Pirouette control

Start croise devant.
Tendu front with fondu, Rond de jambe to croise derriere, facing other corner.
Prep turn in fourth, pirouette en dehors, finish with leg in back attitude, close.

Tendu front with fondu, Rond de jambe to croise derriere, facing other corner.
Prep turn in fourth, pirouette en dehors, finish with leg in back arabesque, close.

Tendu front with fondu, Rond de jambe to derriere, facing front.
Prep turn in fourth, pirouette en dehors, finish with leg in second, close.

Tendu front with fondu, Rond de jambe to derriere, facing front.
Prep turn in fourth, pirouette en dehors, finish with leg devant, close.

I've been taking private lessons (with Peter Twyman) for the first time ever during the summer in order to stay on the same dance schedule (since there aren't classes every day here). Since I'm coming back from a major hip injury from May, I asked Peter to basically go through all the basics with me. And it's been great! I've been taking only open classes since getting back into ballet about two years ago, so finally having someone drill the basics into me has been eye-opening and helpful. Everything from hip placement to exactly when legs should bend and straighten on fondus to when exactly I should whip my leg in foutté turns... so much clean up has been necessary.

Last night, Peter was working on cleaning up my pirouettes and so did this exercise where instead of finishing with both feet on the ground, you finish with just one foot, with the working leg (leg that was in retire in the pirouette) in various positions each time: back attitude, back arabesque, a la seconde, devant. It's really hard! I tend to jump out of my pirouettes, which can give the semblance of 'clean' if you're not watching carefully, so it was good to actually have to control the finish of the turn in retire, and then find the open position. The trick (at least for me) was to not anticipate the open position.