Balanchine Pirouette
What makes a Balanchine pirouette different from a traditional ballet pirouette?
Three key details: the lunge preparation, the forward spot, and the crossed wrists in middle fifth.
These details do more than change the shape of the turn. Together, they create a faster, more dynamic pirouette that grows out of the movement before it and propels you into what comes next.
If you want to understand how to do a Balanchine pirouette, it helps to understand not just what to do, but why.
1. Begin the Pirouette from a Lunge
The Balanchine pirouette takes off from a lunge rather than a traditional fourth position, and lands back into a lunge.
This shifts the weight toward the front foot, helping create a quick, secure relevé. But the lunge does more than organize the weight - it lengthens the body.
The front leg grounds while the back leg reaches away, creating a long, expansive line reminiscent of arabesque. Rather than compressing into a preparation, you begin the turn already reaching through space.
2. Spot to the Front
In a traditional pirouette, the head often spots toward the corner. In the Balanchine pirouette, you spot to the front.
This creates a direct connection with the audience while helping keep the bodyweight centered over the supporting side. The forward alignment contributes to the direct, forward-moving quality of the turn and helps carry the dancer into the descent.
3. Cross the Wrists in Middle Fifth
As you rise into the pirouette, the wrists cross in middle fifth, creating a compact, powerful shape.
The elbows stay lifted and away from the body, keeping the chest open and the arms active. The crossed wrists help create the tight, aerodynamic position needed for a fast rotation.
Think of a Bow Being Drawn
One of the best ways to understand the dynamic quality of a Balanchine pirouette is to think about a bow being drawn and released.
As you move into the lunge, the entire body reaches. The front foot grounds while the back leg stretches away. At the same time, the arms reach outward, creating a sense of pulling in opposite directions.
The body becomes longer and more taut, like a bow being drawn, storing tension and potential energy.
The lunge is the draw.
Then comes the release.
The arms pull inward to crossed middle fifth, the dancer snaps onto a fast, secure relevé, and the head spots to the front. The energy created by the reaching lunge is released into the turn.
Stretch. Release.
Thinking about the pirouette this way changes its quality. You aren’t simply preparing for a turn and then executing it. You are building energy from the very beginning of the movement.
Why Does This Matter Choreographically?
That continuous energy is part of what makes the Balanchine pirouette so exciting within choreography.
The dancer doesn’t appear to stop, set up, and then turn. Instead, the pirouette grows out of the movement that precedes it and drives into what comes next.
The lunge can travel, change direction, connect to another phrase, or immediately lead into the next movement. The pirouette becomes less of an isolated trick and more of a movement within the movement.
This is one of the qualities that makes Balanchine technique so exciting: the technique doesn’t simply teach you how to execute a step. It creates possibilities for movement.