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Permalink Reply by Jeannie Quall on May 23, 2008 at 3:38am

Don't know if this will help, but turn out is not just a feet thing, so if you start at where your leg joins your hip and turn the whole leg-knee-foot at the same time outward at a 45 degree angle, and turn your other whole leg-knee-foot outward at a 45 degree angle regardless of position and concentrate on keeping these whole legs turned out as you move about then the legs don't force the feet to turn back inward like when you have the knees facing forward.

So like if you face a wall then your left toe-foot-knee-leg point to the left corner of that wall and your right toe-foot-knee-leg point to the right corner of that wall.
The reason I use the 45 degree angle is because it is more natural and should be practiced until you learn to controll that consistantly. Also I think extreme turnout looks like silly penguins dancing and promotes injury, but I am not your teacher.
:-)
Blessings from above.
Jeannie Quall,
from Appleton WI USA.

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Permalink Reply by Angelika Berber on May 23, 2008 at 8:51am

It helps to do your steps very very slowly!
Just break them down and do even the simplest of moves slowly and watch your feet in a mirror to see if you are turned out. A mistake that is often made is when one leg goes up to your knee, the other one that is hopping on the floor is not turned out.
Always make sure the whole leg is turned out, otherwise you risk injuries galore! :)
Your turnuot muscles sit underneath your glutes. Try to concentrate on how those muscles feel when you turn your leg out. Imagine them pulling together and squeezing when you turn your leg out.

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Permalink Reply by Ellianne Hindmarsh on May 24, 2008 at 8:33am

im only 9 and dont know what all thos3e words mean

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Permalink Reply by Angelika Berber on May 26, 2008 at 5:13pm

Your glutes are the large muscles on your bottom. Your turnout muscles lie underneath those, as in deeper down towards your bones. Kind of like an onion has layers you can peel off, we have different layers of muscles on our bodies.
So you cannot feel your turnout muscles from the outside by touch. But you can feel them working when you use the muscles as you turn out your leg. Muscles kind of work like elastic bands, they pull together and get shorter or they get longer to get your legs to move. You can imagine them like puppet strings (except they are inside your body) if that helps, they pull and you move!
When you turn out your leg, your turnout muscles will get shorter to turn your leg inside the hip socket. The whole leg will turn to face outwards instead of forwards. That results in your toes facing outwards too. That is what your teacher means when she says turn out your feet. She means focus on using those muscles to keep your leg turned out. I hope that helped more, keep asking if you did not understand something... :)

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Permalink Reply by Ellianne Hindmarsh on May 27, 2008 at 9:23pm

thanks for advice everyone

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Permalink Reply by Victoria Hawkins on May 29, 2008 at 6:51pm

put a sticker on the inside of both your feet about where the laces go through the sides in the back by your ankle and when you dance pay special attention to being able to see the stickers. there are also turn out exercises such as...walking with turn out up and down to your mirror while kicking your butt. i use these with my beginners.

hope this helps!

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Permalink Reply by Ellianne Hindmarsh on May 29, 2008 at 6:56pm

thanks

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Permalink Reply by Jessiika on June 7, 2008 at 9:07pm

my dance teacher (IAN BOYD) used to make us stand against a wall with our feet turned out crossed so both toes touch both heals, it works it sorted mine out and ii moved up in my first feis!

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Permalink Reply by Ellianne Hindmarsh on June 8, 2008 at 8:52am

im moved up in my first feis because my feet where brillant then but now they are rubish and he keep s saying what s happing to you

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Permalink Reply by Angelika Berber on June 13, 2008 at 10:02am

Dancers have better and worse days and you can go through months of struggle and then do fine again. Bodies are not machines, they are prone to change. I am sure with exercises and focus your feet will improve, but results take time, don't get frustrated if things do not change overnight. Growth spurts, stress at school, all kinds of things can affect your performance. The more you stress, the more your body will tense up and the harder it will be to learn something new. Relax! :)

@ Jess: That is a very dangerous exercise to do. It twists your knees and ankles and does not teach dancers how to turn out correctly. I am sorry to hear your teacher told you that. It is time teachers stopped and educated themselves on dancers' health and injury prevention. Not dissing your teacher, I am sure you have a good one, but these are very old and unscientific practices and they ruin dancers' health. Many teachers do not know a lot about anatomy and how the body works, no matter how well they dance themselves and how good they are as teachers and motivators. I wish this kind of stuff was included in the TCRG exams, instead of learning millions of Ceili dances off by heart that can easily be looked up when needed. Gets me really worked up that topic. The TCRG exam needs to be re-evaluated and make teachers better equipped to protect and build up their dancers.

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Permalink Reply by Jeannie Quall on June 13, 2008 at 10:58pm

Hey Angelika,

Excellent idea about the TCRG exam - it really does need improvement.

I too think that the Ceili dance memorization is ridiculous compared to excluding so many other important aspects of dance and dancer health.

Hey Ellianne,
Just remember, regardless of what you are told, if you try something (slowly) and it starts to hurt then stop, do not force yourself to do something that could hurt you just because someone says it works.

Jess's teacher may have come from a ballet background or picked up that exercise from the ballet positions.
The Pittsburg Ballet theatre kids site: http://www.pbt.org/kids/positions.html
lists it as fifth position.
There are pictures for you to look at on that site.
When I was a kid, I loved watching ballet and would try all the positions and some of the leap jumps, etc. some of which have made their way into Irish dance. The fifth position should only be attempted slowly and again it is the hip socket that is moving to position the legs not the knees or ankles.
Ballet students move slowly through the positions while being close to a ballet bar.

I think it is much safer to use 3rd and fourth position if you need to do those kinds of movements as exercises.
Please do not hurt yourself as some people are double jointed and can easily move into fifth position while most people can not do that.
It's like doing the splits; you have to work up to it slowly.

I also think your teacher needs to spend a little more time helping you with this turnout problem in a practical way that is safe for you.
We are not all as flexible as each other nor do we have the same muscle strength nor do we have the same balance control.

So be brave and ask your teacher to help you and we are all cheering you on to one day be great.
:-)
Blessings.
Jeannie.

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Permalink Reply by Ellianne Hindmarsh on June 14, 2008 at 8:03am

thanks

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