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How To Improve your Tournout Range

Many dancers and dance teachers are overjoyed when they find out how much turnout they actually do have, after a private session in the clinic or on one of our workshops. And when they discover that it has the potential of getting even better, the smiles get even wider! 

My way of safely improving range in the hips has changed dramatically due to my own experience. I grew up thinking that I had terrible range and then found out many years down the track that this was simply not true. As a young dance student, I was told that I just didn’t have good turnout and that it was my bones, so there was nothing much I could do about it. I accepted this and pursued physiotherapy as a career, rather than pushing for a career as a performer.  

Then, when I was 26, one of my staff members gave me a 4-hour massage. We never intended it to be for 4 hours, but I had paid for him to go through a massage therapy training course, and he was simply showing me everything they learned. After he had worked through many different areas around my hips I hopped off the bed, did a grand plié and my knees went sideways for the first time ever. I burst into tears, with the sudden revelation that I had always had this range, but never been able to access it due to the tension I had in my hips from trying so hard.

My way of safely improving range in the hips has changed dramatically due to my own experience. I grew up thinking that I had terrible range and then found out many years down the track that this was simply not true. As a young dance student, I was told that I just didn’t have good turnout and that it was my bones, so there was nothing much I could do about it. I accepted this and pursued physiotherapy as a career, rather than pushing for a career as a performer.  

Then, when I was 26, one of my staff members gave me a 4-hour massage. We never intended it to be for 4 hours, but I had paid for him to go through a massage therapy training course, and he was simply showing me everything they learned. After he had worked through many different areas around my hips I hopped off the bed, did a grand plié and my knees went sideways for the first time ever. I burst into tears, with the sudden revelation that I had always had this range, but never been able to access it due to the tension I had in my hips from trying so hard.

Alexandra Istrate

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