All of this information was freely provided by our friend
Ariel Bennett T.C.R.G. of the Heritage Irish Stepdancers

She has very kindly passed this info on to us, as provided to her own dancers.
All she has asked in return is that you take note of the following statement, which we think is very fair!

The most important thing to know is that turnout actually comes from your hip, not your foot: in other words, your whole leg is turned out, not just your foot.  If you have trouble doing this, either you don't have enough flexibility in your hip yet, or you don't have enough strength in your hip to maintain the turnout.

Try these simple exercises to improve your turnout. (for pictures of these exercises click here)

Lie on your back. Place your hands under your hips with the palms facing down, so that you are basically sitting on your hands.  Put your legs straight up in the air so that they are perpendicular to the floor.  Bend your knees slightly so that you can see them.  Flex your feet and put your feet side by side.  Now, leave your heels touching and your feet flexed as you turn your whole leg out; you will know that you are doing this if your knees and toes are going the same direction (your feet should never, ever go farther out than your knees).  Now return to your feet side by side.  Repeat 8 times, than rest.  If you feel any discomfort in the sides of your knees, that means you are trying to turn out farther than your hip is ready for (and so you're twisting your knee, which is very bad).  Don't turn out so far right now; wait for your knee and hip to tell you that they're ready to go a little farther.

Stand with your heels together and your feet turned out.  Again, your knees should be going the same direction as your toes; you can bend them a little to check (and then straighten them back out).  If your knees are not over your toes, then you are trying to turn out too far and need to bring your feet closer together for right now.  Now, place your right foot in front of your left so that your right heel is touching your left toe.  Start to walk forward along an imaginary line, lifting each leg all the way up behind and then placing it in front of the other foot with the heel of the front foot against the toe of the back foot, making sure you maintain your turnout.  Do this slowly.  Once you reach the front of the room, reverse and go backwards, watching again that you maintain your turnout with each step.  This strengthens the muscles needed for turnout.

Do your 3's very slowly forward along your imaginary line, watching that on each step both feet stay turned out, with your knees turned the same direction as your toes.  If you have trouble with your foot staying turned out, do your 3's even more slowly, perhaps even walking them, until each time your foot touches the floor it is turned out and stays that way.  When you reach the front of the room, try them going backwards.  Once you feel good about that, try one of your steps very slowly, watching your turnout each time you switch feet, hop, leap, etc.  If your foot turns straight, go over that section until it stays turned out.  Go more slowly, walking through the moves if you have to.

Now you've tried these why not try our other exercises?

Dance Workout . . Stretching . . Warm Ups . . . Back