Pirouette blogging

Completely irrelevant and frivolous Olympics commentary blogging ahead.

What's with the shock and horror when gymnasts mess up an "easy" dance move like a triple or quadruple pirouette? Yes, they look much simpler than the Cool Tumbling Stuff, but, really, I've seen quite a few professional dancers fall out of multiple pirouettes. They aren't easy, for crying out loud. While my understanding of dance technique falls into the "autodidactic" category (IANAD), it's more difficult to perform multiple pirouettes with the legs parallel--as the gymnasts (and jazz dancers) do them--than with the raised leg turned out. The turn-out helps the dancer maintain balance and, along with the arm position, controls the speed of the turns.

Comments

[Jason]

Gymnastics commentary is pure schadenfreude. As someone who is, alas, not all that interested in the gymnastics, this is what makes it watchable.