Tour

Tour simply means “turn.” On its own it is not a specific step. It is a building-block word that gets combined with other terms to name many different turning movements in ballet. Whenever you see “tour” in a step name, you know a turn is involved.

You will meet it in many combinations. Tour en l’air is a turn made in the air, where the dancer jumps straight up and rotates before landing. Piqué tour is a turn stepped directly onto a straight leg on pointe or demi-pointe. Tour is also part of the broader idea behind pirouettes and traveling turns like chaînés and fouetté turns. In each case the word tour is pointing to the turning part of the movement, and the rest of the name tells you how the turn is done.