Great Extensions, Poor Turnout!
Dancing Smart Newsletter
Friday, January 21, 2005
Thanks to all who sent in turnout questions. I will be answering them in out newsletter and putting them to good use in the book! I appreciate all who sent in their questions. Please feel free to continue to send in your questions about technique, injuries, or any confuzzlements about alignment. (Don't you like that word? I do – my youngest made it up and it means when you are confused and puzzled, you're confuzzled!)
FYI - just got the February issue of Dance Spirit Magazine, and the memory article (picking up combinations) is in it. It's good!
Onto the question of the week..
I have had a few teens that were extremely flexible when it came extensions in second, side splits and side leaps. All the major muscle groups in the upper legs were stretched. However, they were very frustrated with the lack of rotation when executing a demi and grand plié. When I performed the typical rotation tests with them, I found them to have a very shallow rotation. Would you explain how this is possible and what I should look for? Thanks, Margie
That's a great question, Margie. I too have seen students who appeared to have incredibly flexible side extensions (but they wouldn't have great front extensions) and then tested with average turnout when their feet are on the ground.
Lets start with looking at the side extension. Everybody (yep, everybody!) must lift the hip of the gesture leg when they are doing the side extension, otherwise, they would be limited to raising it to just above horizontal.
What happens in that side extension is one tries to keep the hips square up through passé, (let's say the right leg is your gesture leg in this example) then as you lift the knee up to set the level of the leg higher, you are lifting that same hip. When you lift that hip, it means that your weight is being shifted on the standing leg as well, yes? You don't notice the standing leg very much as long as the dancer is able to keep their upper body upright. You do notice this naturally compensation more when the dancer doesn't stay upright very well so that their upper body is leaning off to the left, OR, you see them side bending their torso to the right, as they take the left leg up into an extension.
So, the dancer who is able to keep the 'look' of standing up straight appears to have the highest extension. And yes, they also have to have somewhat flexible hamstrings, although I have seen plenty of dancers who didn't test well in their hamstring flexibility who still looked like they had a high side extension.
You can't cheat the front and back extensions in the same way. (We'll talk about them in another newsletter).
Now onto the side splits, and side leaps.
The compensation for those movements tends to be in the shift of the pelvis. Meaning, the way to compensate is to have the hip in a slight flexion. You see this all the time with young students who are sitting on the ground in second position. They have their knees facing the ceiling, but their pelvises are tipped forward. Why? Because everyone has more turnout when the hips are flexed. This is why the 'frog position' is worthless when it comes to testing turnout. Everybody has more turnout in the frog position than if they are tested with the hips in extension as in a standing first position.
Watch anybody doing a side split leap, and you will see that their legs are slightly in front of their pelvis - it's what has to happen - and it looks great when they have the strength, timing, and the erect upper body to go along with it. When we see them lift their legs at the same time maintaining an erect upper torso it looks wonderful!
Coming back to earth, standing on two legs doing a demi or grande plié, our students know they cannot allow their pelvis to tip forward (which flexes the hip joint). Sometimes, they even overcompensate by tucking their pelvis under. There snot as much wiggle room for adjustments in the standing position.
I think it is totally possible for a student to work at 90 degrees of turnout in first position (45 degrees each leg, the average amount of turnout) and still give you the beautiful side extensions because of the compensations I just talked about.
Now this isn't to say they can't improve their turnout in these standing positions, they can. They release the tension, stretch the muscles, and strengthen them. It's a three- tiered approach. If you get ignore any one aspect your turnout will suffer. Too much tension in a muscle, it will lose Ito tone. Too much flexibility without the muscular strength to support it, is not good. Too much strength and tension without the flexibility, is also not good.
You need all three, a strong, flexible and well-toned muscle, meaning when you aren't using your turnout muscles they release and relax. This is a good reason to do exercises that work with a range of motion at the hip by working the turnout and turn in.
Until next week,
On with the dance of life!
Deborah