Turns

I wrote this one a while ago.

I was so juiced today! Two of my students made breakthroughs in pirouettes. They found what the great Stanley Williams called "One...". They found what I try to teach for turns; no numbers, no limits.

"One...".

When you do chaines across the floor, you don't think, "I'm going to do twenty-seven chaines"; you just chaine until you run out of room (or get too dizzy-SPOT!- or bump into something). Yet, when you do pirouettes, most dancers pick a number to go for. No, no, no. Unless a teacher or choreographer specifically asks for a certain number of pirouettes, you shouldn't limit yourself by saying "I'm going to do two." Or three, or five. The great turners don't know how many pirouettes they are going to do, they just turn, or as Stanley would say, "One...".

My two students today, did "One...". They just turned, They held a beautiful pirouette position, spotted in perfect rhythm and went around three times (I'll take care of the counting, thank you). They took very little force, they didn't speed up or slow down, they just turned.

"One...".

There's a girl on youtube who does 37 pirouettes. Really. She has found "One...". She just turns. It's like chaines. "One...". Hold your postions, spot in rhythm.

"One...".

See you in class.