At Stonewall Independent auditions, I taught pirouette turns and thought I'd share some of the tips we used to help everyone learn how to do them properly. In this blog I'll cover how to build muscle strength to prepare you for turns such as pirouettes. In a future blog, I'll cover some tips on the turns themselves.
Strengthen Your Muscles
1. Build Ankle Strength: Your ankle strength is key to avoiding that wobbly-ankle look when you releve or turn.
One exercise it to use a bar or the back of a chair, and standing up very straight on one leg (turned out), coupe the free leg. Slowly go into releve and back down 10 times. Then switch legs. Your ankles should feel tired. If not, try doing 15 or 20 in a row. Be sure you are maintaining control and engaging your core. You also need to ensure proper alignment to bring your weight over the middle of the ball of your foot - don't roll out or in or you'll actually start straining the tendons and ligaments around your ankle.
A second option is to scrunch a towel in your foot. Stand up, and put a towel on the ground. With your bare feet, grab the towel with your toes and lift it off the ground. Control the release back to the ground. Repeat 10 times, and then switch sides.
2. Build Calf Strength: When I was at Crown, I believe it was in 2000, the horn line had a marching exercise to build calf strength. They would backwards march a yard line (10 yards) in 8 counts and then stay on that yard line 8 counts, up in releve, while lifting one foot at time (so their body stayed at the same height but their ankle would bend so one foot would come off the floor, then they'd switch feet). As I explain this, I think I need to make a video!
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