In ballet, turnout (also turn-out) is rotation of the leg at the hips which causes the feet (and knees) to turn outward, away from the front of the body. This rotation allows for greater extension of the leg, especially when raising it to the side and rear. Turnout is an essential part of classical ballet technique.
Background: Ballet dancers are encouraged to externally rotate their lower extremities (turnout) as far as possible. This may cause stress on the dancers' low back and lower extremities, putting them at risk for injury.
The ideal turnout is 180 degrees. Don't worry if you can't turnout that much. Stretching can improve your flexibility by a few degrees. Good turnout also means that you're honest about what your natural turnout is and don't try to force it.
The mean percent body fat (PBF) values were 20.1 +/- 3.6% for the females and 14.5 +/- 4.2% for the males.
En Pointe. The “en Pointe” technique in classical ballet is one of the most challenging to execute. In this move, a dancer has to support their entire bodyweight on their feet, which are fully extended.
To improve your turnout while maintaining good technique you should focus on strengthening the right muscles and releasing the over-active ones in order to give you proper alignment. This in turn opens up and strengthens the external rotators, allowing you to access a whole new range of external rotation.
Whilst the most obvious muscles of the hips are located in the buttocks, the muscles that are vital for turnout are the six deep lateral rotators, buried under the gluteal muscles and deep within the pelvic girdle.
Turnout is supported by six deep rotator muscles surrounding the hip joint: 1) Piriformis, 2) Superior Gemellus, 3) Inferior Gemellus, 4) Obturator Internus, 5) Obturator Externus, and 6) Quadratus Femoris.
Stress & Anxiety
Many people start learning this extraordinary dance genre, but they give up halfway through the journey. Ballet dancers experience high stress and anxiety during training sessions and performances. It is a physically and emotionally challenging form of dance, and to master it, you have to be committed.
Ballet is widely acknowledged as the most rigorous and demanding form of dance.
As children get a little older, they develop a longer attention span, greater physical ability and the mental capacity to study ballet more seriously. This typically happens around age 8 (although it could be earlier or later depending on the child).
Ballet has typically favored the body type of a girl who is thin, usually thinner than what is deemed to be healthy, with long, lean limbs, an extremely flat front side, and little to no curves throughout the body other than a small waistline.
Ballet isn't just cardio. In fact, regular practice of ballet can give you just as much strength as training with small weights. This gradual increase of strength will make your movements more fluid, but you'll also find that you're more fit to carry things in your everyday life.
We know that dancers usually average around 55 degrees, and occasionally slightly more–but very few people have that 90 degree turn-out in the hip socket that equals 180, when the heels are together in 1st position.
How much we can turn out is a combination of genetics, mobility, alignment, strength, and execution. Some dancers are born with hips that are more externally facing, which in return gives them a larger range of natural turnout.
Institutional factors have the most significant impact on voter turnout. Making voting compulsory has a direct and dramatic effect on turnout while adding barriers, such as a separate registration process or unnecessarily scheduling many elections, suppresses turnout.
The technically and artistically demanding double role of Odette (White Swan) and Odile (Black Swan) is perhaps the most difficult in all of ballet.
At the beginning, both groups definitely struggled with learning a new discipline. Soccer proved to be harder for the dancers than originally anticipated. Many of us were challenged by the constant cardio and keeping control of the ball while we played.
The height plays a significant role in determining a ballerina ideal weight. Most ballerinas are between about 160cm and 173cm tall. With this height range, weight is ideally anywhere between about 40 and 59 kg, and depends heavily on muscle and bone mass.
They Exercise A Lot
Ballet is a highly demanding field requiring dancers to push as close to perfection as possible. Their training schedule reflects that. And because their training is so harsh and physically demanding, their body naturally slims down as they burn fat and many calories during the day.
Typically, a dancer's career ends anywhere between ages 30 and 40. Dancers often move into choreography. Many also teach, direct their own ballet companies, or resume formal education. The intensity of ballet training and the short length of a professional career often mean that dancers do not study beyond high school.
On average, a dancer's performance career tends to end around the age of 35. They've often been shaping muscle and bone into elegant lines since shortly after they first learned to walk, moulding their bodies to achieve the perfect balance of powerful athleticism and artistic grace.