32 fouettés en tournant

Dancer performing fouetté en tournant

32 fouettés en tournant is a movement in classical ballet. It is 32 fouettés en tournant performed without stopping.

Movement

One fouetté rond de jambe en tournant is an action where the dancer stands for a moment on flat foot with the supporting knee bent as the other "working" leg is whipped around to the side, creating the impetus to spin one turn. The working leg is then pulled in to touch the supporting knee as the dancer rises up en pointe on the supporting foot.

History

32 fouettés were first performed by Pierina Legnani in Marius Petipa's Cinderella in 1893.

Konstantin Skalkovsky, the dance critic for the St. Petersburg Gazette, went to the first performance of Cinderella. He reported that "...in the last act Legnani positively outdid herself. When Emma Bessone danced the lead in The Haarlem Tulip she did 14 fouettés. In her variation Legnani performed 32 of them without stopping, and without travelling one inch! The public delightedly applauded the Ballerina and compelled her to repeat this variation as well. On the repetition she nevertheless did 28 fouettés. To count them became the favourite occupation of the public."

Legnani repeated this feat again in many other ballets during her career. She performed them as Odile in the "Black Swan Pas de Deux" from Swan Lake (1895).