Fouette turns- how many is reasonable?

[vrsfanatic]

I have never heard of doing 32 fouettes at the barre. An interesting approach. Do you know what method is being taught in your daughter's school?

 

32 fouettes are the standard in the centre of the room.

[Victoria Leigh]

vrs, I believe she said fouetté preparations, so, I could be wrong, but I would assume that to be the plié and relevé to the retiré, not the actual turns??? Even so, that is a LOT of one foot relevés, especially if it is on demi pointe.

[vrsfanatic]

I am still blinking at the idea of 32 fouette preparations! Sorry for misreading the post.

[danceintheblood]

Yes, Victoria has described it correctly, and yes, it is on demi-pointe. I'm not sure why 32 preparations seems excessive if 32 fouttes in the centre is expected? It makes logical sense to me, but I'm not a teacher or dancer.

 

Dd does RAD, Cecchetti and open classes over the week. I think the fouettes are in the RAD class. Dd says she is able to do 16 in the centre, but that her average is probably about 10. They started doing them at the beginning of the year, so her progress seems to be tracking well.

[Mel Johnson]

I think I see the problem with 32 preparations at the barre. Unless they are very slow and/or very low, the student will have to restrain herself from turning just from the impetus provided by the fouetté movement of the leg from seconde to retiré alone. I'll have to ask my RAD colleagues, but I don't believe that that exercise is in an RAD syllabus. It sounds like it makes sense, but I can see where it could train in a sort of "applying the brakes" to the fouetté pirouette, likely violating the old "left/trailing shoulder front" correction.

[Victoria Leigh]

My problem with it is the number of consecutive relevés on one foot on demi pointe. I would be afraid of tendonitis. I would not give my students that many fouettés in the center on demi pointe either. Sixteen maybe, but not 32. Relevés on pointe are not as hard on the Achilles tendon as they are on demi pointe.

[danceintheblood]

Okay. Thankyou for explaining that for me Victoria

[Hamorah]

Just wanted to note that there are no set fouette preparations anywhere in the RAD Vocational exam work. 7 fouettes in the centre are required to each side on demi-pointe in the Advanced 1 exam syllabus (average age around 15) and 16 on pointe to each side for Advanced 2 (average age 16 and over).

[danceintheblood]

While Dd's class follows a RAD syllabus for this class each week, it may not be strictly so. Her RAD teacher taught strict RAD in the UK for over 20 years, so would have a very good knowledge of the RAD system. However, DD's studio does not participate in RAD exams with qualified examiners. The studio has always been philosophically opposed to competition, exams and grading (since they opened in 1966 when I was a student there).

 

The students have two RAD assessments each year where an independent teacher or the AD of the studio makes a written assessment against the criteria, but there are no marks or percentages. The AD will then at a later date hold a parent/student/teacher interview where the strengths and weaknesses in each category are explained and used to assist the student in personal goal setting for the coming six months.

 

So I guess you could say it's the RAD you have when you're not having RAD