The physics of the 'hardest move' in ballet - Arleen Sugano

In the third act of "Swan Lake", the Black Swan pulls off a seemingly endless series of turns, bobbing up and down on one pointed foot and spinning around and around and around ... thirty-two times. How is this move — which is called a fouetté — even possible? Arleen Sugano unravels the physics of this famous ballet move.

Lesson by Arlene Sugano, animation by Dancing Line Productions.

[amychen]

You've forgot another critical factor "spotting". When the ballerina leaves her head and quickly whips back to the same position, it also helps with the momentum.

[alx]

He didn't mention spotting and spotting is a huge part of doing any type of turn

[EugeneKhutoryansky]

Everything is always made more interesting when an analysis of physics is added.

[mo-fcmw]

Number 2 would never happen. The moment you drop your elbows or knee is the moment your teacher smacks you with a cane.

[pudgedb]

Forewarning: I am a professional ballet dancer who teaches calculus. Neither of the options discussed as means of maintaining momentum are things that dancers do while doing these turns because they are not considered technically correct.
1. It is not considered a valid option to leave your leg out for longer to increase momentum.
2. It is also not an option to lower the leg to a position by the ankle to get more turns. The dancer must maintain a "passé" position with the foot at the knee. With the foot at the knee, pulling arms in to the chest does very little in increasing momentum.

The two things that are actually done by dancers to get multiple pirouettes out of a string of fouettes are the following:
1. The gesturing leg and the opposing arm (*her* left in the video above) are coordinated so that they close very quickly at the same time, a rapid transition from an extended position to a streamlined one, increasing angular momentum. The harder that left arm pulls in, the more possible it is to do multiple pirouettes, but it must be done in tandem with the right leg.
2. This is combined with a lifting, rather than a dropping of the passé position (when the gesturing leg is at the knee in the turning position). By pulling the passe higher, the length of the body that deviates from a strictly vertical position has decreased, increasing the speed of the turn.

I'm not sure where TED got either of the ideas for this video. If you watch any reputable dancer's performance, neither of the physical concepts presented in this video are used. TED - please employ the expertise of professional dancers next time. Thank you!

[OrchestrationOnline]

And how does she prevent herself from getting dizzy and disoriented? By spotting: keeping her eyes focused on one single area of the audience as she turns, and then whipping her head around at the last possible moment to a forward position again - unlike what you see in this video. The body may turn at a fairly steady rate, but the head is rotating in a punctuated way, at twice the speed or more, but pausing in between each rotation. UPDATE: Please everyone stop commenting that this is called "spotting, " I know, I was just trying to avoid getting technical with ballet jargon.

[gojoubabee]

Why is everyone crying because they can only do 4? I can only do 0 and that's fine with me

[grayson]

I guess you could say she's- on pointe

[Cheers.-]

It's calling fouetté because you're whipping with your leg, not just because you're spinning ^^

[mikayla]

as a dancer, this video is almost funny as I've never evaluated my turns like this

[Zajcooo]

this fucking channel, I swear
all the random things you either don't care about or are plain ignorant about, presented in such beautiful, fascinating way
I fucking love TED-Ed

[dancemomssupreme]

Spotting is also one of the main reasons how you keep balance while turning

[vikagresova]

This video showed a fantastic explanation of a Foutté, but I believed you missed one important part. To not get dizzy, us dancers, do this thing called, 'Spotting'. You focus at one spot while you're turning, and once you are back to the audience you quickly whip your head going back to that spot. This makes it easier to turn as well as limiting the dizziness so we can easily continue our dance.

[pacificnorthwestballet]

This is such a wonderful explanation of the fouetté - thank you Ted-Ed!

[UwU_the_UwUer]

the real magic is them not getting dizzy.

[sofiajoly]

As a ballerina the fact that she is not spotting is hurting me. He didn't even mention that once and without spotting this wouldn't work one bit...

[AvalonMorley]

One point is, the narration specifies that the 'working' or 'gesture' leg (the one not supporting the dancer) unfolds every time to the front and then whips out to the side, before returning to the passé retiré position in which the actual turning takes place. That is true of a French fouetté, but in a Russian one, the leg unfolds straight to the side and back in. This is useful when the tempo is particularly fast, and creates a more flashy, less lyrical effect. In recent years, this Russian fouetté style is far less often used, but it can be quite effective, and it's nice to have the different dynamics of the two different types of fouettés.

[elfamosisimoJON]

Watching this video made my feet hurt a little.

[Lauravian]

Combining 3 of my favorite things: Ballet, Physics and Animation.
I love it!

[yubin_jo]

they didn't include plié, it's very important smh