Author: K. Michael Rowley 

Many posts on the IADMS Blog from the Education Committee have been focused on the anatomy and control of turnout. But does awareness of where turnout comes from and exercise targeting hip external rotators actually make a difference in turnout a dancer can achieve? According to research from Florida State University published in the Journal of Dance Medicine and Science, the answer is yes. 

Researchers developed a 45-minutes daily 10-day training intervention focused on turnout. This included education and awareness practices as well as exercises like the clam, a passé press will side-lying, side lunge, attitude on a rotating disc, stretches, and tennis ball massage. What made this study unique was that outcome measures were not only turnout ability, but also the rating of dancers performing an adagio by graduate students and faculty before and after the intervention. 

Five of the six dancers tested increased their total turnout, measured by the angle of the feet on low-friction rotating discs (figure above), by 9° to 22°. A faculty rater with expertise in body sciences reported all post-intervention performance videos as showing greater turnout control than pre-intervention. The report states that, “Her comments included: ‘The pelvis looked more stable’; ‘the torso looked more lengthened’; ‘the chest was more open’; ‘I saw a greater level of confidence’; ‘much less hip hiking’; and ‘the initiation of the rotation is coming from the back of the legs.’” 

Pata D, Welsh T, Bailey J, and Range V. (2014) Improving turnout in university dancers. Journal of Dance Medicine and Science, 18 (4), 169-177. 

Full text articles from the Journal of Dance Medicine and Science are available to IADMS members! 

Photo Credit: Dan Dunlap, SarahKim Vennard