Turnout is a headache among the best of the ballet community. Coming from a teacher who was born "pigeon-toed" I can be honest and say its my least favorite focal point in ballet. Turn out was originally designed to emphasize the beautiful ankles of the aristocrats during their lengthy court court dances. After a few decades it was discovered to allow dancers to hold positions on their legs longer by giving a much wider platform to stand on. Thus, a constant annoyance is born!
Kinesiologists have recently argued that it is impossible for anyone to have perfect turnout without their bodies being damaged as a young child, or having it from birth. The idea was that a muscle has to be torn and healed and torn and healed may sound a bit familiar. (Stretching anyone?) But recent discoveries have shown the looseness of a muscle could be well determined by your person physical make up, your diet and the amount of stress you carry with you.
But Ms Ivy, turn out is how far out our feet go, what does that have to do with stretching? Well my lovelies, turn out is actually a movement in and of itself and therefore not a noun.
It is a constant stretch from behind the hips to the inner thigh and your progress is shown by how far you can open your feet. Its a little not fair, isn't it? Something you control by opening your thighs is marked by your feet which are half down your body away! Luckily for us we've discovered all sorts of new ways to not only increase our turn out, but also build strength while doing it.
Most of us ballerinas remember taking ballet and having to lay in that horrible "frog" position for forever, it felt like! It was said to increase out turn out which no seven year old really cared about. Well how many of us wish we'd started doing it back then, instead of waiting for now? Apparently we don't have to go back in time and yell at our former self to wake up and quit cheating our future selves out of a career though. Question and answer blogs like this, really help us out as grown dancers. I mean come one, a rand de jambe helps increase motion in the hips? Interesting!
Oh, my favorite website for anything, Ehow had something to say on the matter, of course. This one mostly focuses on a daily routine for your hips. I love getting something prepackaged for whatever I feel the need to work on, don't you?
My last note on turn out is this. You will never achieve perfect turn out, no matter how hard you strive. It is physically impossible to do everything you need to in ballet with perfect turnout. That doesn't mean we ever stop trying! But accepting our limitations and working around them is how a mature dancer responds to the individual demands of their bodies.
What would you like to hear about? Post me comments or message my facebook. -Ms Ivy
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