- Hey everyone,
I am super excited to announce my next live dance workshop.
So on Sunday, August 9,
from 10AM to 1PM,
I'm hosting three hours of live dance content.
That first hour is gonna be a flexibility class
where I will guide you through a ton of exercises,
and give you all the tips
to expand your range of motion,
and nail those flexibility tricks.
The second hour will be an open-level lyrical class
where you'll get to learn an exclusive routine choreographed
by yours truly.
And that third hour is going to be an inspiring interview
with "So You Think You Can Dance" all-star, Alex Wong.
I cannot wait,
this is open to all levels,
all ages, all backgrounds,
anyone who loves dance,
and just wants to learn and grow
in their technique and mindset.
Go to the link in my bio to get your ticket.
Hello darlings!
Today we're gonna be working on how
to do multiple pirouettes.
So just a disclaimer,
turning is not my forte,
but I can teach it,
and I actually think it's kind of cool
for you guys to see the true journey
of learning how to do multiple turns
instead of someone who knows how
to do 15 pirouettes and is like,
"Here, go do it."
You're gonna see the nitty gritty.
- [Man] The real stuff.
- And then the real pretty, okay?
Grab some space, grab a little sock if you need one,
or some shoes, or if you turn barefoot,
do your thing.
Let's do this.
So there are three things that I want you
to think about when you're working on your pirouettes.
This can apply to your singles all the way up
to 18 pirouettes.
Whoever you are, this list appliés to you.
You wanna focus on your prep and posture,
that's one thing on the list.
Locking in that posture in your prep
is gonna help you with your turn.
The second thing is your momentum,
where are you getting the power to propel that turnaround?
And number three is to make sure
that you have control over your body and your mind.
More on that later.
All right, so the first part of our list
was our prep and our posture.
Our posture and our prep, double Ps,
is really important.
It's important that you lock in the posture,
and what I mean by "lock in"
is that when you go from your pirouette prep,
and you press up to your actual turn,
that you're not moving things in your body,
your shoulders, your chin, your ribcage,
your hips, your bottom knee, the supporting leg.
You need to lock in your posture in the prep,
and maintain it throughout your turn.
So when you are in this prep,
today, I'm gonna be doing parallel pirouettes.
I'm not doing ballet pirouettes or turned out,
so just keep that in mind.
You want that back heel up.
You want to be deep into a plié that's centered.
Make sure your not forward of your body,
and make sure you're not back.
In terms of your arms,
you wanna keep that side arm in front
of that side seam.
Try not to lean back,
it'll open everything up.
Speaking of opening everything up,
you wanna close your ribcage here.
Press your shoulders down,
bring your head back so that you're not leaning forward
like a little turtle.
And then in terms of your hips,
you wanna have a neutral pelvis.
So don't stick your booty out,
and don't tuck it too far under.
So we're here.
So many things to think about in just the prep.
Now, when you plié, and you press up to your passé,
nothing should move from that prep,
beside bringing the foot up to passé,
and besides straightening that supporting leg.
So an example of what not to do is I'm here,
and then I press up.
Super dramatic, but lifting your shoulders up.
Another example of what not to do, here.
I'm hiking that hip up, right?
You wanna bring it straight from your prep,
get everything going, go through your checklist,
maintain that position in your turn.
Hi, if you want more advanced stuff,
go to patreon.com/missauti,
and sign up for the Advanced Babeh package.
This is like a ASMR,
but dance style.
- [Camerman] Touch the mic.
- Oh.
There it is. (laughs)
I was going straight for the lens.
All right dancers, moving onto our second part,
it's our momentum.
So where are you getting the power for that turn?
There's three things again,
it's your plié, and it's your arm,
and it's your passé leg coming up.
And maybe your spotting,
so that's actually four things.
So for your plié,
you want a deep plié,
you don't wanna come from the shallow spot.
There's no way for you to (exhales sharply) propel up.
So get a deep plié,
that way you have somewhere to go in your turn.
Your arms, it's that side arm, dancers.
You wanna make sure
that it's (exhales sharply) whipping in like that,
there's control and there's power there.
You don't wanna wind up,
this is incorrect.
You're gonna want to do that, but don't do it, okay?
Fight it.
Keep that arm to the side,
and then when you come up,
whip it in.
When you whip it in, (snaps)
keep the shoulder dropped.
All right, that third thing is lifting up that passé leg.
The sleepier your passé,
the lower your passé,
the more it kind of drags your body down.
But when you're able to lift your passé up,
it activates the rest of your muscles
to kind of zip up and pull everything higher.
And then your turning on this beautiful little axis.
So we're gonna zip up, up, up!
So I got that triple around
with that last little bit,
I had to lift, lift, lift,
and I was able to complete it.
And then our fourth one, what was it?
Spotting.
I have a tough time with spotting still,
for the love of God,
after all these years.
It's tricky, but you find that stationery thing
in front of you,
whatever it may be,
a dot on the mirror,
a friend that's not moving,
whatever,
a clock on the wall.
You lock in and keep your eyes on that spot.
Spotting takes practice, it's tough,
don't get discouraged.
Did I go through all four things?
I think so, we're gonna run it back.
Okay, this third part of the list,
we need to have a little heart-to-heart conversation.
It's control.
Control over your body is doing things like core exercises,
your sit-ups, your planks, whatever.
Arm strengthening, any type of conditioning
that's control over your body,
so that you have the strong muscles
to have a nice and smooth turn.
But control over your mind
is something that we need to have
like a little fireside chat right now.
Oftentimes, and I do this to myself,
I psyche myself out for my turns,
'cause I go in thinking,
"I'm not the strongest turner,
"I'm not gonna be able to film this video."
Or I of course did a good turn off camera,
and then when the camera turns on, I'm like,
"Oh my gosh!"
You start to get in your head,
so controlling your mind
is knowing that with practice,
with consistency,
and a lot of trial and error,
you're going to get these turns.
It took me a long time to be able to get to that place,
but you can do it too.
So when you're preparing for these turns,
when you're watching this video,
when you're practicing your multiple pirouettes,
take a deep breath,
let all the tension go out of your body,
and just focus on what you're doing
instead of all the worries in your head.
'Cause that is the biggest road block
to getting a lot of pirouettes.
Okay, so a good pirouette progression
is a chassé pas de bourrée pirouette.
We're gonna start with the prep,
move to a single, move to a double,
you can move to triples,
to four, to five, to six,
wherever you are is lovely, okay?
I'm kind of working on triples,
sometimes quads on a good day.
So we'll see if we can get there.
Let me show you the chassé pas de bourrée.
So you're gonna start in a first position.
You're gonna plié with the chassé.
Keep your posture locked,
straight up and down.
Pas de bourrée back.
Side, and then prep.
So when I did the pas de bourrée,
my arms came down,
and then for the prep,
I have a plié here.
Now I'm gonna go up to my prep.
And then I'm gonna shoot out,
and I'm gonna land in a parallel élevé, okay?
From there, dancers,
you don't wanna come down.
You stay up here and go straight to the chassé again.
Chassé, pas de bou, prep.
Single, and land.
It's okay if you're wobbly,
always land in élevé.
Again, chassé, pas de bourrée,
double, and land.
So even those little hops that I had,
it's okay, it's gonna happen to you.
You're here, try not to just come down and be like, (sighs).
When you do that,
you're training your body to just come right out
of your pirouette.
Instead, I don't care if you're hopping, I don't care.
Land in that élevé, train yourself to stay upright.
Have a tall spine.
Lock those knees in here.
Keep your posture up.
So even if your turn isn't smooth,
stick the landing.
I tell my dancers, "Always land."
I've had dancers literally fall to the floor,
and I'm like, "Get up and land."
And then, they land in their little pirouette,
and it's training your mind for that discipline.
Let's go back again.
I'll try the double,
I'll try the triple, we'll see, ready?
Five, six, seven, and,
chassé, pas de bou, prep,
one, two, land.
Good, and chassé, pas de bou, prep.
Woo!
And squeeze, again.
Chassé, pas de bou, prep,
land no matter what.
Last time, chassé, pas de bou, prep.
And finish.
Good job, my loves.
I am so thankful for all of you
that you've given me a space
to be able to teach you things,
and to show you things,
and to not have them be perfect.
I think when I first started the channel, I was like,
"Everything I teach has to be flawless,
"or else..."
I don't know, or else what?
This is the true raw, nitty gritty of learning to dance.
Sometimes you'll have the beautiful quad off camera,
and sometimes you'll have a single
that you're hopping around on.
But that's okay.
It's learning how to navigate the in-betweens
of your dance training.
So thank you so much, I love all of you,
hop over to patreon.com/missauti,
and I'll see you all next week.
Let's see if I can do this again.
- [Cameraman] Yay!
- (laughs)
(upbeat music)