Unless you are the only ballet teacher in your school, clear communication about how vocabulary will be taught, at what level, and how it will progress over time is critical. Today is the third in a series of posts about vocabulary that can be taught in more than one way. There are pros and cons to each approach. What matters most is that all the teachers in your program are teaching and progressing ballet technique in the same way.
When do you start teaching pirouette? How do you start? And when do you expect pirouettes to look good?
I once did a teacher training that encouraged teaching spins early on but saving official pirouettes for quite a few years. I sort of agree with this. All ballet classes for children should include turning. (This may or may not be true for adult students, depending on their age and balance.) Turning is fun! Plus, it helps develops balance and coordination. If we get too picky about pirouettes too early, what was fun can easily become stressful---especially if we aren't intentional about how we progress our expectations.
The first thing to work on with students in the Beginning Division is turning the correct direction. Don't worry about picking up the correct foot yet. And little ones do not know their right from their left so you'll need to use landmarks like, "turn towards the window!" Landmarks work better than you standing on that side of the room because some kids will spot you and we want to keep the turn finishing in the front.
After kids know which direction they are turning and can reliably turn the direction you ask for (and this can take a long time, so be patient), then you can add the complexity of picking up the correct foot while you turn the correct direction. This does not mean we are doing en dehors/en dedans yet. Kids may take a fumble step during the turn to get things organized correctly and it's okay for now. The Beginning Division is about joyful exploration of movement.
In the Elementary Division we introduce the terms en dehors and en dedans. Expect kids to need reminders about which is which for a long time. It's okay. Their pirouette technique will actually progress more quickly than their ability to remember these terms.
It's important to decide which direction you want to teach first. En dedans feels more natural for most people. Some teachers start with en dedans precisely because it feels more intuitive, while others prefer to start with the more awkward-feeling en dehors. Whichever you choose, make sure all your faculty are starting in the same direction. (And I do mean all your faculty. If you have a jazz or competition program, turns should be introduced the same way across all genres.)
We teach one type of turn first because brains can only handle so much new information at a time. Learning that there is a correct way to do an en dedans (or en dehors) pirouette is a tast that takes time. But whichever type of turn you start with, teach the other kind within a couple of months. The goal is to train dancers that are comfortable with both en dedans and en dehors turns. And if you're thinking, "If we're teaching both in the same semester, why bother to coordinate across genres?" I'll tell you why: when the introduction of new material is presented in a consistent way in as many genres as possible, students learn and progress more quickly.
Once dancers have learned both en dehors and en dedans, we can still be intentional about how we organize our lessons so that we are clarifying the technique instead of confusing things. In the Elementary Division it is best to do one type of turn per class (not per unit). So, for example, on Mondays or Week 1 you would do all en dehors turns and on Wednesdays or Week 2 you would do all en dedans turns. This way students get equal practice both directions but don't have to switch things around in their brain within one class. Again, you being organized leads to your students progressing more quickly---and feeling successful while they're learning.
By the way, piqué turns are an en dedans turn so they would be saved for en dedans days. Chaînés are en dehors unless you're doing them very slowly, in which case they feel more like an en dehors half turn followed by an en dedans half turn.
Once students are nearing the end of the Elementary Division or are in the Intermediate Division, they should feel comfortable switching between types of turns throughout class.
There are more things to consider when you're planning out how to progress pirouettes, so check back next week for more!
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