THIS IS THE REWRITE OF THE ORIGINAL POST
OMG I am restating what I wrote in the original version of this article. It's not that World Cup racers don't use rotary skills, it's that they have mastered the most efficient one -- they rotate their legs from their femurs in the hip socket. That's the only way they can keep their upper bodies facing down the slope. And it's the easiest way for us to face down the slope as well.
Here's the technical stuff:
There are four ways to rotate when we ski:
Shoulder rotation. Using a shoulder to initiate a turn is pretty common. And it becomes a bad habit, which fortunately isn't that hard for most of us to break with a bit of guidance. But shoulder rotation creates full body rotation, which squares our upper body to our skis and that makes us ski reactively, rather than proactively.
Ski around a planted ski pole. This is ok if you find yourself in a really steep, enclosed place where your life is hanging in the balance, but doing this all the time on a blue, groomed slope is a just a bad habit. And it also makes us square up to our skis, which is inefficient.
Counterrotation. This is the old-fashioned holdover from the straight ski era. It's the bar stool analogy that was so popular back in the day. When we hopped up or unweighted after counter-rotating, our skis turned in the opposite direction. No more please. Given the shape ski revolution, this extra effort is no longer necessary.
Leg rotation from the hip sockets. This is the most efficient way to rotate our skis when needed. When we rotate from the hip sockets, we can keep our upper body facing down the hill pretty easily. It's one of the skiing fundamentals: to "control the skis rotation (turning, pivoting, steering) with leg rotation, separate from the upper body."
Sit on the floor with your legs straight. It's easy to turn your legs in unison to the left and right. Your hips don't jiggle or rise up or move in any way. If it's effortless on the floor, it's almost as effortless when your legs are weight-bearing on a slick surface, such as snow.
For us recreational skiers, the ideal place to rotate our skis when we are carving is at the finish of the turn for speed control. This allows us to ski into a counter position, rather than than forcing it with counter-rotation.
I understand how hard it is to break bad habits, or to get your muscles and bones to make the most efficient moves. I've been working on that countered stance for years. I think I finally got a handle on it after all this time.
Sorry to anyone who read the original and wondered what the #### I was talking about.