Turnout! Am I right? This has to be one of the most often discussed issues for dancers regarding improving performance. I’m not talking about the injuries that dancers face (trust me, there are many we could discuss but that’s a different article), I’m talking about a healthy dancer trying to get better at dancing. Turnout is a big deal whether you’re at the barre in ballet, hitting those high kicks at a halftime show, or working on a jig for your next Feis. Turn out is on display in everything from pliés to pirouettes (if you’re not a dancer and you ignored the headline, I’ll fill you in, turn out is external rotation of the hip that produces many of the graceful and athletic moves that impress us in the audience so much).
I consider myself to be simple-minded, I don’t like to over-complicate things and that’s pretty much my approach to physical therapy. Someone smarter than me may cringe when I say this, but here’s how I think, “if something IS supposed to move and it DOESN’T, make it move; if something IS NOT supposed to move and it DOES, make it stable.” Hip rotation fits right into my philosophy leaving us with two options to get you into that perfect position: stretch your hips out or strengthen your hips (if you’ve made it this far, please don’t stop reading here.)
After evaluating and working with hundreds of dancers over my career I can say that you guys are doing really well with the stretching thing, flexibility is rarely lacking. I’ll just make two suggestions. I like dynamic stretching rather than holding a position for a long time (>60 seconds), and make sure that you are stretching what you intend to stretch because you can sometimes rob from one area (like your back) when you think you are stretching something else (like your hip.)
The “meat and potatoes” of turnout for most dancers is in the strengthening. If you want your turnout to improve you need to make sure that you’ve got strength in all the muscles around your hips to securely carry your ball-and-socket joint all the way through the movement. “All the way through the movement” is an important concept when thinking about getting stronger. What I mean by that is: whatever exercise you choose you need to work to the end of the movement to improve the kind of strength that translates to improved range of motion. If you choose to do a clam shell exercise, don’t get quick and sloppy, be deliberate and controlled to the end of the movement and pause for a controlled second before easing back to the starting position. Sometimes even pulsing at the end of the movement can be a good way to make sure that the whole range is strengthened. Apply this concept to working out the big muscles (glutes, hip flexors, and inner thigh muscles) as well as the little guys that are so close to that hip ball and socket. Make sure to ask your teachers where you should be feeling a particular exercise and be sure to modify your position if you can’t quite get it. When all else fails consult a professional to get help figuring out what exactly you need to work on and what you can do to improve that deficit.
Just like a good passé, a good exercise program is all about balance. When it comes to turnout you should balance working on stretching and strengthening but my guess is that tipping the scales in favor of the strengthening is where you’ll get the most bang for your buck.
