Pirouette Tutorial part1

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[edit] Characteristics

The word "pirouette" comes from ballet, with many forms but one standard: to turn or spin upright on one foot. Other forms of dance, and other activities such as ice-skating and baton twirling, use the same basic technique, and all such spins will share the physics necessary. There are seven aspects of any pirouette:

• Two-foot Base
• Weight Shift
• Start Rotation
• Release Base
• Balance
• Spotting
• Brakes to Base

Two-foot Base - One must start from a stance solidly on both feet, as an anchor from which to start the rotation. Not being aware of what your base would be, makes for a sloppy and weak start with poor balance following.

Weight Shift - Since you will be spinning on one foot, you must move your weight to that foot. There is commonly a confusion about this, so that again it is sloppy and weak with poor balance following.

Start Rotation - Your entire body will rotate, but something must begin to rotate from the two-foot base to offer the momentum to carry your body around. Only motion around will carry you around: "pushing off" will go only in a straight line. For juggling, the particular mechanism available is to twist from both feet after the last toss.

Release Base - This is the moment when you begin to actually spin on one foot. The momentum and balance you have at this point is your spin: there is nothing further to do about how it will go. It is common in juggling to lift the off-foot from here, adding to the false impression of pushing off. It is also common to drag the off-foot around, or let it hang out behind.

Balance - The matter of balance is the greatest fault in juggling spins. It is the main limitation of degrees of rotation: if you fall, that was as far around as you got. Failure to understand and practice balance itself is why jugglers have to do "staged" turns instead of continuing a rotation (speed being the other). Ballet balances on a straight leg and raised heel; jugglers have learned nothing from this supreme example. The turn itself is around an imaginary axis of rotation that will originate at the spin-foot if there is one. Balance either is distributed equally around that axis, or is not a successful balance.

Spotting - From doing multiple turns in succession, spotting means keeping your view on a single "spot" as you spin, to control balance and timing better. In juggling, it means keeping your view on the pattern. Some believe, very falsely, that it is the source of the rotation. It requires whipping your head around as you are turning, and doing that, especially while also looking up, takes a lot of practice to get comfortable with it.

Brakes to Base - For juggling, this is rarely done deliberately with control. Most are sliding around on the whole spin-foot in case they need it, and falling back onto two feet, grabbing for the catches any way they can. If you were spinning properly on the front of your foot, first you put down that heel to stop that foot as Spin Brakes, then set down the off-foot for Body Brakes to a stable position as before.

[edit] Illustrations

Since the term and the concept are from ballet, let's look at a classic example of the characteristics.

• 1. Two-foot base with right leg set way behind, torso and arms rotated over hips which are to front. Note head set on a distant and level "spot".
• 2. Weight shift onto front Left foot with Start rotation of hips, torso, and arms which are fully extended for maximum "angular momentum" while on two-foot base. Head remains front.
• 3. Release base as back right foot comes off floor. Arms and torso have rotated 180° with arms still extended at finish of acceleration. Head is no longer front, and heel of Left spin-foot is up for spinning to the Right. Note that with the off-foot waiting in the direction of turn, it will not have to be moved until it is encountered, conserving that much more of the momentum.
• 4. Balance with support leg completely straight for physical axis of rotation with head directly over spin-foot, spin heel high, off-foot and leg high, head centered on shoulders, arms still out.
• 5. Still perfect balance, head turning for Spotting.
• 6. Prepared to continue, note spin-foot heel higher, off-foot pulled in, arms beginning to come in to "conserve angular momentum". Head set on original spot.

Pirouette continues:

• 7. Identical position of body on straight axis, arms coming in to conserve spin.
• 8. Head remaining on spot, spin heel very high for reduced friction on smallest foot area.
• 9, 10. Same perfect balance.
• 11. Spin-foot heel down for Spin Brakes, off-foot and leg moving back to absorb last of rotation, head on spot and still directly over spin-foot, support leg bending for finish.
• 12. Off-foot set down for Body Brakes, with entire body in nearly identical position as beginning to finish.

Note that for ballet, a triple turn or 1080°, which only a few jugglers can produce, is "entry level" for an aspiring dancer, and they put in years of diligent and supervised practice. And that same ballet dancer did a triple in the other direction too, Left-on-Right. Number of rotations goes up to fifteen  from a single start (see eleven  in perfect form, thirty-six  otherwise), and all will be -- have to be -- perfectly positioned and balanced and, in formal dance, with a similarly precise ending. Although professional dancers are also working on many other skills, as jugglers would claim as an excuse, there are very few jugglers who have ever tried to perfect even their 360° pirouette.

What of a ballet pirouette that jugglers cannot be expected to do is a) use their arms to make the rotation, and b) go around so slowly. Grace and apparent weightlessness are not issues, or even performance values, for jugglers. Speed is thought to be most of it, since practical toss heights leave so little time. And, if you cannot swing your entire upper body around to get going, what can you do?

continue to Pirouette Tutorial part2 with juggling examples

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