TURNING OUT – part 1
Turnout – it is something that ballet dancers at all levels and at all ages think about. As someone with both experience dancing ballet, and also working with dance injuries and technique challenges as a kinesiologist, physical therapist and Feldenkrais practitioner, I really wish the noun “turnout” were replaced with the more actionable verb “turning out”. Below I will explain.
When we think turnout, we usually think about how far our toes point out to the side. It is a somewhat static image and teaches us nothing about how our bodies achieve this position, what physical attributes make turning out easier or more challenging, and what we can do to improve.
To begin, though our image of turnout is typically where our feet are pointing, to be safe and functional, the movement happens in the hip joint. Trying to “force turnout” from the knees or ankles is the surest way to get injured.
To get a better feel for the action in the hip try this. Standing with one leg a bit forward of the other, lift your forefoot keeping your weight on the heel. Now turn your leg out and in. Feel what happens in your hip crease (that is where the hip joint is). You might even want to put your hand there to feel.
We are all born with somewhat differing hip structures having to do with how the leg sits in the pelvis. Reality is that some configurations (more “retroverted hips) turn out more readily than those with different ones (more “anteverted hips”). If you are curious lie on your belly with the legs touching and knees bent to 90 degrees so feet point toward the ceiling. Keeping your thighs together allow your lower legs to open into a “V” shape. Generally, a smaller “V” is associated with more external rotation or turnout in the hips. This is not a perfect screen though it might be interesting. In addition to the bones, tightness in the soft tissues – especially in the front of the hip can limit turnout.
This bit about tissue tightness has some very practical implications – I would say both “good” and “bad”. Have you ever heard a teacher say to bring your heel forward as you tendu? Aside from the aesthetics, this takes advantage of the fact that when you bring your leg into tendu front or even side, you are flexing your hip joint and creating slack in those potentially restricting soft tissues allowing more external rotation in the hip.
Now for the not so good. Another way to put slack in those tissues is to tilt the pelvis forward. In ideal neutral alignment your “hip bones” and pubic bone should be in the same plane. If your hip bones (anterior superior iliac spines for the anatomically minded) are forward of your pubic bone you are doing that forward tilt. This also puts slack in those soft tissues, allowing for a “flatter 5th position”. That said it also is associated with poor alignment, poor technique and injuries.
Of course, most folks want to improve their “turnout”. Ways to do that will be the topic of a future post.