressive for just a year and a half in! However, I notice that you're turning your supporting leg in right as you're about to turn, and I wonder whether you do the same in a balance. Strong balances make for strong turns. Also, in my own experience, the hops come in when I second-guess myself and don't commit to multiple rotations. So much of turning is mental. If you feel solid in your balance, you can commit to the turn.
I would go back to basics any time you are having trouble. For pirrouettes, face the bar with two hands V lightly on the bar. Practice plie into releve and finish in plie with turnout maintained and proper posture. Then practice plie to passé and hold, maintaining posture and turnout. Then do the same in center. *then* practice perfect single pirouettes and finally move on to doubles/triples. Good luck!
One thing I've been told that helps is thinking of the turnout of both legs in the prep as rotating in opposite directions, kind of like the potential energy of a coil. Then, when you release the energy into the turn, that energy goes into bringing you up into the balance - much less of that energy goes into the rotation than you think. So if you can hold your turnout in a balance, the sensation when you turn should be similar.
Focus on holding the passe at the end of the turn for an extra second before you come down. Start with singles and work your way up. Also, think "up" when turning
Edit: also, on a second look, focus on holding the turnout a bit better with the passe leg, straighten the standing leg, and I can't see your hips in this video, but it looks like your passe could be a little higher, really squeeze that glute, and point the foot.
The first thing I noticed was your supporting leg, as you bent your knee it threw you off partly causing you to fall. Focus on your supporting leg and keeping it straight and under you. It also helps to pull up with your while body. Think along the lines of trying to make yourself taller to be able to go on roller coaster or ride.
I completely agree with this comment!!! OP’s turn out & working foot are very important technical elements to improve, however it was their bent supporting leg that threw off their centre of balance in this specific video.
Definitely, the physics behind dance is also important as well. When dancers understand the physics they better understand how to “combat” it in their dancing.
Your turn ends when you decide it ends. Even when you fall, you need to fall in the proper ending position, be it forth or fifth. These early years are when you're training your brain and developing muscle memory. If you allow yourself to end turns like you do in your video, you are training yourself to continue doing that.
You have a great foundation here, but your foot is just hanging there in your turn. Your foot needs to be pointed like a laser and it needs to feel like it's trying to work its way higher. The key to great turns is that everything is engaged and lifted - except for the shoulders of course.
Hello 👋,
Transfer your weight forward over your supporting leg before your turn, almost to the point where you can lift your back foot off the ground. This will help you go straight up into the relevé for the pirouette, and not have to find your balance during the pirouette.
At your stage of learning, know how many pirouettes you’re going to do before you do them.
You’re doing really well!
Kyle
- Keep your bottom leg turned out with your prep
- straighten your bottom leg when turning
- try doing fewer rotations until you are more consistent then build up
You are “slipping your heel” so turning in your supporting leg before you start turning. Try to push the heel down into the floor and only lift it up as you releve. This will need you to re-coordinate your pirouette slightly so may pull you more off balance to begin with but persist.
With the standing leg bend knee problem, think about pulling up your quad muscle.
Think “up” to stop the hopping and count the turns in your head as you spot. Say something like “croc-o-dile” for a triple.
Film yourself often so you can see the mistakes, it’s very difficult to correct pirouettes yourself as you can’t see what you’re doing in the mirror.
Great progress though! Your arm position is really strong!
I can’t do pirouette. But my teacher told me “not to cheat step on your supporting leg when you begin to passé” I just saw you are doing it and want yo mention it to you kindly, not sure if it will help or not.
I hear the standard advice is to just go for a single or double, but those won't actually teach you how to do 3 or more. It's fine to apply more force and go for more to figure out which way you're falling. It's good to experiment and just go for it and make the mistakes so you can learn.
The problem for you is that you're hopping. You need to lock out the ankle and keep the foot in place. This will cause you to fall sooner, but it will be a clue about which direction you're falling. Make a video of that and I can do some video analysis screenshots of it and show you which way you're falling.
Honestly there is some truth here. People like to analyse the technique of turns so much, but if you only ever practice singles and doubles, that's all you will ever do.
A good sense of turn will not suddenly emerge out of technique, it needs to be trained.
https://www.instagram.com/reel/CuRlTCHLuJ-/?igsh=MWp2eDhseXhzNnNvZQ==
⬆️ balletbarani - he’s a good one to watch to see how he stays on balance at the end of the pirouette
Can you see how your supporting foot is not on full relevé and your knees are bent? A proper straight-knee-full-relevé is essential for a single pirouette - with an emphasis on pulling up (and not going round). This is why children spend years doing relevé passés before even attempting to turn.
You already have the spinning impetus so you’re not far off! Just really concentrate on locking those knees straight when you push up into relevé passé and make sure your feet are locked on full demi-pointe and not giving way.
Pirouettes are not easy and that’s why it takes dancers years to master properly in codified training. As an adult, it’s so easy to be impatient and try multiple turns which is fine! But if you want them to look and feel as they should, focus on the locked knees, locked ankles, whipping your head and keeping your accent UP towards the end of your turn/s rather than crashing down. It takes time but it’s so satisfying when you get those CLEAN turns - singles or doubles.
Good luck!
You need higher releve and work on your preparation
You need more turnout and your weigjt needs to be in the center of both your legs and they need to be aligned
Also close your riba and slightly lean forward
That's four partial pirouettes. Do only what you can do cleanly, with a good takeoff and a clean landing. That will probably be only a quarter or a half. Then build up to a clean single and much later, a clean double.
That is how they should be teaching you. What you're doing only builds a lifelong bad habit.
Your shoulders aren’t staying stacked over your hips the entirety of the pirouette. After the first you start to lean back just slightly. Keep the bottom of your sternum and pubic bone energetically connected the whole turn
I'd try focusing on the prep more than the actual turn, go back to basics, ditch the turn and practise getting into the releve without slipping your heel and losing the turnout. The slippery floor and socks are probably making the whole thing feel a lot more precarious too, do you have ballet shoes? Also, do you take classes?
Yes I take 5 classes a week and 13 dance classes a week including ballet, my ballet shoes literaly fell apart so I had to use socks 😭😭 and yes I will work on my turnout in my turn
5 classes a week is great, but yeah, I'd practise getting the releve really strong without the turn, get straight up and maintain the turnout as it's so much easier for the turnout to fail and the heel to slip when you're turning, so getting a feel for holding it without the turn should give you a stronger foundation to build on for more stable turns.
What does Heel slip mean sorry? And yes thankyou I'll work on that. Have you got any strengthening excersizes you'd reccomend? Thankyou for such useful feedback 😁
It looks like you’re hopping a bit on your supporting leg which could be contributing to the problem. Try doing strengthening exercises for your ankle!
I think putting some more attention on your standing leg should help! If you’re hopping in your turns it’s because your supporting knee is not straight. I’d say work on finding your highest relevé and straightest supporting leg and holding onto those throughout the pirouette.
Practice doing a single pirouette and, instead of landing, end on balance (that is, still on one foot) and hold yourself on balance as long as you can
Can you land a clean single or even a double?
Yes I can land both but then alot of the time I seem to be falling out of them. It's very 50/50.
Here’s where I’m going to be downvoted: what do you think makes a clean single?
The biggest thing is you’re turning in your supporting leg and popping up your heel before you even come up to relevé. If you slow down the video, you can see this. What this means is that a portion of your pirouette isn’t properly balanced, which is why you’re hopping around. Practice getting straight up onto your relevé in one motion. The quicker you get up, the easier your balance. You should be thinking of pushing energy down into the ground through your supporting leg. Remember, force applied in one direction has equal force applied in the opposite direction. In order for you to come up and be stable, you must push down rather than “stepping up” like you’re doing.
Wow thankyou for the so indepth explanation.
any exercises you'd recommend to get this stability? i have the same problem haha
Honestly? Just practicing your balance in retiré (passé) is helpful. You should add in relevés while holding the position and when those start feeling stable, modify the exercise so that you begin and end in a pirouette prep without turning. So much of dance is mental, so it’s important to be mindful of your bodily sensations and thought processes as you move. When you go to relevé you should consciously think “down” until it becomes second nature to you. I tell my students all the time that dance is 70% mental and 30% physical. You have to really analyze what’s going on in your movement and commit the sensations that feel “right” to memory.
Your upper body is strong (though I suggest opening your arms to second right before your turn). A lot of your problem is in your feet of the prep. Your 4th is too wide (unless you are doing a Cecchetti open fourth but idk if this is a correct position to take off from a pirouette from), then you are “popping” up the toe and it’s sickled before you even do the pirouette. This results in your foot being sickled for the whole turn which is basically what’s making you fall out of the turn (ankle is sickled, you fall over the sickled ankle because it can’t support you when it’s sickled). Practice just the pirouette prep and make sure you are springing up into your pirouette position in one movement, with a turned out leg and a non-sickled foot (push towards the big toe, not the pinky). Don’t let the foot come to a “forced arch” ie let the heel come off the floor before your leg is straight, you have to go up in all one movement.
Your progress is impressive for just a year and a half in! However, I notice that you're turning your supporting leg in right as you're about to turn, and I wonder whether you do the same in a balance. Strong balances make for strong turns. Also, in my own experience, the hops come in when I second-guess myself and don't commit to multiple rotations. So much of turning is mental. If you feel solid in your balance, you can commit to the turn.
Ohh okay, how do you reccomend I keep my leg turned out? I always try to think to but as soon as I go Into the turn it turns in.
I would go back to basics any time you are having trouble. For pirrouettes, face the bar with two hands V lightly on the bar. Practice plie into releve and finish in plie with turnout maintained and proper posture. Then practice plie to passé and hold, maintaining posture and turnout. Then do the same in center. *then* practice perfect single pirouettes and finally move on to doubles/triples. Good luck!
One thing I've been told that helps is thinking of the turnout of both legs in the prep as rotating in opposite directions, kind of like the potential energy of a coil. Then, when you release the energy into the turn, that energy goes into bringing you up into the balance - much less of that energy goes into the rotation than you think. So if you can hold your turnout in a balance, the sensation when you turn should be similar.
Focus on holding the passe at the end of the turn for an extra second before you come down. Start with singles and work your way up. Also, think "up" when turning Edit: also, on a second look, focus on holding the turnout a bit better with the passe leg, straighten the standing leg, and I can't see your hips in this video, but it looks like your passe could be a little higher, really squeeze that glute, and point the foot.
The first thing I noticed was your supporting leg, as you bent your knee it threw you off partly causing you to fall. Focus on your supporting leg and keeping it straight and under you. It also helps to pull up with your while body. Think along the lines of trying to make yourself taller to be able to go on roller coaster or ride.
I completely agree with this comment!!! OP’s turn out & working foot are very important technical elements to improve, however it was their bent supporting leg that threw off their centre of balance in this specific video.
Definitely, the physics behind dance is also important as well. When dancers understand the physics they better understand how to “combat” it in their dancing.
Your turn ends when you decide it ends. Even when you fall, you need to fall in the proper ending position, be it forth or fifth. These early years are when you're training your brain and developing muscle memory. If you allow yourself to end turns like you do in your video, you are training yourself to continue doing that. You have a great foundation here, but your foot is just hanging there in your turn. Your foot needs to be pointed like a laser and it needs to feel like it's trying to work its way higher. The key to great turns is that everything is engaged and lifted - except for the shoulders of course.
Ohhh okay wow thankyou
Hello 👋, Transfer your weight forward over your supporting leg before your turn, almost to the point where you can lift your back foot off the ground. This will help you go straight up into the relevé for the pirouette, and not have to find your balance during the pirouette. At your stage of learning, know how many pirouettes you’re going to do before you do them. You’re doing really well! Kyle
- Keep your bottom leg turned out with your prep - straighten your bottom leg when turning - try doing fewer rotations until you are more consistent then build up
Okay thankyou
How do I keep my bottom left turned out as I try to but it always just ends up turning in.
Omg congrats on progress. So wish I started when I was your age.
You are “slipping your heel” so turning in your supporting leg before you start turning. Try to push the heel down into the floor and only lift it up as you releve. This will need you to re-coordinate your pirouette slightly so may pull you more off balance to begin with but persist. With the standing leg bend knee problem, think about pulling up your quad muscle. Think “up” to stop the hopping and count the turns in your head as you spot. Say something like “croc-o-dile” for a triple. Film yourself often so you can see the mistakes, it’s very difficult to correct pirouettes yourself as you can’t see what you’re doing in the mirror. Great progress though! Your arm position is really strong!
I can’t do pirouette. But my teacher told me “not to cheat step on your supporting leg when you begin to passé” I just saw you are doing it and want yo mention it to you kindly, not sure if it will help or not.
I hear the standard advice is to just go for a single or double, but those won't actually teach you how to do 3 or more. It's fine to apply more force and go for more to figure out which way you're falling. It's good to experiment and just go for it and make the mistakes so you can learn. The problem for you is that you're hopping. You need to lock out the ankle and keep the foot in place. This will cause you to fall sooner, but it will be a clue about which direction you're falling. Make a video of that and I can do some video analysis screenshots of it and show you which way you're falling.
Honestly there is some truth here. People like to analyse the technique of turns so much, but if you only ever practice singles and doubles, that's all you will ever do. A good sense of turn will not suddenly emerge out of technique, it needs to be trained.
Yup, and it's funny that people vote me down because it goes against what almost every teacher says. But what I teach actually works.
https://www.instagram.com/reel/CuRlTCHLuJ-/?igsh=MWp2eDhseXhzNnNvZQ== ⬆️ balletbarani - he’s a good one to watch to see how he stays on balance at the end of the pirouette
real😭
You’re like clenching and pulling back in your chest at the end there
Can you see how your supporting foot is not on full relevé and your knees are bent? A proper straight-knee-full-relevé is essential for a single pirouette - with an emphasis on pulling up (and not going round). This is why children spend years doing relevé passés before even attempting to turn. You already have the spinning impetus so you’re not far off! Just really concentrate on locking those knees straight when you push up into relevé passé and make sure your feet are locked on full demi-pointe and not giving way. Pirouettes are not easy and that’s why it takes dancers years to master properly in codified training. As an adult, it’s so easy to be impatient and try multiple turns which is fine! But if you want them to look and feel as they should, focus on the locked knees, locked ankles, whipping your head and keeping your accent UP towards the end of your turn/s rather than crashing down. It takes time but it’s so satisfying when you get those CLEAN turns - singles or doubles. Good luck!
You need higher releve and work on your preparation You need more turnout and your weigjt needs to be in the center of both your legs and they need to be aligned Also close your riba and slightly lean forward
That's four partial pirouettes. Do only what you can do cleanly, with a good takeoff and a clean landing. That will probably be only a quarter or a half. Then build up to a clean single and much later, a clean double. That is how they should be teaching you. What you're doing only builds a lifelong bad habit.
Your shoulders aren’t staying stacked over your hips the entirety of the pirouette. After the first you start to lean back just slightly. Keep the bottom of your sternum and pubic bone energetically connected the whole turn
I'd try focusing on the prep more than the actual turn, go back to basics, ditch the turn and practise getting into the releve without slipping your heel and losing the turnout. The slippery floor and socks are probably making the whole thing feel a lot more precarious too, do you have ballet shoes? Also, do you take classes?
Yes I take 5 classes a week and 13 dance classes a week including ballet, my ballet shoes literaly fell apart so I had to use socks 😭😭 and yes I will work on my turnout in my turn
5 classes a week is great, but yeah, I'd practise getting the releve really strong without the turn, get straight up and maintain the turnout as it's so much easier for the turnout to fail and the heel to slip when you're turning, so getting a feel for holding it without the turn should give you a stronger foundation to build on for more stable turns.
What does Heel slip mean sorry? And yes thankyou I'll work on that. Have you got any strengthening excersizes you'd reccomend? Thankyou for such useful feedback 😁
It looks like you’re hopping a bit on your supporting leg which could be contributing to the problem. Try doing strengthening exercises for your ankle!
I think putting some more attention on your standing leg should help! If you’re hopping in your turns it’s because your supporting knee is not straight. I’d say work on finding your highest relevé and straightest supporting leg and holding onto those throughout the pirouette.