Wait...turnout makes ballet easier?
The layers of the cake that make ballet fun and sustainable 🧁
What’s your experience of turnout, ballet friend?
I recently wrote about why I teach intrinsic foot control last (like the icing on the cake 😋) and that turnout control supports your footwork to make ballet easier, but it doesn't feel that way for everyone.
Turnout is so often taught as a quirk of ballet, rather than a strong foundation — almost like you're given a to-do list of technical elements that get in the way of natural movement and artistic expression.
It doesn't have to be that way, ballet friend. Strong foundations, taught in the right order, weave functional movement skills and ballet specific technique together to make complex steps fun and keep ballet sustainable:
Mobility — when muscles get tight and fascia gets dehydrated and sticky, your muscles have to pull harder against that resistance. It can even stop your joints from aligning and gliding they way they should. That's how a lot of injuries happen.
Deep Core Control — coordination, strength, and stamina of your breathing muscles and deep spinal stabilizers. When these deep muscles are working well, the more superficial layers don’t get so tight.
Gross Motor Coordination — getting your whole body working together (brain, eyes, core, and limbs) for power and shock absorption
Fine Motor Coordination — building on your core control and fine tuning the way you move your shoulders and hips. This makes for gorgeous port de bras, turnout that actually helps your dancing, and less strain on feet, ankles, and knees.
Super Fine Motor Control — the icing on the cake! Intrinsic foot control for pointework and fast jumps, and delicate adjustments within your pelvis and spine for legs that float up weightlessly.
In beginner ballet, warm up and cool down introduce mobility and core control. Then we practise gross and fine motor coordination using kinaesthetic, emotional, and musical cues. 🎼
Head's up - this class might change in duration and schedule come September. I want to make it accessible for more people so it stays sustainable for me to run.
I also want to spend some spoons1 on teaching the other layers of the "ballet cake" that help you make it to class and thrive once you're there, even if you’re low on physical energy or mental bandwidth. More on that next time.
In the meantime, if you've been thinking of joining us for Saturday morning ballet, class runs August 8-29 from 9:30-11. (I’m closin’ up shop for the long weekend).
‘Til next time,
Natasha