said, squatting next to me as I tried to arch my foot farther than it wanted to go. “Do you know how to do a tour ?”
“No,” I said, shaking my head. To be honest, I wasn’t even certain what a tour was, or why I needed to know it.
Tad nodded, making a mental note. He was a serious teacher. Occasionally he joked around, but he was very focused on the work. Perhaps because he looked so young, he needed to be more serious in order to get people to listen. With his big eyes and floppy brown hair, he could easily have been a teenager visiting his younger brother at our rehearsal.
“I’m going to teach you,” he said. “Come on.”
He gestured over to a quiet corner of the rehearsal room. As I walked, I watched my reflection in the big front mirror. A dozen girls in tights and ballet slippers were lined up against the barre, practicing. Nolte was a small school, so there were only about twenty of us in the room.
“Sit,” Tad said, pushing his hands together in front of him and gesturing at the ground. He stood straight and peered up toward the ceiling, in his teaching pose. “Let’s see, how to explain a tour ? The word’s actually French and is short for tour en l’air , which literally means ‘turn in the air.’ It’s one of the basic jumps that all male ballet dancers must master. Jumps and lifts are the two most important skills guys have in ballet. Now watch!”
Suddenly Tad leaped into the air. His body was fully extended down through his toes, like a human pencil. As he reached the peak of his jump, he seemed to float in graceful slowness and spin in a lightning-fast full rotation at the same time. He landed, but he stayed on the ground for only a split second before he jumped again. This time, he spun around twice.
“That’s a double tour . Some dancers, like Nijinsky, could even do triples.” He paused, a rare smile lighting up his face. “But we’ll start you with the basics and work our way up. To begin, assume fifth position.”
In ballet, there are five basic alignments for your feet, with corresponding positions for the hands—first through fifth position. Fifth position is when your feet are parallel, one in front of the other, toes pointing in opposite directions so that the heel of one foot touches the toes of the other—if you can stretch that far. It took me a while.
After I got in position, Tad explained that in order to do a tour , I needed to jump, point my feet while I was in the air, do one full rotation, and land back in fifth position.
“Make sure you spot before you jump,” he said. “You know that, right?”
I nodded. Gymnastics had given me a leg up in ballet. Because of all the tumbling I’d been doing, I knew a lot about jumping, spinning, and keeping my balance. One of the big tricks is to spot before you turn. Spotting means staring at a point on the wall that you want to end up facing. When you spin, you move your head as swiftly as possible, so that you only take your eyes off your spot for the briefest moment. Your head should rotate much faster than the rest of your body. This keeps you from getting dizzy.
For the rest of rehearsal, Tad had me assume fifth position, spot, jump, and land, without any rotation. We never did any full tours that day, but from then on, whenever we had a free moment, Tad drilled me. Until I had those parts perfect, he didn’t even want me to try the rotation. Instead, we built the skill up slowly, piece by piece. It took weeks for me to learn how to do perfect tours . Those little tips from Tad evolved into private lessons, and soon I was studying with him almost constantly.
I’d been pretty dedicated to dance before this, but now I was at a whole different level. I had my father’s blessing, which had been the last thing holding me back. And I had only a short time to prove that I was taking ballet seriously. So I studied constantly, wanting to show Dad what I was capable of.
But it wasn’t enough. I needed years of
“No,” I said, shaking my head. To be honest, I wasn’t even certain what a tour was, or why I needed to know it.
Tad nodded, making a mental note. He was a serious teacher. Occasionally he joked around, but he was very focused on the work. Perhaps because he looked so young, he needed to be more serious in order to get people to listen. With his big eyes and floppy brown hair, he could easily have been a teenager visiting his younger brother at our rehearsal.
“I’m going to teach you,” he said. “Come on.”
He gestured over to a quiet corner of the rehearsal room. As I walked, I watched my reflection in the big front mirror. A dozen girls in tights and ballet slippers were lined up against the barre, practicing. Nolte was a small school, so there were only about twenty of us in the room.
“Sit,” Tad said, pushing his hands together in front of him and gesturing at the ground. He stood straight and peered up toward the ceiling, in his teaching pose. “Let’s see, how to explain a tour ? The word’s actually French and is short for tour en l’air , which literally means ‘turn in the air.’ It’s one of the basic jumps that all male ballet dancers must master. Jumps and lifts are the two most important skills guys have in ballet. Now watch!”
Suddenly Tad leaped into the air. His body was fully extended down through his toes, like a human pencil. As he reached the peak of his jump, he seemed to float in graceful slowness and spin in a lightning-fast full rotation at the same time. He landed, but he stayed on the ground for only a split second before he jumped again. This time, he spun around twice.
“That’s a double tour . Some dancers, like Nijinsky, could even do triples.” He paused, a rare smile lighting up his face. “But we’ll start you with the basics and work our way up. To begin, assume fifth position.”
In ballet, there are five basic alignments for your feet, with corresponding positions for the hands—first through fifth position. Fifth position is when your feet are parallel, one in front of the other, toes pointing in opposite directions so that the heel of one foot touches the toes of the other—if you can stretch that far. It took me a while.
After I got in position, Tad explained that in order to do a tour , I needed to jump, point my feet while I was in the air, do one full rotation, and land back in fifth position.
“Make sure you spot before you jump,” he said. “You know that, right?”
I nodded. Gymnastics had given me a leg up in ballet. Because of all the tumbling I’d been doing, I knew a lot about jumping, spinning, and keeping my balance. One of the big tricks is to spot before you turn. Spotting means staring at a point on the wall that you want to end up facing. When you spin, you move your head as swiftly as possible, so that you only take your eyes off your spot for the briefest moment. Your head should rotate much faster than the rest of your body. This keeps you from getting dizzy.
For the rest of rehearsal, Tad had me assume fifth position, spot, jump, and land, without any rotation. We never did any full tours that day, but from then on, whenever we had a free moment, Tad drilled me. Until I had those parts perfect, he didn’t even want me to try the rotation. Instead, we built the skill up slowly, piece by piece. It took weeks for me to learn how to do perfect tours . Those little tips from Tad evolved into private lessons, and soon I was studying with him almost constantly.
I’d been pretty dedicated to dance before this, but now I was at a whole different level. I had my father’s blessing, which had been the last thing holding me back. And I had only a short time to prove that I was taking ballet seriously. So I studied constantly, wanting to show Dad what I was capable of.
But it wasn’t enough. I needed years of
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