Tradition makes the fouetté pirouette a step for men, although it is not intrinsically less feminine than any other of the great steps. Nevertheless, tradition is often a thing to respect. So, a fouetté pirouette performed by a woman is customarily called a rond de jambe tour. Mlle. Zambeli, the première of l’Opéra in Paris, has on occasion performed a succession of thirty-two such turns in a steadily accelerating tempo. The result, instead of monotony, is a cumulative excitement little short of overpowering.
The fouetté pirouette leads into the subject of pirouettes in general. By their common definition, they are turns made on one supporting foot only, or without support (i. e., turns in the air). The definition serves to distinguish a true pirouette from a turn made by means of alternating steps, such as a pas bourrée turn.
The purest example of pirouette is that performed “on the crossed ankle”—sur le cou-de-pied. (Figures 57 to 61.) This turn is made without the aid of impulse from either leg after the free foot goes into its position, in distinction from the fouetté pirouette, for instance, in which the active leg’s movement in the air furnishes the motive power by which the body is turned.