Biomechanics of a Pirouette
One of the most magical, impressive things a dancer can do is pirouette? Who do you think of when you think of turns for days? Baryshnikov in White Night? Sophia Lucia getting her world record? Your favourite senior dancer growing up who could literally turn for days? Pirouettes are a staple in dance and for any dancer or audience member always bring such a special movement quality and energy to a performance.
When learning a pirouette a lot of the fundamentals are broken down and taught separately before bringing them together. In this blog, I’m going to break each of those down and explain how I teach that element.
The first element is spotting. Spotting is the act of focusing on one point as long as possible so that you reduce dizziness and improve direction and technique (finishing your turn where you want to face). We start training spotting technique by slowly turning around on the spot until you are at end range of neck rotation, and then you quickly rotate in the opposite direction until you find your focus again (your spot) and then complete your turn. Before we take this to spotting to a pirouette (or even a half turn), we use it for a chainé first. By mastering this skill before applying it to a full pirouette you can lay down a better motor pattern so that you won’t end up with issues down the road with more complex, difficult movement.
The next element of a pirouette I train is breathing. Breathing is important as it relates to spotting. When we breath, we typically use our diaphragm, but when dancing, we often are bracing our core which doesn’t allow our diaphragm to move as much. We then use secondary muscles or accessory muscles to help us get air in and out of our lungs. Some of our accessory muscles are located in our neck (scalenes). If we are activating these muscles we are then stiffening our neck and then not able to rotate our neck fully, reducing our ability to effectively spot. For this reason, I always train inhaling while preparing to pirouette and then exhaling on the pirouette. This will help the neck muscles relax and allow full rotation of the neck when spotting.
Once breathing and spotting have started, the next step for me is core. Core is something that should already be on track by the time turns are introduced but if not, I go back to basics. First of all, core activation should be 360 and should involve modulated bracing. Bracing means activating your muscles around your lumbar spine, but not pushing your stomach out or sucking it in. You should also be able to modulate how much you “turn on” your core muscles based on the activity you are doing. You need more core support when doing a back tuck compared to a back walkover. Having students work on their core during movement and perturbation, all while breathing normally helps them then use their core to their advantage while performing pirouettes.
The next element I focus on is rétiré. You want your foot to be tight to your knee. Placement is near the knee joint on the medial aspect, and adductors are engaged. If you have a dangling foot, it will affect your ability to turn without being pulled to the side in one direction or another. The analogy I like to use is with a paper airplane. A paper airplane folded willy-nilly wouldn’t fly very well compared to one that is folded carefully and with intention. Clean, tight rétiré will help execute a cleaner pirouette.
Pirouette preparation can truly make or break a pirouette. When turning, I always use a forced arch for the back foot. I also try to keep the dancer’s weight primarily on the front leg. The way I explain it to dancers is your weight on your back leg should be proportionate to the number of pirouettes you are completing. Putting more weight than needed on the back leg forces the dancer to shift more of the weight on the transverse plane before pulling up. Reducing this translation will minimize potential overshooting and thus falling out of a turn.
My next element I like to focus on is closing arm technique. Highly related to the pirouette preparation, the closing arm must be done with power. The closing arm helps initiate rotation and can account for the first full rotation (or single pirouette). By using the closing arm, we rely less on the push off foot, again reducing the risk of falling over in a pirouette. Once closing arm technique, preparation, and proper breath have been established, then the next phase is to bring them all together and coordinate the movement without overusing one of the three elements.
Finally the last element is port de bras support during pirouettes. Often I see dance teachers cueing students by pushing down on their arms while they are in first position (the position commonly used for teaching pirouettes). The issue I have with this cue is that it will encourage activating scapular elevators like trapezius. Trapezius then causes the same problem as scalenes mentioned previously (reduces the ability to rotate the neck). Instead, I suggest cueing arms from underneath, promoting more latissimus activation which will not impede spotting but add to stability of the shoulder girdle.
Turns are such a common movement used in so many forms of movement and dance. Having a solid foundation of technique and biomechanics allows students to enjoy turning and eventually be able to break the rules creating art while turning. Regardless of the age or ability, revisiting the basics will support choreography helping dancers flourish on stage.
