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[i]would only add that the point of turnout is freedom of movement. If you can get hold of an anatomy book, note how the thigh bone fits into the pelvis. It doesn't just go straight up; it has a neck at the top that goes into the pelvis, & the ball of the ball- &-socket that forms the hip joint comes at the end of that neck. There's a little bump, where the neck juts out from the top of the thigh bone, called the (greater) trochanter.Now, imagine doing a degage in second while turned in. There will come a point when the trochanter is going to interfere with the pelvis (look at that book again), & you can't get your leg any higher. But if you turn your thighs out, this will rotate that neck so it's pointing back-to-front instead of outside-to-in. Now the trochanter will remain roughly stationary & how high you can get your leg will be limited by flexibility & your ability to stretch instead of by those bones. (This is what I've read, anyway; DancingDoc will, I hope, correct me if I've gotten any important detail wrong.) Turnout is how people like Allegra Kent can get their legs up next to their ears.I must add that in order to get good extension to the side, you don't need a full 180 degrees of turnout--or so my kinesiology book tells me. But there's aesthetics as well as mechanics, & 180 degrees, for those who can manage it, is the aesthetic aspect.I personally believe that turnout first became important when ballet moved to the proscenium stage. Before that, it was viewed "in the round," as you can see from surviving engravings of early ballets. But ballet lost a dimension when it went to the stage, & movement to the side became a much more important aspect of dance. This meant that degages, & in fact most movement in second position, were much more important than they had been before, & greater extension was sought after. Since greater extension requires turnout, turnout became an important feature of ballet.Many dancers also feel that turnout also has a general opening-out effect on the dancer. The critic Andre Levinson thought that this was what made ballet ballet, in fact. But the bottom line for the dancer is twofold (1) turnout must be from the hip joint, not the feet & (2) if you can manage 180 degrees, do what you can & don't repine.Tom Parsons <ul><li><a href="http://www.panix.com" target="_top">Tom's Page</a></ul> [/i]

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