Turning Up With Your Turnout

The third post in "The Aramandi Series"

Turnout is the technique that most dancers set out to “perfect” and also the most misunderstood. It’s how far outwards the leg, knee and foot can turn, relative to the hip. I remember practicing aramandi every day trying to get my feet and knees to face directly outward to either side, it was SO frustrating. And I’m sure it’s the same for a lot of other dancers out there. 

As dancers we take our hips into positions that aren’t very natural or common, turnout is one of them. Usually we’ve been doing this from a young age so we don’t see much of an issue. That is until we start taking things seriously (a.k.a arangetram/ranga pravesha time) and this is usually around the time that our bodies are going through growth spurts, physical and hormonal changes, we’re under stress from school/uni etc. Also, and more commonly, we don’t have a practice of conditioning our joints and muscles to endure this position. Suddenly parts of our body start to hurt, the ankle, knee, lower back… The first place I’d investigate is the hips.


The fact is that turnout depends on a few things:

1. Your hip joint anatomy
2. The strength and length of muscles in your hip, and more specifically, if you’re using the right ones
3. How well your core and postural muscles work and coordinate

These are the basics. If you would like a little more detail, keep reading!

Hip Joint Anatomy
The hip is a ball and socket joint, made of a concave structure in your Illium (one of your pelvic bones) and the convex head of the femur (your thigh bone). It is a relatively stable joint in most people with many structures such as ligaments, cartilage and muscles to hold it in place.​

Anteverted vs Retroverted

The orientation of the femur in the hip socket differs from person to person and this can affect turnout.

“Anteverted” means that the head is facing towards the front.
“Retroverted” means the head is facing towards the back.

This image explains it well:

Often those with excessively anteverted femurs find their feet are some what pigeoned in and their turnout is less than normal. Those with retroverted femurs on the other hand can achieve better turnout more easily.
In most people the femur is approximately 15 degrees anteverted.

Hip Impingement
In some individuals either the femoral head may be too big/have an extra growth or the socket may be too hollow (covers too much of the head).

You can see the different variations in hip joint structure here:

In these cases, they may experience what is known as impingement, a restriction and even pain caused by bony obstruction. This can only be diagnosed by an musculoskeletal clinician or doctor, and further action will be decided after examination.

The anatomy of the hip joint is not something that you can change, so the best advice is:

1. find out whether it is your bony anatomy that’s limiting you (see a physio like myself or specialist etc)
2. If you have identified that this is your limiting factor, find out how far is far enough and train within this limit ​

Strength and Stability
A dancer’s ability to turnout and remain stable in turnout comes from several muscles. They must be strong and well coordinated, but also maintain optimal length so that the hips do not get tight.

Deep Turnout Muscles

​There are 6 specific muscles deep within the hip that produce and are responsible for external rotation a the hip joint.

They are Quadratus Femoris, Piriformis, Gemelli Superior and Inferior, Obturator Internus and Externus. The stronger these are, the longer you’re likely to last in araimandi. Along with this six muscles, gluteus medius, maximus, adductors and your core muscles help stabilise the pelvis and keep the torso upright whilst your iliopsoas helps you sit into araimandi and also helps stabilise your turnout.

Many times either the hip flexors (muscles at the front of the hip) or the gluteals (larger muscles that cover the deep turnout muscles seen on the left hand side of the image) are overused to turn out, which can lead to issues in the upper back, lower back and hips. But if the deep turnout muscles are trained and strengthened, the other muscles will be free to do their jobs.

Adductors

The 4 Adductors are your inner thigh muscles, and they are often overlooked. In turnout their job is to stabilise your thighs when you sit. When they are active in araimandi, they help your thighs hold themselves up as well as hold up the pelvis. They make you feel confident in araimandi.

Calf and foot muscles

These muscles help your control your foot and foot placement to help you feel strong and stable from the ground up. We'll look into the calf and feet in more detail a little later.

Trunk and Posture Muscles

Good posture and a stable trunk allow you to stand and move your body with efficiency and without excessive effort. Stability in your spine, pelvis and abdomen allow your your joints stack on top of each other and minimal effort is required to hold them in place.

We’ll talk more about the core/trunk in the next post!