Welcome back to 20 moves in 20 days, today we are going to learn the pivot turn. This is one of my favorite steps, there's a lot of variations you can do with it. And it's just a fun one. So what we're gonna do is I'll show it to you first, and then I'll break it down. So, if I am standing straight on, you want to think about keeping your feet pretty much in parallel the whole time. But like I said, I'll do a little more explanation in just a second.

So the turn itself is going to be here and here. Okay, so it looks like a pivot because you are using your back foot to kind of anchor you as you turn. So it is an actual pivot in that turn. And you do you do it about a half at a time. So sometimes it gets a little dizzy when you're practicing if you just go again and again, again. So what I would recommend is kind of thinking about it in terms of half turns, rather than full turns.

Okay. So what I'm going to do to start Put my right foot out in front of me. And then I am going to pivot, meaning I don't change my feet position, I'm just going to turn and I'm going to turn to my left. Okay? And then again, to finish out the pivot turn, I bring my right foot forward, and I pivot to my left. Okay, so it's one full turn in either direction, okay, so if I'm doing a right pivot turn, I'm turning with my right foot in front, but towards the left, and then of course, it'd be the opposite with the left, I would bring my left foot forward to do a right turn, but it's a right pivot turn if I'm doing my right leg in front of the other one.

So again, what I'm doing is I'm stepping out in front and I am actually using a bit of force starched here, which means that I am on sort of my Demi point, my half point, you don't have to if you want to practice this just flat footed, that's fine too. Eventually, you'll probably want to get to a point Where you can do a little bit of a half point, it's just a little stylistically more interesting and I think more fun, but you can do it any which way to practice for sure. So, I bring my right foot and friend. From here, I'm going to rotate to my left to face the back. Then I want to bring that same foot forward, rotate to face the front. Yes.

So forward, and turn, and forward and turn. So right foot, turn left and right foot, turn, left, right foot, turn, left, right foot, turn left, and as you can see, to I do lift my heel just a little bit. So after I did this first one here, as I'm turning, I am letting this foot this peel my left heel, come off the floor just a little bit, and that helps me to be able to have that rotation happen kind of a little easier. Um, okay, the other thing to think about too is if you're ever confused as to, you know, how do I turn? Or Which side do I turn on? If my right foots in front, the easiest way to think about it is go towards the easy side, right?

So if I were to try to turn with my right foot in front, if I were to try to turn right, what happens is I'm going to get caught up in myself, right? Or I would have to switch legs or do something really wonky in order to make that happen. So you want to think about the path of least resistance. And that's going to be to your left or to your open side, right. So here, I can actually rotate both legs without getting all tangled up. So that's a really nice handy little trick is if you have to move your feet during a pivot turn, then you're not doing it in the way that you should.

Okay. All right. So that's pretty straightforward. So we'll actually use our left foot and go to the other side, which means my left that's going to come in front, but I'm going to turn towards my right shoulder. So I go, left and turn, left and turn. Left and turn, left entered a few more times left and turn, left and turn, left and turn and left and turn.

Good. That's a pivot turn. Not too bad, right? Okay, this is kind of a little bit more advanced, but I'm gonna throw it in there if you want to kind of play with some things and you're like, Alright, I think I got the basics of a pivot turn, I'd like to add something different. We can actually add arms to it, which is kind of fun. So one of the traditional arms that I like to play with a little bit is very angry Angular, a lot of times in jazz, especially a classical jazz class, as opposed to contemporary, but the different topic but classical jazz class, a lot of your arm movements are just going to be very Angular.

So I mean, it's gonna feel a little bit, maybe different to start, but it's just been Very Angular, and I kind of like that too. So, kind of a different field with the other dance styles, right? Okay, so let's say that you're feeling really good about your pivot turn, you want to add some arms. So here's a just a fun one to play with. You have 12341234. That's all you're doing with your arms, next to your sort of face or cheeks, or however you want to think about it straight out to the side and down.

1234. Another way that you incorporate that into a pivot turn is I'm thinking of, before I put in my arms, this is how I'm thinking about it in my own brain. One, step one, turn two, step three, turn four. So when you incorporate your arms you go 123412 Three, four, again, 1234 last time one, and two, and three, and four. Now if you can tell, now that it has to happen on day one, and usually that trips up people just a little bit before you kind of get into your system, so no rush on it. But I'm, again really concerned about precision with jazz.

And so I'm very much thinking that it happens on the one on the couch. So for instance, my coordination happens very much. coordinated very much together, right, so my left foot comes up, that's count one, at the same time that my arms react. So on the count, I'm going, one. Now on the count as I'm turning, I'm lifting up my arms, too. Then on the counter, I'm bringing my left foot forward.

Sorry. turn four. Yes. Okay, so again, you're with me We'll do a couple more to the left we have 1234 and 1234 and 1234 left 1234. Excellent. You did it you learn pivot turns and you even incorporated your arm.

So good job today. I will see you back here tomorrow.