Ballet dancer has people scratching their heads as they try to work out optical illusion

A dancer's movements in a viral clip has left people utterly perplexed, with opinions divided on which way she's turning.

Optical illusions continue to captivate and spark debate across social media, largely because of how our individual brains interpret visual information differently.

In one particularly divisive video circulating online, onlookers see three ballerina figurines gracefully completing pirouettes—a renowned ballet move where the performer rotates on one foot. However, the dancers seem to spin in opposing directions to each other.

A question superimposed on the clip challenges the audience to discern if the central ballerina is spinning to the left or to the right. Popular TikTok channel @mister_illusions shared this brain-teaser with its 2.9 million followers, causing an intense exchange of views in the comments section. Spectators are split on whether the middle dancer twirls right or left, with some even suspecting the video might alternate her direction to confuse viewers.

One observer exclaimed: "The video is not consistent, it changes every second. Don't @ me!" Another suggested: "This is a Minde illusion actually. If I start looking at the left girl it starts spinning to the left and if I start looking at the right one it starts [spinning to the right]."

A different comment read: "It switched mid video." Offering a contrary point of view, someone else noted: "It's not switching!! It always turns right!!" Another was adamant the centre dancer spun only in one direction: "It’s only right idk [I don’t know] what y’all are talking about", but a differing voice chimed in: "I checked and different ones are spinning opposite directions".

Contrarily, another TikTok user insisted on only seeing a single