TURNS & PIVOTS

As you’ve always guessed, there really are several tricks to graceful and efficient turning. That’s why professional dancers not only can make multiple turns, they also can keep their balance while turning. 

SPOTTING
     The secret to successful balanced and ‘smart’ turns is spotting. All ballet, jazz, folk dancers and other dance professionals know this technique. 
     The idea is to focus on one spot, and only one spot, during the whole turn or series or turns. Let’s try this out. 

Choose a spot  on a wall, approximately at  your eye level. It could be anything small enough to concentrate on -- a stain, a nail, a plant leaf, a letter. 
       Now, stand some 6 to 8 feet away from the wall and concentrate on your selected spot. Try not to look at anything else but your spot. 
      Stand with your  feet  in 1st position, and put your hands on your hips.  Slowly turn to your right,  in 4 counts, until your body faces  the opposite wall. As you do so however, keep your eyes on your spot as long as you can, extending and twisting your neck and upper body. 
      As soon as you know that your body and feet are facing the opposite wall (on counts 4 and 5), swiftly turn your head in the same direction, without stopping, to look at your spot from your right side. Let your head and eyes overtake your body’s turn. 
      Continue to turn your body  to the right in 4 counts, until  your whole body faces the original wall. 

       You would have made a full turn to the right in 8 counts. And your eyes should have seen nothing but your spot on the wall. The swiftness of the head’s turn on counts 4 and 5 should have made it impossible for you to see anything else. 
       The first few times you do this exercise will make your eye and neck muscles ache a little because the strain, but with constant practice, you will get used to it. 
       In the spotting technique, the eye acts almost like a force point. While it may be the last to leave the spot during the turn, it should also be the first to reach the same spot even before the body completes its turn. The eye sets the point where the turn starts and ends; the body follows. 
       Practice this technique as often as you can, gradually reducing the time of the full turn. Start with 8 counts, reduce  to 4 counts, then to 2 counts, and finally on 1 count. 
       By the time you will be doing turns on two counts, you would also realize that your feet actually step on the 2 counts too. Many regular turns in ballroom dances are made in 2 counts. Also try to keep your feet in first position and narrow second position or third position as you move. 

BEST SPOT
      In a ballroom hall, the best ‘spot’ or focus point you can use is your partner’s face, because in many of the dances you start a turn while facing your partner, and have to end facing him again. What better spot could you look at on a crowded room with moving lights? 

CONTROLLED CPB
     Control of the center point of balance is very important during the turns. Make sure your CPB is raised slightly. This will make you feel lighter and help you ‘soften’ and ‘lighten’ your turn. 

FIRM YET LOOSE HOLD
      Even if the Lady partner continues to practice her turns separately, and can actually control her CPB for the fully balanced unheld turn, the Man still has to make sure that no accidents will happen. 
      His role therefore is to signal his lead for the turn at the right moment, usually on the count before  the turn. Make sure that their hands and fingers are held firmly yet loosely enough. 
       I have found that a hold which allows the fingers of either partner to maneuver freely in the hand of the other makes for a secure and flexible turn. (See section on hand leads.) 
       The free arm is usually placed in a position which will not interfere with the turn -- close to the chest or sometimes down at the back of the hip -- and repositioned immediately as the turn is completed.

Mark Balzer has compiled a series of dancers' comments and essays on this topic in FAQs on Balance and Turning.