- Hi sweet dancers,
I am so stoked to announce that
I have another live dance workshop this month.
On August 30th from 9 a.m. to noon p.m.
Pacific Standard Time,
I'm hosting a ballet workshop.
So, that very first hour is gonna be
an open-level ballet class.
We have bar, center, across the floor, the whole shebang.
That second hour is going to be a choreography class,
so you're gonna learn a brand new ballet routine
set to some popular music.
And that third hour, drum roll please...
an interview with Kathryn Morgan, Miami City Ballet soloist
and just all-around beautiful dancer.
We're gonna interview Kathryn,
learn about her epic return to the dance world
and everything that she learned along the way.
So get your ticket to three hours of live dance content.
I can't wait to have you,
these workshops are honestly so fun
and I love talking to all of you.
So if you're on Instagram, swipe up.
If you're on YouTube, go to the video description
or the pinned comment and click the link
and I'll see you there.
Hey sweet babehs.
Today I'm gonna be teaching you beginner ballet turns.
So these turns are something that
if you're a dancer, you need to know them.
We're gonna go through our chaînés, our piqués,
our step ups, pirouettes, and even into your fouettés.
So these five little guys right here are must-knows.
So grab some space, let's do it.
Okay, so our very first one is your chainé.
I'm gonna show you from the front
and then I'll flip around so you can truly follow along.
You wanna start with a nice tendu devant,
so a tendu to the front.
Your arms are gonna come to a third position.
Your chainé steps out up onto a relevé,
the arm and the leg that's on the side away
from where you just stepped come in to meet the other.
And then you reopen over the same shoulder.
So if you're doing a right chainé,
you turn over your right shoulder.
If you're doing a left chainé,
you turn over your left shoulder.
Open,
left,
and left.
Let me show you from the back.
Alright, so from the back we start with our tendu devant,
making sure that your shoulders are pressed,
your chin is lifted,
and your legs start out nice and straight.
We're gonna elevé, step up to a chainé, and close.
When you are facing your front, which for me is the wall,
my arms are open.
When you're facing your back, your arms close
to a fifth en avant, so right in front of your body.
Open,
and close,
and open,
and close.
and you keep going until the end of...
time.
Number two is your piqué turn.
Piqué means "to prick", so there's a little bit of sharpness
to this turn and it has to do with the way that you step.
Begin the same way as your chainé
with a nice tendu devant, arms in third,
this time you're gonna have a bend in that supporting leg.
Your front foot is gonna rond de jambe to the side,
and you're going to piqué, prick up, onto that relevé
as the other leg comes to a passé.
Your passé comes underneath,
actually it's technically a retiré
because it's not a passing movement.
Anyway, nerding out on ballet vocabulary, it's fine.
Your retiré comes under your knee
and it's nice and zipped up and really tall.
So let's do that again.
Tendu devant with a plié, shoulders down,
you're gonna rond de jambe, step up onto it, and retiré.
Now, I just realized,
I'm pulling my retiré to the back of my knee.
Depending on your teacher, depending on the style of ballet,
whether you're doing jazz, lyrical, blah blah,
whatever the choreography calls for,
ask if it's underneath your knee or behind.
Neither is wrong, but it's really dependent on the teacher.
Let me flip to the back and show you.
Alright, so we're here in our third position,
with our arms and our tendu devant with our legs.
We're gonna plié, rond de jambe to the side, piqué up.
Notice how my arm reaches out with my leg,
then comes to a circle in front of my body.
A fifth en devant.
Good job!
Okay, so this next technical skill is your step up.
Sometimes called a lame duck.
We have a little duck right here.
Your step up looks like this.
You plié and then you step up on a straight leg.
For the people in the back, a straight leg.
You lift up and then you come down.
Not like that, maybe in like a little situation.
Or you would go into different turns.
But let's break down that movement.
So, to start out nice and clean,
start with your tendu devant again.
The leg that's in the front is going to plié here.
So my front leg is bent, my back leg is straight.
Okay, I'm leaning in to the bent knee.
Now, as my arms come to a circle in front of my body,
my fifth en avant, my straight leg swings forward.
The swing forward is how you're gonna step up
onto that straight knee, arms come to a circle.
Let's go from the back.
Okay, so same thing here.
We have our tendu devant, arms in third.
You plié, you're going to step up on that back leg,
straight knee, and turn.
Hey my loves, if you want extra Miss Auti content per week,
make sure to go to patreon.com/missauti.
I have six different membership levels for you
to choose from and you can have content
that's not on YouTube or Instagram
delivered right to your inbox.
[Man] Like what, Miss Auti?
Like, like flexibility vlogs, like advanced techniques,
[Man] Woo!
like- get out of here!
[Man] I was excited, the last one sounded cool.
You guys, there's so much stuff on Patreon seriously.
Isn't there like a hundred and something posts
that are on there?
You're not seeing them,
but if you go to patreon.com/missauti
you can check it out and see if you wanna join.
Alright, moving on to our fourth turn, our pirouette.
I'm sure you've heard of your pirouette.
I usually do my parallel pirouette tutorials for you guys
but today we're gonna do our turned out one
because this is our ballet turn vlog.
So, I'm gonna have you start from a beautiful
first position, heels together, arms en bas,
they're gonna lift up en avant, tendu to the side.
This leg that's out is gonna ronde de jambe back, okay?
You're gonna plié in your fourth position.
Let me show you from the side.
When you plié in fourth, you wanna make sure
that your weight is centered.
Some teachers might teach you to put your weight forward,
but for me, we're gonna center our weight here.
From there, that back leg is gonna come up to a retiré.
This time, it's really under your knee in the front
and you're going to turn around.
Okay?
Now, let me show you all together.
So we go en bas,
en avant,
tendu,
ronde de jombe, plié, and turn.
Maybe land it better.
Let me show you from the back.
Alright, so from the back dancers,
we have our first position.
We take our arms lifted, tendu to the side,
ronde de jombe, keeping your foot connected to the floor,
go through a demi-pointe to plié.
From here, we bring it up,
and then we land.
Last but not least, we have our little fouetté.
This is not a beginner turn,
but it is a staple in ballet.
It's a staple in a lot of different dance styles.
And it's kind of a good progression
from the rest of these turns.
I thought I would just throw it in there.
You're like, "get to it already, lady"
Alright, so same thing from the first position,
we're gonna tendu to the side.
Now the nice thing is you already
learned how to prep for a fouetté.
It's the same prep as your pirouette.
So once you land your pirouette,
you're gonna do a single, hard to do slow,
you land it, you're going to plié to the front
with your leg extended.
It's directly in front of you,
from there it's gonna open to second
and it's going to whip in.
Fouetté means "to whip", so we're gonna plié and whip.
Now that whip is what rotates you around.
Okay?
Plié front,
open side,
whip it in.
One more tip, when you plié front,
and then you lift it to the side,
the supporting leg straightens.
So you're going
plié, straight, whip.
Let me show you from the front.
From the first position, tendu,
and pirouette,
we get a whip.
Let's do that again.
Seven, and tendu,
plié,
and whip,
and whip.
Matt, catch me.
[Matt] Got it.
Alright, on a serious note, facing the back looks like this.
We go out, we plié,
we go turn,
fouetté.
Let me do it one more time.
It's tricky to see it if you don't see it slow.
Quick tip: you can actually
play this video back at a slower tempo.
There's like a little toolbar at the bottom of the video
by the little scrub guy that you can watch it slower, okay?
Technological terms.
We go out,
plié,
we lift,
fouetté.
Yes!
Alright dancers, thank you so much
for following along today,
I hope that those five little
ballet turns were fun to learn.
Those are pretty, like, fundamental in dance,
so knowing your chaînés, your piqués, your step ups,
you pirouettes, your fouettés are gonna help you
with a lot of other technical skills.
Turns are a big part of dance
so getting the basics down is really important.
Before I sign off, I wanna say a big thank you
to our home studio, Fringe Dance Studio.
Check them out at fringe.dance
and on Instagram @fringedancestudio.
We love them, their space is beautiful
and I'm super excited to be teaching here.
So check them out, do these turns,
let me know how they go, and I'll see you later.
(outro music)
Okay you guys, in college,
Matt and I used to always do
partner pirouettes and partner lifts
and we're gonna try it out.
[Matt] It's been a minute, let's go.
(happy music)