Falling Back on Pointe

by ithildancer
(twitter)

Do you have any tips on how to do pirouettes on pointe? I always fall backward during the first pirouette.
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Hi!

I love the question you sent me on Twitter, so I had to move it here so I had plenty of room to answer.

When dancers are falling backward off of pointe I first look at the alignment and the shoes.

Because you said you usually fall on the first pirouette, I'm guessing you are able to turn better after that.

Often we get a bit nervous about accomplishing a pirouette and so instead of attacking the move, pressing right up onto pointe with hips over ankles and shoulders over hips, we hold back just a little... and fall back just a little.

Practice some pirouette preps where you can watch your profile in the mirror and make sure you are getting your hips all the way forward every time.

You also will want to check your shoes to make sure the back side of the box is not too rounded off. This happened to my second pair because I was dancing too far back on the box and I had a hard time retraining until I got new shoes that didn't reinforce my bad habit.

Hope this helps! Write back and let us know what happens!

Ashleigh