Yup, in fact i do hip-hop, funk and Jazz more than Ballet and Contemp now. Trying to get back on track. I was quite active with chinese dance and ballet till i torn my lingament. I can't stretch for nearly 1 yr. That's when i picked up hip-hop. Never stopped till now. =)

If not for the injury, i might not have done hip-hop but if not for the injury, i would have been so much better in ballet now!

hmm...

Name: hokoelc (of course, it's not my real name)
Age: 18
Gender: F

Number and Type of dance classes taken: Latin ballroom, hip hop, belly, salsa
Name of teachers: ooh, lots. felix lau, gladys tay, fiona (left singapore), patrick, geoffrey
Name of studio/place: dance arts, john and josephine dance creative

How long have you been dancing?: 2 years (not including 4 years of cheerleading, mostly dance)
Favorite type of dance you take: hard to say.. all of 'em!
Favorite type of dance you watch: latin ballroom

Cool! Another latin dancer. Guess i'm so much of a rojak dancer that everyone's starting to think "what a wannabe"

The thing is, i suck

But i guess with these much rojak trainings, i could give my friends more suggestions when they need.

Trying to get better in Ballet and Contemp now though.

Tsk Trev, you turn better than me, grr =P I seem to be on a bad pirouetting week and you just had to do all those turns infront of me =P

Oh please Bran. You can turn waaay better than me. Meh.

ya right... I freak out the moment I hear single pirouettes... how is that better than you? =P

haha. you can't be that bad!! i quite like pirouettes. but that doesn't mean i can turn every single time. =P i was really sad that day when we didn't even do doubles in class! it was a really simple class. AND. anyway, boys generally turn better than girls!! heehee

^I agree! envious of how they can turn...

hmm, on a good day... I probably can turn...

doubles or triples, NEVER ask me to do a SINGLE, I hate single pirouettes...

Its quite ironic, I fall off all my singles, or I end up facing the back of the class. And I can't really control my turns, its quite a freespin, even for doubles and triples, I never end up en face, usually croise... the only time I end up en face is probably when I attempt quadraple and sorta do 3.5 and soutenu around =X

But then again, it goes on and off... I'm wondering if I should call them good days, or lucky days.. pirouettes... argh... anyway stef, I'm sure you can turn! You can do double en dedans!!! and bleh, dancingorge definitely can turn... =)

By the way, can someone teach me how to 'land' a pirouette?

Dude! Come on, I was just lucky. You don't get to see me do triples everyday man. Maybe it's just not your day yesterday. I've seen you turn, you're great. Sometimes i can even fall off a double, and WHAT, you hate single??!! Duh~ I can't do double on bad days, so sometimes have to resort to single.

I suck, ask around those who have attended auditions with me man, i'm like shit. SHIT!

Yay! Sticky request approved!

Welcome cheerocracy!

Oh good! We have it sticked! Aww... Guys, i believe you can turn very well on your good turning days!. But as what teachers say, turning is not luck. You have to have technqiue for it. so keep trying guys! I can do clean singles on bad days, but maybe doubles with sheer luck, or on good turning days... Bleah...

Yay its sticky~! =) whaha, i feel honored to have my name on it =X but unfortunately theres that terrible typo with it too =(


anyway, I can't understand how you girls ever do perfect singles =( its so hard to balance completely en face...

Anyway!!! yippe! today my teacher offered me a crucial correction, she said my back was wobbling even though it was very straight, after the correction, I kinda did a few perfect triples and some unclean quads for her=X =X HAPPY!!!

You guys are lucky. I just started pirouettes in class and I cant even do ONE decently. eventhough I love doing them.

Ironically we're doing a lot of different turns when I cant even balance on my pirouettes.

Aw... Don't be disheartened... I'm sure you will get it soon! When i first started turns, i was a complete sucker too! Well. For turns, practice makes perfect. Yups. Some other turns, IMO are easier than simple pirouettes. Like petit soutenue, couru turns, and maybe pose turns. Yups.

For pirouettes, (I'm no great shakes at it either - but these are what I picked up in class) I live by the hard and fast rules of :

1) Spotting. You really have to have a good spot to look at , once your eyes go all over the place, that will definitely throw you off balance.

2) Pulling up. Pulling up is very important. I think it makes me lighter in a sense and your power house or core muscles gives you the capability to sustain your turns.

3) Arms. Now, arms can help you perfect a single I always say. Your arm doesn't need to be thrown out too much for momentum and pulled back in too fast. Remember in prep position not to push your arm too much to the back. Also, sometimes people have the tendency to drop their arms or curl them up instead of having the nice round shape. Don't break the line either by curling your wrists in like 'crab claws' In Pas de Deux, be sure to pull your arms in an even tighter round shape, lest you punch your partner in the jaw like I did. -_-"

4) Speed. Momentum. If you want a nice clean single, why go with so much power that it can sustain you for much more?

5) Turn out. Turn out the supporting leg, turn out the working leg. Don't OVER turn out though.

Last but not least.

6) Don't think and just do.


Also, sometimes people have an off day. Don't think too much about it if you can't get it today and just continue practicing. You'll get it with time and soon you'll be quadrupling.

Hope this helps.

Nice to chat with other dancers in SG like this. Sometimes when we meet each other face to face. Things get a little shy or there's a miscommunication or that first impression isn't good and we all think everybody is arrogant. -_-" And in typical asian culture, think each other is a show off.

another thing to add, timing!

Always feel the music, and counting the pirouettes through them...

though its different for everyone, I broke down my counting this way and found that it helps alot. to control my spotting generally.

instead of......whip .... whip......whip.......whip.....

1 = leave head
2 = whip head

.... 1.....2.....1.....2.......1....2

everytime I count, i try to visualize my body turning away from my head.. once I had a problem of spotting with my torso too.

Ah and lastly, double pirouettes are twice simpler than singles =) so don't think and turn ( reinforcing what Blazebox said ) =)

Tsk... DUDE!!! Why do you always have to say double's easier. I suck at turns. Can't even do a clean single on bad days...

Anyway, just to add on my one cent worth:

7) Piles. Good piles do help to give the extra effort when turning given by the push off as you straighten your knees. (remember to centre your weight)

8) Inner thigh. Part of pulling up and engaging core muscles. It gives you a better centre as you imagine your foot rooted to the ground and body pulling upwards.


I was told that the difference between spinning and turning is that the motion of energy for a turn is controlled and spinning is just a throwing momentum. Dancers wanna think of turning, pull up and turn, not spinning, it can be told by the landing.

I have to agree with Brandon somehow. Technically, a single could be done effortlessly by just the help of a pile. Maybe he's too strong, when he adds on the arms, he can't stop on a single.

Singles are twice harder than doubles! Here's my comparison.

Definition of Perfect Single:

Single turn
Hold in pirouette position for 1 count.
(ending completely en face =X )

General idea of Perfect Double:
0.25 turn on demi plie
1.5 turn in pirouette position
0.25 turn en fondu putting the other leg down slowly.

So there, you can just spin spin spin and just control the landing without having to control the spin too... which also allows you to lock your back..

of course, you can do double pirouettes and hold there for 1 count, that'd be more perfect, but once again, that will make doubles twice harder than triples -.-

for me I always have this bad habit of doing the triples, and ending up facing croise =( somehow I can never hold en face...

Wow thanks! I think i really lack turn out in pirouettes. =X

Btw, when doing pirouettes at which part of the whole thing does the turning leg go straight? Is it gradually as you do the turn or before it?

Instantly, or almost instantly. As quick as you would releve.

Our teacher usually make us practice stretching, we go into demi plie, and stretch the legs with the other leg in retire... still on flat foot.

But thats just ideally...

there are performance tricks, if you slow down the videos on professional turns, especially Angel Corella, you'd notice almost 3/4 of his first turn is on a 4th demi plie.... but well, whoopee.. 9 + pirouettes =)

^Hmm... Not really good to ask a girl to watch a guy turn. We turn differently as we have different expectations of turns. Anyways, Angel Corella's turning technique is not perfect. he cheats a lot IMO, so it's not good to ask dancerio to observe his turn.

Hmm yup, he cheats abit, but he's still one of the turners with more than 8, or actually performs those... many choreographies stop at 6 =(

anyway yah, I was just highlighting the cheats to her =X =)

SOOOO technical. OMG. I wonder how did u managed to count those 0.25, 1.5 counts... Maybe that's why i failed my maths BADLY I think i'm one of those bad dancers who follows the music that the counts minor counts changes... Probably 0.23 and 1.8?? LOL

Crapping. Sorry.

For the first 0.25, just do a slight twist in your plie and slowly stretch up, as you hit your sides, say corner 4 or 2, be sure you be in retire, this way your knee will face corner 3.

What I think is...
You're supposed to pull your knee towards corner 3 so that it creates centripetal acceleration which will cause your body to rotate without a change in velocity. Of course, this is pretty much physics stuff, I've returned almost all of it to the teacher already, so don't ask me for detailed explainations =)

You have to at least be aware of all the little counts in the music... usually we just count

1... & a 2... & a for 4/4
1 & 2 & 3 & 4 & for 2/4
1^ 2 3 2^ 2 3 3^ 2 3 for 3/4

but then you get funny timings especially in inter, like 5/8, some are still not too bad, like 6/8 where you can assume to count like 3/4, but just make sure your counting is for a suitable scale when you're counting by bars (which you're supposed to =p ). It'd be good if you have syllabus music and they'd tell you the time signature.