- Hey fans, how's it going?
We are back on my channel, obviously.
Where else would we be?
Today, we're gonna turn.
I'm gonna teach you how to do pirouettes,
parallel, and turned out.
We're gonna work on some fouetté preparations,
and some a la seconde preparations.
So, get a nice little open space.
We're gonna be turning our booties off.
Like a little cycle switch.
(crickets chirping)
- Is that a saying?
(laughs)
- No.
- I'm leaving it in.
(laughs)
- Alright, you guys, so we're gonna start
with our parallel pirouettes.
Your parallel pirouettes are probably
in your jazz class,
maybe your contemporary classes,
and maybe lyrical.
So, start parallel, just like the name.
You're gonna stand like a soldier,
I always tell my students, yeah?
We're here.
This foot's gonna go to the outside,
and your arms are gonna open to a T.
When this foot steps back, it's gonna be up
on the relevé in the back.
And this arm, same arm as leg, is gonna
cut in front.
Then, your gonna plié.
Now, when you plié, you wanna make sure
that your knee is directly over your toe.
You don't wanna over extend it.
This back foot is on a nice, high relevé,
and we plié straight down.
Try not to lean forward or back.
So this is your positioning, okay?
From here,
so we went one, and two.
You're gonna lift your chin, press your shoulders
close your rib cage.
Now, I had so many teachers
in my whole dance career
say close your rib cage, and I never understood
what that meant
because it's like what?
So, your rib cage closing just means
to pull your lower tummy in,
your lower abdominals,
and flatten out your spine.
So instead of having your chest out like this,
like you're walking around like a crazy person,
you close your rib cage
and create a vertical lift
from your spine and your booty.
Yeah.
Mm-kay, so we're here.
We plié with a lifted chin, a pressed shoulder,
and a closed rib cage.
We're gonna press up into a passé.
Your passé attaches to your knee,
and our arms go from an L
to a nice, beautiful circle.
So, I would just try this a couple times --
plié, passé,
plié, passé.
One more time -- plié.
Oh my gosh, that's what you don't wanna do, okay?
That was my, ah, tutorial of how not to turn.
Plié, passé.
Now, that's pretty easy,
but it's not actually turning, right?
So, from here now, you're gonna go
over your right shoulder,
if your right foot is back,
and you're gonna rotate.
Land in a parallel position.
When you do your pirouettes, guys,
it's all in one piece.
So, sometimes what happens is we go out,
we put our foot back,
we find our center, we lift,
and then we try and turn.
And everything is in different sections.
Your pirouettes should be
as tight and compact as possible.
So, that means the moment you're here,
everything is squeezed.
Everything is placed properly,
and that rotation is all
in one tiny compact piece,
and land.
And those are your jazz pirouettes.
Panera salad is waiting for me outside.
(laughter)
Okay, let's move on to our ballet pirouettes.
Our piroattés, if you will.
Buckle up into first position, okay?
We're here.
This is pretty similar to your jazz pirouette.
It's just everything is rotated out.
So, you're gonna wanna squeeze your DORs,
your deep outward rotators,
and that are these guys,
right underneath your booty.
You squeeze 'em, and you lift,
and that's where your rotation comes from.
Your turnout does not actually come
from your feet or your knees.
It's from your hips.
So, let's start like this.
We're gonna tendue, and our arms are gonna open.
This same way your foot went in the back
for your jazz pirouette is gonna happen
for your ballet one,
but now you're turned out in a fourth position.
Same thing here, you guys, close your rib cage,
create a vertical line from your toe,
all the way down to your feet, mm-kay?
No weird leaning or hunching back.
Shoulders down.
You wanna make sure this outside arm
doesn't get behind you.
You wanna keep it slightly in front of your body.
So we're here, we plié.
We're gonna lift up to a passé.
This is a little bit harder,
but you're gonna wanna go plié, passé.
Plié, my booty is burning when I'm doing this,
because I'm turning out,
and I'm maintaining a turnout.
So try this a couple million times.
Then you can do your rotation,
and you can land in a lunge,
which I teach you in my ballet tutorial.
Okay, so if you don't know how to do this lunge,
check out that video,
so that you know the proper landing.
One tip really quickly,
high, high passé.
My teacher used to tell me I have a sleepy passé.
So, as I would turn, the passé would just go
lower, and lower, and lower.
Shout out, Lauren Johnson.
But, I will never forget that.
So I always squeeze everything,
lift the passé as high, high, high as possible,
and I promise you, it helps you get around,
because it engages those muscles, up,
and then you can land back
as smoothe as possible.
Alright you guys, so now I'm gonna teach
you your a la seconde turns,
and this just means your second turns.
So this is what they're going to look like,
once you're done with the break-down.
Alright you guys, so,
our a la seconde turn break-down
is a little bit complicated, but don't give up
on these turns.
The best advice I can give you
is to just know when you're opening
to your second,
and that's when you're facing straight forward.
So, sometimes dancers start, and they're opening
all over the place,
and they don't know where they are,
and things are scary.
Just bring it back, bring it back
to your basics.
This is your first position.
This is your second position.
That's it -- plié and second.
There's only two positions in that fancy turn.
So, how I start them is a slap prep.
It sounds (slap) super intense,
but you slap in a relevé, then you step out
to your pirouette prep, mm-kay?
So a slap prep.
Slap, prep.
What you're gonna do,
this is your first progression
is a slap prep, turn, and hold at the corner.
That's it.
Literally, just that.
So, slap, prep, corner.
I would try that like 10 times, k?
Just get the slap, prep, and the corner position.
K, so 10 of those.
Then, you're gonna move on
to your second progression,
which is gonna go slap prep, corner, second.
This is pretty much impossible,
'cause nobody can really balance up
in their second, unless you're like a genius.
I guess I'm a genius.
A genie, I meant to say a genie.
Shout out, Aladdin.
Yeah, so here we go.
Slap, prep, corner, hold.
That's probably what you're gonna look like,
but the idea of it is that you're getting
(snaps)
the three positions at the beginning
before you start rotating.
Slap, prep, corner, hold.
Try that a million times.
Slap, prep, corner, hold, k?
Your arms go circle, second,
circle, second.
Ideally, you guys, your leg is staying
at the same height the whole time.
You don't wanna have a swinging a la seconde leg.
Okay, so practice those a couple times.
After you do the first two progressions,
you just start adding in that rotation,
and you're gonna go one, two, one, two.
That's it.
There's no other positions between.
So, practice your slap prep,
practice your corner hold,
practice your second hold,
and then you just start piecing the corner
and the second together.
And do as many as you can before you start
to lose your center and your focus forward,
and then start adding from there.
So, I'll show you one more time.
(slap)
So, good luck with those.
They're kinda tricky, but don't give up on them.
It took me kind of a while to get them,
but once you know where your front is,
it's muscle memory from there.
Hey guys, I'm gonna teach you how
to do some fouettés.
You don't need a chair,
unless you're at your house,
and you probably need a chair,
unless you have a bar in your home,
which would be super cool.
You do need something to hold on to.
So, grab a bar at a studio or grab a chair
or just something that's kind of,
this is a little bit too short,
but I'm a tall lady,
so just make sure you have something,
like, right here, mm-kay?
The way that I teach these fouettés,
hands on your hips, at the bar, okay?
You're going to plié, come out to second,
come to your passé.
Plié, second, passé.
So, your fouettés have three different positions,
front, side, passé.
After you get those three positions
on your flat foot,
you can go ahead and take them up to your relevé.
So, go back to your whatever,
your chair or your bar.
You're human, whoever you're holding on to.
You're gonna go plié, relevé, passé.
Plié, relevé, passé.
Oh my gosh, I am burnin', yeah.
Those progressions will help you understand
the three precise positions.
Position.
Precise positions.
Before you come out to the center, mm-kay?
So, try, those progressions first
on a flat foot, and then try your relevé,
and then
squeak.
And then you're ready to come into center.
Okay guys, so these are your fouettés,
and your fouettés have three different positions,
front, side, and passé.
So these guys actually come into your knee
before you land in your lunge.
Alright you guys, so now that you've moved
away from your bar,
or whatever you were holding on to,
you can come into center,
and choose to either stand in first position
or fifth position.
I like to do first,
just to keep it simple, mm-kay?
So from here, we're gonna go tendue,
just like you do in your turned-out pirouette,
you Rond de Jambe back.
There's a couple different ways that
you can start this fouetté.
You can either go straight
into the fouetté position,
or you can do a pirouette into the fouetté.
If you are more on an advanced side,
you can throw a single, a double, a triple
to begin.
If you're starting out, I would just say
go straight to the front position
so you don't have to stress about doing
a turn before the turn, okay?
So, we're here, tendue.
We plié.
Find that first position, one, k?
Then, second progression, out, plié.
You find the first and then the second position.
Hey, that was kinda a good balance, yeah?
Then we go, out, you find all three.
One, two, three.
Okay?
Then, piece them together.
I think that turns are taught best
when they're broken down like that
so you're not just flinging your body
into space, you know where you're moving, okay?
So, we're here.
Easy start, here, prep just like a pirouette.
Find your one, two, and three.
Land in a lunge.
Just like ballet.
And that's pretty much it, you guys.
Again, with your turns, don't give up.
Go through the progressions.
Get each progression down.
Lay a foundation down.
Then develop on top of that.
Dance is a layered art, okay?
So, don't get discouraged
if you can't get it right away.
Or, if after this video,
you're not a perfect turner.
Keep watching this, try it every day,
and I promise you will get better at turning.
Alright, for any newbies on here,
we have a new dance vlog every single Wednesday,
and a new choreography video the last Friday
of each month.
You guys, I'm so thankful for all of you on here,
and I love you guys,
and I will see you next week
with more dance stuff.
Mwah!
(upbeat music)
My hair!
(laughter)
(upbeat music)