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Welcome everyone, my name is Luis Dominguez. I am the artistic director with the
Lexington Ballet, in Lexington Kentucky, for About.com.
What we would like to do for you today, is to show you how to pirouette.
There are many different ways in which a dancer can turn.
What we're going to demonstrated and to help you with
is the basic turns in passe.
And the turns are going to be performed en dehors,
which means,
outside.
Rose is going to help us improve our turns. From fifth position,
she takes a tendu to the side
and she goes to fourth position, and she is going to do three turns.
In order to perform a pirouette it is very important to use a spotting action.
A spotting action is when your eyes lock into something,
a camera, the wall,
and you turn around keeping your eyes on that place by turning your head around
and snapping back to that place with your eyes.
It's very important to perform this action as you do the turn. When the foot of the working leg meets the
knee of the standing leg, that position is called passe.
Would you take passe?
Working leg. Standing leg. Passe.
This is the position that we turn in.
Rose takes fifth position, tendu to the side, and then into fourth position.
This time both knees are bent,
one leg is in front of the other, both arms are bent and she is going to turn three times.
Ready? go!
Very important that the shoulders gyrate,
and they are connected with the bottom part
of the legs.
It is very important to know the difference between a neo-classical turn
and a classical turn.
Rose, would you take fourth position?
Now, she has the back leg absolutely straight.
This is the neoclassical way of turn in. Note that the front arm is absolutely straight,
and from here Rose is going to take three turns.
In order to improve your turns,
you may want to get a hold of one of these, a simple piece of wood, the bottom of a rocking chair.
Put your foot onto it and in passe, this is when the foot of the standing leg,
meets the working leg.
And you are going to turn
and try to stay in that position.
The objective for you is to be absolutely straight as you turn.
Thanks for watching! To learn more,
visit us at About.com.