Pirouettes/Ballet

I'm hoping some people here might know something about pirouettes and maybe ballet. First off, here's my pirouettes:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U9xSvqLdrrE

A nice lady saw me training circus skills and thought I had so much potential so she let me do her ballet classes for free! It was only 1 hour a week for about 3 months then I lost contact with her. However, I really liked ballet and would like to continue learning even though I don't think there's any ballet school near me. So I'll try to train myself the best I can. Right now, I'm wondering if anyone has advice for my pirouettes and how I can eventually progress to learning seconds. Also, if anyone knows what skills I should work on or advice for how I can learn training myself, I'm open ears.

If no one knows anything about ballet here then maybe I'll try to find a ballet forum for these kinds of questions.

Issue 1. you are pushing your base leg that you are spinning on to full extension. Notice how the knee is still bent. Are you pushing all the way off the forefoot?

Issue 2. to stop the turn at the right angle, you must stop your head and allow your body to follow up. If you stop your head at exactly the right angle (90,180,270,360), your body will still have some momentum.

My experience with ballet is limited to gymnastics dance predominantly for the girl's. Aka it's kinda bastardized and mostly self taught besides what I learned in clinics and coaches training. Gymnastics ballet tends to differ from traditional ballet as well.

It has been commented that I have a pretty chasse. One of the things I have found via google online is repositories for ballet schools for moves such as arabesque, pirouettes, leaps, jumps, etc. Something to look for.

SsOJ0G1psUA

haha. straight from the master.

you can't really learn ballet off the internet and I don't know nearly enough to try and teach you. If you live in a major city i'm sure you can find somewhere to learn. Look for dance studios and schools that teach adults and offer classes for beginners/recreational. You will feel much more comfortable this way. At least you will only be around girls your age this way. Once you learn steps in class you can practise them at home if you want to improve them.

If you look for an actual ballet school you will get a very different experience.

you probably need more work before learning pirouettes, just judging from the way you are holding your body. Work on your turn out, work on your calf strength. You need to spend most of your time working on the boring, little stuff and just have a few tastes of the cool moves. I wish we spent all class doing jumps and leaps but we only spend like 5 minutes. Its worth it though because you need to build the foundation.

you can look up steps online, there are some good forums and you can just google it. I found this pretty much first off: http://hubpages.com/hub/How-to-Pirouette

"The solution is to perfect your technique without turning first. Practice springing up into your pirouette position and holding the balance. Once you can spring into position and hit your balance immediately, you're 90% of the way to a good pirouette."

http://www.danceforums.net/viewforum.ph ... ebd43013c5

http://dancers.invisionzone.com/lofiver ... p/f26.html

Great advice ya'll! And nickvb, I'm guessing you either use tricksession or you've done some research on me based on one of your comments, haha. Anyway, great tips, I think I'll try to find ballet in my area in addition to my self training.

You can't learn ballet alone. Find a dance studio and try there.