Easy Flexibility
EASY FLEXIBILITY
Ballet Turnout – Functional Turnout for Ballet Dancers
TURN OUT
No doubt about it, if you want a professional career in ballet (especially classical ballet ), you need turn out. Dancers who have it seem to effortlessly master the technique. A perfect fifth is a walk in the park. Everything, from an exquisite arabesque, 6 o clock penche, gravity defeating grand jete, to flawless multiple pirouettes are captured with ease , if you have turn out.
Many dance professionals believe if you don’t have turn out you’re simply not cut out for ballet. Yet, with the surge of knowledge about anatomy, that theory is becoming old. Turn out, like many other things in dance (and life for that matter) can be developed.
But How?
With the following:
*Proper Knowledge of Anatomy and Biomechanics
*Commitment to the right conditioning program
*Courage (aka. grit)
Easy Flexibility Breaks the process down, so it’s doable, and allows you to see results you can track over time.
Some of these exercises are not easy (to say the least!) The demonstrators make them look a lot easier than they really are. It also takes patience when you may be used to your regular stretch routine, etc. But trust me, if you stick with it, you will get stronger, and your turn out will increase. As a result, you’ll balance with ease, your lines will get cleaner, and above all, you’ll feel lighter, and give off that true ethereal quality of a prima ballerina!
As Virginia Johnson, former prima ballerina for current artistic director of Dance Theatre of Harlem exclaims- the three fundamentals to ballet technique emphasize:
- Elevation
- Expression
- Co-ordination
Although typically I would put turn out specifically under elevation- flexibility in the hips allows once to lift up and out of the hips. Turn out is also fundamentally about expression. This idea originates back in the days of the royal court, where the stage only allowed you to be seen from a lateral, “side to side” point of view- so the dancer had to “turn out” to effectively show the visuals of balletic movement. In this way ballet is primarily theatrically expressive. It is made for the stage.
From my own experience, I realized it’s much easier to build coordination with turn out. Pirouettes are a great example. The more turned out you are, the easier you can get out of your hips and perfect your balance. Without this feeling, it’s very hard to progress and work on coordination, which requires strength, a keen sense of timing, and balance. Yes. Ballet is not only an art, but a science.
With Easy Flexibility’s turn out program, your technique will flourish. This will allow you to do what every dancer dreams of, to freely express the artistry of movement- to dance!
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