Hi, I'm Melissa Sandvig; I'm a Freelance Artist and a Ballet Instructor. We're here at Long Beach Ballet and I'm going to talk to you a little bit about how to get a perfect ballet turn. Now, in my eyes, I think that quality is much better than quantity. So, I would rather see somebody do a beautiful triple nicely placed with a clean finished than five turns that are a little sloppy. So, in my eyes the perfect ballet turn has the correct position; a very turned out passe, a high demi-pointe, a straight standing leg, hips down, arms in a perfect first position, lifted chest, engaged back and a nice clear spot. Those are a lot of things to think about when you're turning, but if you have that clean position, you give yourself a nice preparation and a nice clean finish, that in my eyes is a perfect ballet pirouette. So, in order to do that, you need a strong preparation whether it's from fourth or fifth, nice and clean, you need to push off, get the timing and the coordination of your balance, spot your head clearly and finish; either in fourth position or in fifth position. And the more you practice, the more you'll be able to do, but the cleaner, the better. So, I'm Melissa Sandvig and in my eyes, a perfect ballet pirouette is a quality and not quantity. So, good luck!
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