Q&A for How to Do Ballet Fouette Turns

Have a confident eye line and know where your head and eye focus are at all times. Don’t look down! Keep both your arms supported and keep your chin up to help carry you through space gracefully. Land with control and remember to smile and enjoy yourself.

Take videos of yourself performing the same exercises at least once a week and use the video as a tool for self-correction. You can also use slow-motion video as this will show you areas that you may not pick up on in the mirror. This is especially useful for fast footwork, jumps and pirouettes. Stretch and strengthen every day and you will see your flexibility improving. Take a notebook to your classes and write down your corrections, once you have mastered that correction you can cross it out in your book!

You should, but if you don't have any, something like socks or socks with grips on the bottom will work.

Spotting. To spot, focus, and stare at one object the entire time. When your head goes around, snap it as quick as you can to that object.

No, but if you did, it would be a great way to get the judges' attention.

Because a pirouette uses movement that is built upon when you do a fouette. It is like learning to walk before running.

You will need to be able to do one pirouette to attempt this turn. If you want to be fancy you can try two, but it is harder.

First stretch and complete both the left and right leg split. Overall flexibility should help with your middle split as well as straddles. Sit in a pike, and then push your hips forward and swing your legs out. You can also do this against a wall for that extra push. In your straddle, lean and try to grab one of your feet, hold for about 10 seconds, and do the same on your other side. Then try to go as far down as possible in the middle.

Practice lifting your leg as high as you can in releve, then go up, down, up, down. Try to do at least five or 10 sets of 12.

There isn't really a way to learn splits without some discomfort. Practice splits every day. Check out the helpful tips in this article about doing splits on wikiHow for more information.

Really stretch. If you can't do the forward splits yet, do not try an over split. If you do have your splits down, then stretch - some good stretches are lunges and heel stretches. Pike/toe touches also help.

Yes, it is definitely okay! It is actually a very useful skill to be able to turn to the left, as many people can't do it as well to their left side. This will help you to stand out in the crowd.

Practice! Get stronger on your leg by doing relevés or using a thera-band, practice your balance by standing in passé as long as you can, and just do many fouettes many times a day.

Yes.

Yes, you do need ballet shoes. You can buy them at a dance shop or on Amazon.

If you feel yourself falling backward, pull up from your core by engaging your abdominal muscles. Reposition yourself so that your weight is balanced directly over the supporting ankle. Be sure that you're not winding up your arms in the preparation for the turn, as this can also throw you off balance. As for fixing your messy landings, practice doing single pirouettes continuously until you have achieved a strong landing several consecutive times. Remember to lengthen your back muscles and pull up!

Yes, it is. You need to do fouette turns on a smooth surface like wood, and wear dance shoes. The carpet slows you down and throws off your balance.

Try doing a deeper plie. Lots of people forget this step, but it is nessisary in most turns. Also make sure you are spotting well and your neck is loose.

Normally, your arms move from first position to second position when you open your leg and body to the front.

it depends what style of dance you're studying, and how much practice you put in. if you practice once a day, then you would learn quicker than once a week, but it all depends on you and how you dance.

Work on core strength. I recommend the Ballet Body Workout: Core by Talia Fidra (it is on YouTube for free). Also work on spotting, which can really help. Also work on holding your leg a la seconde on releve at the bar, for an extra tip try letting go of the bar.

Focus on on spot directly in front of you. Then, when you turn, your head has to quickly spin around. Then, whip it back to the same spot you were looking at before. Also, remember to keep your body strong and still.

Grab your ankle instead, or just below your calf.

Try to push your foot down into the ground using the ball of your foot and focus on turning on an axis, not turning around something. Another thing that will help is making sure you have proper alignment. Make sure you are balanced during your fouette, because being off balance could cause you to move around.

Begin in a plie or a lunge, and use that force to push off into a turn. Use your back leg to push off the ground before using it to swing yourself around.

There are two types of turns, en dehors and en dedans. En dehors are turns outwards (away from your front foot) and en dedans inwards (toward your front foot).

Try holding the bar and going to passe. Now plie and kick your foot forward as you would in a real fouette. Then swing your foot back and go to passe again. This exercise at the bar helps you get the rhythm and movement of the fouette.

When you practice doing the turns, find something to look at every turn. In ballet, this is called spotting. It helps stop you from feeling dizzy.

It’s not about how many you can do, it’s how well you can do them and how you can recognize the same movement patterns.

Strengthen your ankle and plié lower to get more momentum and strength so you can stay up there longer and make sure you spot. To help, do 30 calf rises on each leg to balance it out.