Soutenu turns

[Guest Tu-Tu Twain]

I am practicing a combination of 3 sets of 3 soutenu turns. I can do the first one fine, the second one I guess I come down a little off line and I am guessing I overstep the third one and get thrown off balance all together. So I guess what I am really practicing is one set of three without losing balance . Is there any advice you could give me on correcting this problem? Thanks!

[Mel Johnson]

Are we talking about piqué soutenou (tour de basque) or plain vanilla soutenou sur place?

[Victoria Leigh]

Sounds to me like whatever turn you are doing you are not keeping, or moving (in the case of piqué soutenus en diagonal), your weight forward. If you lead out with your legs and leave your body weight even very slightly behind your legs, you can cannot continue to move forward and upward to get around each turn.

[Dancer06]

Another thing that helped me with multiple piqué soutenus was to make sure that the leg I step out on is directly on the diagonal-- even overcrossing it slightly behind me always threw my weight back and threw me off balance!

[Victoria Leigh]

Very true, Dancer06! You need to place a line between you and where you are going, and step foward directly onto that line every time.

[Guest Eulalia]

I hope it's okay if I reply. My teacher always says that you should be in fifth before you turn, and turn in fifth into fifth. Sometimes people aren't really in fifth before they turn and it makes it look and become sloppy. I hope that helps!