Turnout can increase when you bend at the hip due to the anatomy of the femur in certain individuals. The head of the femur (the ball of the joint) joins the long part of the leg bone at different angles in each person. The angle of this "neck" will determine when the top part of the long part of the bone (the greater trochanter) will hit the socket of the hip (the acetabulum). This is the anatomical limit of each individuals turnout and you can never achieve more "true" turnout without stretching ligaments beyond where is safe. When you bend at the hip it changes the angle of how the femur sits in the socket and minimises the bony interference between the greater trochanter and the upper part of the acetabulum. When bent at the hip the spot of interference is then moved more to the posterior/inferior part of the acetabulum which generally juts out less so then you have more space to move the bones before they hit each other. 😁
I think it's all about the femur head and the hip socket (so the amount of turnout and the height you get it at can be very different from person to person). It's the same thing that happens in the side split,you can't achieve a full 180° split without tilting the pelvis forward and turning out the legs, otherwise the femur's head get stuck and you can't open the legs more (same thing here, this varies from person to person and their anatomy). I take the occasion to THANK YOU because the first time I heard you explaining how you should feel your muscles during the turnout movement (in a previous video)I suddenly recognised it, for the first time in my life! Before I was never sure if I was performing it correctly, for what teachers said I was always in doubt and I thought I was maybe tucking... The moment I heard you describing it I was like "yes! Is that what I feel! I have the exact same feeling!" (I'm 37 by the way...so it's A LOT of time to be in doubt!). Explaining how you should feel your muscles work is one of you main and greatest merit as a teacher, and you're very good at it! I love this characteristic of you, because just say and demonstrate a thing is never sufficient in ballet, and a student can easily misunderstand or perform in the wrong way. Often with damaging and unhealthy results like for the turnout. So for you future "ultimate turnout video" I have a suggestion to add to what you've already said and did: the AMOUNT of muscles' engagement in the turnout movement. For example,you should activate the butt cheeks (gluteus maximums) at 100%? Maybe 50%? And the rotators? They should be engaged always at your 100%? You are supposed to turn out as hard as you can? I feel this kind of thing in the placement and turnout basics ( in the end we are talking just about STAY in the correct position,first of all...) is pretty fundamental, and a lot of pains and tightness in various body parts can be avoided if performed the best way possible. Just for example, sometimes I get some tightness in my hip flexors (right/working leg), the psoas particularly. So I thought it was weak, I've performed some phisio tests to investigate and I've discovered it is the opposite: I have a pretty strong psoas, apparently even compared to the average of dancers (don't ask me why). So maybe it's a problem of overusing it? Sorry for the long chatty comment, I actually have a ton of new questions/suggestions every time I watch one of your videos... Sigh. But I know you are rightly privileging the very old ones. So I'm trying to keep my head down... Just one last thing, I swear: I was re-watching your video about Odette's dègagé and at the end you said something like "I'm planning to do a video about pointe shoes, please remember this to me". So since I was going to write a comment anyhow...
The line. If you don’t rotate the foot forward, you have a bump in the line because of the heel of the foot. As well as from the curve of the calf. You create a straight and continuous line with turning out the leg farther. I’ve read that it’s 60% from the hips, 30% from the ankles, and 10% from the knees. Unfortunately I lose turnout when my leg leaves the floor. My leg has to come slightly forward instead of directly side. And I don’t seem to get that extra rotation. I think it’s to do with the shape and inner workings of my hip sockets. 🤷♀️
THIS!!! thank you! i can't believe i forgot to mention this. so much of turnout technique involves "hiding the heel" to make the legs appear to taper off in one wispy line! thank you for pointing this out!
A great video as always. Be careful on these goals you are setting yourself like a video a day and making the ultimate definitive turn out video. To me it seems that either of those goals would require immense effort, are a recipe for burnout and would only be worth it if you had more than million subscribers. You put a lot of deep thought in the ideas and discussion you put in each video. The hugely popular RUclipsrs who manage the 3+ video a week schedule, they do not tend to include that depth of thought and expression into each video. They tend to do something low effort like playing a video game, showing their "clothing haul", product review or visiting somewhere they would anyway, but shooting it on a fancy camera. If you were a post grad student at a university, the information delivered within the "definitive turn out video" would probably be equivalent to a MSc delivered over an entire year. YT has skewed the expectations content creators put on themselves.
thank you for this thoughtful comment. I agree it might be a little challenging- as I said, i'm just going to test it out for this 1 week and see how it goes. RUclips is basically my main source of income right now. Therefore, I feel like I need to put in more effort and treat it like a full time job if i want it to be more lucrative. But I do like the ides of doing some more silly, low-effort videos every once in a while. And yes, the ultimate turnout video will probably be like a whole dissertation, similar to my 'proper releve for beginners video' haha.
I have very limited turnout in my left hip and also experience ‘snapping hip’ on that side. The snapping never happens when my foot is on the ground, but is fairly consistent when raised 45° or more a la seconde. This makes me think perhaps whatever is moving to create the ‘snap’ is the same tendon/ligament/muscle making space for the extra external rotation in that position. Just a thought.
I experience something of that sort. It is actually due to tight muscles, and those muscles should be massaged or rolled out to prevent the 'snapping'. I always rolled out or massaged muscles before class as a dancer, it's very useful for better dancing, warmer muscles, and prevention of injuries.
Turnout can increase when you bend at the hip due to the anatomy of the femur in certain individuals.
The head of the femur (the ball of the joint) joins the long part of the leg bone at different angles in each person. The angle of this "neck" will determine when the top part of the long part of the bone (the greater trochanter) will hit the socket of the hip (the acetabulum). This is the anatomical limit of each individuals turnout and you can never achieve more "true" turnout without stretching ligaments beyond where is safe.
When you bend at the hip it changes the angle of how the femur sits in the socket and minimises the bony interference between the greater trochanter and the upper part of the acetabulum. When bent at the hip the spot of interference is then moved more to the posterior/inferior part of the acetabulum which generally juts out less so then you have more space to move the bones before they hit each other. 😁
THIS IS EXCELLENT! THANK YOU SO MUCH!
I think it's all about the femur head and the hip socket (so the amount of turnout and the height you get it at can be very different from person to person).
It's the same thing that happens in the side split,you can't achieve a full 180° split without tilting the pelvis forward and turning out the legs, otherwise the femur's head get stuck and you can't open the legs more (same thing here, this varies from person to person and their anatomy).
I take the occasion to THANK YOU because the first time I heard you explaining how you should feel your muscles during the turnout movement (in a previous video)I suddenly recognised it, for the first time in my life!
Before I was never sure if I was performing it correctly, for what teachers said I was always in doubt and I thought I was maybe tucking...
The moment I heard you describing it I was like "yes! Is that what I feel! I have the exact same feeling!" (I'm 37 by the way...so it's A LOT of time to be in doubt!).
Explaining how you should feel your muscles work is one of you main and greatest merit as a teacher, and you're very good at it!
I love this characteristic of you, because just say and demonstrate a thing is never sufficient in ballet, and a student can easily misunderstand or perform in the wrong way. Often with damaging and unhealthy results like for the turnout.
So for you future "ultimate turnout video" I have a suggestion to add to what you've already said and did: the AMOUNT of muscles' engagement in the turnout movement.
For example,you should activate the butt cheeks (gluteus maximums) at 100%? Maybe 50%? And the rotators? They should be engaged always at your 100%? You are supposed to turn out as hard as you can?
I feel this kind of thing in the placement and turnout basics ( in the end we are talking just about STAY in the correct position,first of all...) is pretty fundamental, and a lot of pains and tightness in various body parts can be avoided if performed the best way possible.
Just for example, sometimes I get some tightness in my hip flexors (right/working leg), the psoas particularly. So I thought it was weak, I've performed some phisio tests to investigate and I've discovered it is the opposite: I have a pretty strong psoas, apparently even compared to the average of dancers (don't ask me why). So maybe it's a problem of overusing it?
Sorry for the long chatty comment, I actually have a ton of new questions/suggestions every time I watch one of your videos... Sigh. But I know you are rightly privileging the very old ones. So I'm trying to keep my head down...
Just one last thing, I swear:
I was re-watching your video about Odette's dègagé and at the end you said something like "I'm planning to do a video about pointe shoes, please remember this to me". So since I was going to write a comment anyhow...
The line.
If you don’t rotate the foot forward, you have a bump in the line because of the heel of the foot. As well as from the curve of the calf. You create a straight and continuous line with turning out the leg farther.
I’ve read that it’s 60% from the hips, 30% from the ankles, and 10% from the knees.
Unfortunately I lose turnout when my leg leaves the floor. My leg has to come slightly forward instead of directly side. And I don’t seem to get that extra rotation. I think it’s to do with the shape and inner workings of my hip sockets. 🤷♀️
THIS!!! thank you!
i can't believe i forgot to mention this. so much of turnout technique involves "hiding the heel" to make the legs appear to taper off in one wispy line! thank you for pointing this out!
We need an ultimate turn out video! Thank you
A great video as always. Be careful on these goals you are setting yourself like a video a day and making the ultimate definitive turn out video. To me it seems that either of those goals would require immense effort, are a recipe for burnout and would only be worth it if you had more than million subscribers.
You put a lot of deep thought in the ideas and discussion you put in each video. The hugely popular RUclipsrs who manage the 3+ video a week schedule, they do not tend to include that depth of thought and expression into each video.
They tend to do something low effort like playing a video game, showing their "clothing haul", product review or visiting somewhere they would anyway, but shooting it on a fancy camera.
If you were a post grad student at a university, the information delivered within the "definitive turn out video" would probably be equivalent to a MSc delivered over an entire year.
YT has skewed the expectations content creators put on themselves.
thank you for this thoughtful comment. I agree it might be a little challenging- as I said, i'm just going to test it out for this 1 week and see how it goes. RUclips is basically my main source of income right now. Therefore, I feel like I need to put in more effort and treat it like a full time job if i want it to be more lucrative. But I do like the ides of doing some more silly, low-effort videos every once in a while.
And yes, the ultimate turnout video will probably be like a whole dissertation, similar to my 'proper releve for beginners video' haha.
I have very limited turnout in my left hip and also experience ‘snapping hip’ on that side. The snapping never happens when my foot is on the ground, but is fairly consistent when raised 45° or more a la seconde. This makes me think perhaps whatever is moving to create the ‘snap’ is the same tendon/ligament/muscle making space for the extra external rotation in that position. Just a thought.
I experience something of that sort. It is actually due to tight muscles, and those muscles should be massaged or rolled out to prevent the 'snapping'. I always rolled out or massaged muscles before class as a dancer, it's very useful for better dancing, warmer muscles, and prevention of injuries.
First! Good job as always!