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How to Do En dedans Pirouettes (Inside Turns)
by Finis Jhung

(This article originally appeared in Pointe Magazine)

No matter how quickly or slowly you are asked to pirouette en dedans, you can't escape the rules of cause and effect. You can't turn faster than you can fall. The rules apply to all turns en dedans, whether spotting the audience or the corner, in cou-de-pied or arabesque, moving directly to rétiré or with a degagé à la seconde. Success is all in the preparation, which must distribute your weight evenly. Once you leave the plié, it's all over; you've begun the turn, for better or worse.

Because perfect positioning is so strongly emphasized nowadays, and you have probably been told repeatedly to "pull up," you may be losing your natural ability to turn, because you're going into the position faster than you can plié. I often say to students who are having trouble with en dedans pirouettes that it's not that they can't turn, it's just that there's too much weight on one side of the body.

For instance, in the preparation for an en dedans pirouette to the right, the tendency is to initiate the turn to the right by quickly pulling your left arm and shoulder forward and up to overhead The laws of physics tell us that energy equals weight. Therefore, whatever you move first is where your weight will be. When you move your arms faster than your legs, then your weight is in your arms, and you're going to go where they go. Depending on your arms to move your legs also tends to pull you up out of your plié faster than you can correctly place your body over your supporting foot.

Have you ever seen a spinning top? You pull up the plunger, which is in the shape of a spiral, and as soon as you begin pushing it down, the top starts to spin. Nothing happens when you pull it up! In the same way, you can't pull yourself up into a turn. Yes, you do stretch up, but you must push down when you want to "go up," or relevé. And, replicating the top's spiral plunger, you have to twist or wind up to the left, so that you can unwind and turn to the right.

The idea of turnout in ballet dancing is truly functional. When you base all your actions on sending your weight and energy out in opposing directions at all times, you will always balance and move with strength and control. You have a right side, and a left side, and, they're always doing something different at the same time.

Get in front of a mirror. Take a croisé fourth with the right foot in front, in preparation for pirouettes en dedans to the right with your arms in middle position. What if you were just going to slowly promenade en dedans in rétiré devant? What would be the sequence of movement, from the plié to completing the promenade? First, the working shoulder (left) and arm are stretched backward in opposition to the direction of the turn; next the supporting shoulder (right) and arm open and begin turning as the supporting knee (right) bends further over the toes. Now the gesture foot will come off the floor. The supporting leg straightens and continues to turn and the arms and working leg move into position. In en dedans turns, the supporting side turns out and away from the working side. The head stays as long as possible before it spots. This is the way you want to actually pirouette, except that you would relevé and spot faster.

A word of caution here: Don't pick up your back foot! It'll come up when it has to. (This is the case whether it's going to go to retiré directly or to à la seconde.) Never worry about picking up your gesture foot to place it in position; that leg is attached to your body, and it will follow the standing leg when it's supposed to. Remember this when you do your pirouettes.

Let's look at the action of the plié. Notice I said action. It's always a good idea to think of ballet in terms of verbs, not nouns. Think actions, not positions. The word plié means to bend. It's an action that causes a reaction. In this case the bending of the right knee past the toes of the right foot is crucial. You really "press" your knee out past your toes. There's a strong sense of working the floor, of using the plié to push your weight down into your standing foot.

I like to think of that plié as a slow bounce, leading to what I call "the end of the plié," which will determine how you will turn. As the right knee travels past the toes, the right arm and shoulder are stretching out over the right foot and turning to the right with the right leg. Now your body is over your foot, both arms are stretched out to second, and you will naturally "bounce" up and relevé to the balance as you turn.

Let's consider rotation. Remember the spiral in the top? It's always twisted. You have to do that too. If you're going to turn, you've got to twist your spine. If you want to pirouette en dedans to the right, you need to stretch your left arm and shoulder back to the left, which will coil or twist your spine. The muscles in your left shoulder and back tell you that the next thing you want to do is turn to the right.

The sequence of movement is important: the left shoulder goes back, and stays stretched back, and then the right shoulder goes back, and continues to turn to the right. The trick here is to keep the left arm open while the right arm opens and turns. First you do this side, then you do that side. Never work both sides of your body in the same direction at the same time—you'll be turning in on yourself and fall over.

As you open the right arm, change the position of your hands to palms down. You want your arms and hands to cut through the air without resistance as you press down with your plié. We're going to see "the end of the plié" with both arms stretched out to second, hands palms down. This is the crucial moment you can feel and see that decides whether you will balance your pirouette or not.

What will also help when turning to the right is to remember to keep your ears aligned with your shoulders. To be more exact, when you turn to the right, your head belongs to the left shoulder, not the right. That's because you're on your right leg, turning to the right. You need weight on the left side of your body. This is a rule of opposition that applies to all en dedans turns, as well as poses in arabesque and attitude. When you're facing the mirror, as you go into the turn, watch to see that your head doesn't "go" with your right shoulder. It won't move until the left side does. To help you focus and develop a sharp spot, practice spotting your eyes in the mirror as you turn.

Successful en dedans pirouettes are based on the laws of cause and effect. Just follow the rules, and you'll turn beautifully. Remember, you can't turn faster than you can fall. And, you never want to hurry up so that you can fall down.