Why Turning Technique Matters

Turning is one of those skills that shows up everywhere in pretty much all styles of dance—from a subtle pivot to a full spin across the floor. In blues dancing, where grounding, nuance and connection are key, turning well isn’t just about looking flashy—it’s about control, balance, and freedom. Whether you’re dancing solo or in partnership, understanding turning technique can transform how you move.

🌪 Why Turns Matter in Blues

In blues, turns are often woven seamlessly into the flow of movement. They might be a slow, playful turn full of rhythmic improvisation, a dynamic pop turn, a pivot turn in close embrace, or a traveling turn after a catch. They might be solo or partnered. Turns can appear in many forms and at a variety of tempos. The better your technique, the more options you’ll have at your disposal to express what your hear in the music.

🧍‍♀️ Solo Dancers: Control & Expression

For solo dancers, good turning technique means more than just managing momentum—it’s about feeling grounded and clear in your body. It allows you to shift direction, play with timing, and explore contrast in your movement.

Practising turns helps you:

• Improve balance and core stability
• Explore dynamic changes in speed and texture
• Express musical ideas more freely and confidently

Even a slow, single rotation can carry weight and emotion when it’s controlled and intentional.

👫 Partnered Dancers: Connection Through Clarity

In partnered dancing, turns require even more nuance. For leads, it’s about initiating turns with clarity and providing the right energy and directional information. For follows, it’s about receiving the signal, maintaining axis, continuing the momentum in the given direction, controlling your steps and your timing, staying in conversation with your partner and the music throughout the turn, and finishing the turn fully.

What makes turning in partnered blues unique is its improvisational nature—you don’t always know when a turn is coming or how many rotations it will involve. That means you need to stay adaptable and aware, rather than executing memorised sequences.

🎨 The Aesthetic of Turns in African American Vernacular Dance

In African American vernacular dances such as blues, the aesthetic of turning differs significantly from more codified European dance forms like ballet or ballroom. Here, turning is often:

• Grounded, with a relaxed and weighted presence through the feet and knees
• Rhythmically driven, responding directly to the music, often incorporating micro-timing or “lag”
• Casual yet intentional, giving the impression of ease or playfulness, even in complex movement
• Expressive, telling a story or showing personality, rather than striving for uniformity or sharp lines

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The late dancer and scholar Norma Miller, when speaking about the swing era dances, often highlighted how movement was rooted in attitude, character, and rhythm, not perfection or polish. That spirit carries through to how we approach turns in blues: it’s not about “executing” a technique—it’s about expressing something through the technique.

🧠 What Actually Happens When You Turn?

Let’s take a look at the mechanics behind turning.

At its core, turning involves:

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Unlike other dance forms, blues often encourages grounded turns, where you stay connected to the floor, rarely using excessive muscle tone or height. This gives the dance its distinctive look.

😵 But Why Do We Get Dizzy?

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But in blues, the approach is a little different…

👀 Soft Spotting & Looking with Intent

Because turns in blues are sometimes slower, more relaxed, and often improvised, spotting (as in ballet) doesn’t fit the aesthetic—or the practicality—of the dance.

Instead, we tend to use a technique that some people refer to as soft spotting.

Soft spotting still acknowledges how important our eyes are for turning, but is a gentler, more adaptable way of orienting yourself. Rather than snapping your head to a single fixed point, you’re more likely to guide your focus with intention—keeping your gaze calm, connected to your movement, and in relationship to your partner or direction of travel.

In class, we often say things like:

• “Look into your turn” – to help you maintain your orientation and axis.
• “Look for your leader” – especially helpful for followers in partnered turns.

This approach supports balance and reduces dizziness without breaking the relaxed and grounded aesthetic of blues dancing.

🌀 Learn to Turn with Flouer Evelyn

Turning technique in blues dance includes:

• Maintaining your axis throughout the turn
• Understanding momentum and initiation
• Practising pivot turns with intention
• Turning on a line or rotating in place
• Developing awareness and gaze through soft spotting

These foundational skills help you move with more freedom and confidence, whether you’re solo or in connection.

That’s why we’re thrilled to launch our new course: Turns, taught by the brilliant Flouer Evelyn (USA). Flouer breaks down the essentials of turning technique and gives you practical tools to build control, improve your balance, and turn with grace and clarity.

Whether you want to feel more stable, look more fluid, or stop getting dizzy after two spins—this course is for you.

Jump in and give your dancing a spin!

Footnotes:

1. African American Dancing at the Caravan Club, New Orleans, Louisiana, 1953. Ralston Crawford Collection, Hogan Jazz Archive, Tulane University Special Collections. Available at: https://www.spurlock.illinois.edu/exhibits/online/blues/history.html ↩︎
2. Andy Warhol’s “Dance Diagram [3] [‘The Lindy Tuck-In Turn-Man’]” (1962) ↩︎
3. Diagram available at: https://napacentre.co.uk/vestibular-input/ ↩︎