Can I still be a good dancer if..........?

Question:I have been dancing forever, and I am really good at picking up choreography and all kinds of leaps (I am mostly a contemporary dancer).

The one things that kills me are my pirrouettes and fouettes (excuse me if I spelt them wrong). I can pull off a perfect single, but I fight for a double. My fouettes are next to impossible.

I think I am doing something wrong in my plie' before the turn, but I don't know.

Any suggestions on fixing this?

Best Answer - Chosen by Asker: I have been dancing forever, and I am really good at picking up choreography and all kinds of leaps (I am mostly a contemporary dancer).

The one things that kills me are my pirrouettes and fouettes (excuse me if I spelt them wrong). I can pull off a perfect single, but I fight for a double. My fouettes are next to impossible.

I think I am doing something wrong in my plie' before the turn, but I don't know.

Any suggestions on fixing this?

I used to have a hard time with turns.
Now I can pull of a quad with no problem

It took a lot of practicing and a lot of falling on my butt =]
but the most important thing I learned was to spot. That helped me so much when I started spotting harder.

Also my dance instructor told me that while I am turning think to myself "I will not put my heal down" [ after about three turns I would do the last flat footed which obvioiusly IS NOT pretty ha]

She also told me to close my arms faster. This really helped me when i got into my triple pique turns.

Foutes..
The only thing I can really say about these is that you have to make sure you are hitting all of your postions when you are suposed to be. If you know what I mean =]

And of course you need to have good balance and keep your center strong. Try doing point place and then hold for eight counts, then go to 12 counts, 16, and so on. Do on both right and left.

And YES you can certainly still be a good dancer if your turns aren't perfect but I think that if you work on them and you are determined to get better at them then you will get them down. It just take practice.

So good luck. Hope I helped.

It's all about balance, strength and spotting. The technique needs to be imaculate.

yes i do know

fouettes ... 1. leg front en fondue
2 leg to side EN RELEVIE
3 reterie position
4 spin
make sure your leg is in seconde when yoour in relevie not in reterie .. it will spin faster like you wouldnt beleive.

the higher the reterie leg the better the pirouette

Make sure your weight is firmly on your supporting leg. If you're throwing yourself forward when you go up into your pirouette(and yes, you did spell fouette right), you'll throw yourself off balance. Releve a few times before trying to do multiple turns to get your weight right. And spot, of course.

Have you had anyone video tape you on your problem positions? Sometimes when you see what you look like compared to the proper move, you can clearly see what you're doing wrong. Worked for me, anyway.

it could be that your allignment is wrong and its throwing off your turns
or it could be your ankles arent strong enough and it makes it hard to balance
or you dont have good balance
i would suggest going somewhere else unless your only dancing for fun, because either way there is something wrong with your training
p.s. fouettes are the hardest kind of turn so dont get too frustrated if you cant do them