landing a turn in 5th position

[Boots]

I have a question/observation about coming out of pirouettes. When I first learned to do them, one of my teachers suggested the following image to help land in a controlled manner – she said to think of the feet as two magnets that are repelling each other so that as your leg comes out of passé it doesn’t just plop down and you be able to suspend more as you come out of the turn.

 

I’ve had 2 teachers make comments in class recently that are making me wonder if I misinterpreted something along the way though. When doing turns that end in 5th position, I realized that as a result of the above image I was first going through a 5th position on demi point before doing a plie in 5th. So, for example, if doing a turn to the right en dehors, as you stop, your right leg is in passé, it then comes down to meet the left foot so that the feet are sort of in sous-sous, and then they both come to flat as you plie. I’m not saying that I stop and hold the sous-sous, just that it’s a position that is passed through.

 

The comments that were made were basically “just get down” – all of the in between stuff makes it look messy and is not necessary. Yes, you should pull up, but there shouldn’t be an extra position before the plie. Since making this adjustment I think my turns have improved somewhat. So what is the is the proper technique for coming out of a turn that ends in 5th? Is it passé, foot down (on demi point), plie (flat), or just passé, plie?

[Xena]

passé, demi-plié

[Guest WendyMV]

Just make sure when you come out of the passe to demi plie that you aren't flexing your foot before putting it down. You don't want to actually stop and hit demi-pointe but you don't want to put your foot down flexed either. Try and keep your foot pointed as long as possible before landing. If you come out of the turn quickly, you don't have time to really roll through the foot, but if you come out of it slowly, think of rolling through your foot as it lands.

Does that make sense?