Figures 57, 58, 59, preparation; 60 represents the completion of the turn, and the position the feet have occupied during the act of turning; 61, finish.
The pirouette sur le cou-de-pied here diagrammed is according to the specifications of Herr Otto Stoige, ballet-master and dancing teacher at the University of Königsberg, as quoted by Zorn. Raise the arms and the active leg (figure 58). Drop the active foot to anterior fourth position (figure 59), plié, and at the same time dispose the arms to give the twisting impulse to the body. The same impulse is aided by the sharp straightening of the left leg, coming into position as support. The arms drop (figure 60) as the free foot is placed sur le cou-de-pied of the supporting leg. Comparing the finish (figure 61) with figure 57, it is seen that the feet have resumed third position but exchanged places. In making the turn, the face is turned away from the spectator as short a time as possible.
The ability to do a double turn in this form is not rare, and a few men make it triple. The Prussian Stullmueller brought it to seven revolutions. An amusing conventionality of gender in pirouettes makes it man’s prerogative to do the pirouette en l’air—i. e., with both feet off the floor. This too is doubled by some of the men now dancing: Leo Staats, formerly of l’Opéra in Paris, is said to triple it!
A pirouette of this sort is one of the few pas that have a value independent of what precedes and follows; it is a beautiful thing by itself. In combination it gives a feeling of ecstasy; or, in other conditions, of happy eccentricity. A few years ago Angelo Romeo used it as the theme of his solo in a Ballet of Birds (under Fred Thompson’s management, the New York Hippodrome staged some real ballets). As King of the Birds, Romeo gave his part a gallantry at once amusing and brilliant by the reiteration of double pirouettes as a refrain.
Between the two extremes of fouetté pirouette and pirouette sur le cou-de-pied lie such a variety of manners of turning that experts fail to agree on any definition of the word “pirouette,” more explicit than the one already given. A half-turn sur le cou-de-pied, pas de bourrée, and complete the turn with a fouetté:—there, for instance, is a turn that is a pirouette or not, according to arbitrary definition. There are half as many subvarieties of pirouette and other turns as there are solo dancers. Turns of mixed type, partaking of the natures of both pure pirouette and the rond de jambe character of movement, are known collectively as pirouettes composées.