ballet vocabulary – A Ballet Education

Ballet Vocabulary of the Day: Cabriole Fermée

Cabriole Fermée: a step that very few people use in class, but pops up in random variations like the first variation in Le Corsaire’s Odalisque Pas de Trois. Cabriole fermée is basically, well, a closed cabriole. But what makes a cabriole fermée so impressive? Simple. It is four leg movements in two counts or less, usually. While cabrioles might be reserved for moderato jumps or grand allegro, cabriole fermée is often used in petit allegros, and because of the quick closure to fifth, it makes the inner thigh work even more.

Check out this step performed inside a variation. Bolshoi’s Ana Turazashvili in Le Corsaire.

Chassé You Don’t Stay: The Connecting Steps of Ballet

They say, when it comes to a professional dancer, that you can tell how talented a dancer is based on their connecting steps. Some say the petit allegro is the tell-all of a dancer, but when it comes to ballet these days, we often get caught up in pirouettes, hypermobility and flexibility, and what is “on-trend.” We often forget that the base of ballet is built on walking patterns, the tempos and phrasing around these walking patterns, and how the walking patterns are executed.

When it comes to the connecting steps of ballet, one of the first major things to accomplish is chassé (Cecchetti method). Not to be confused with chassé en avant (French school).

Translation: chased. A step in which one foot literally chases the other foot out of its position; done in a series, and in all of the directions making a total of seven actions.

Chassé is the first time a dancer really starts to “use the floor” and travel at barre and center. It also doesn’t come off the floor, so we don’t have to worry about the foot being fully stretched, or all of the other things that can go wrong. Chassé lets us focus on presenting the heel while still on the floor, transfer our weight, and elongate the legs.

Here is one of my students, Annabelle Gourley, demonstrating the step in efface en avant wearing her Xiao Xiao Designs Leotard.

NOTES ON CHASSÉ

Start in a super clean and a lifted fifth position.
For me, I like to place the head over the shoulder as the dance pliés, knees over the toes, and arms slightly lifted. The weight is still equally placed over the balls of the feet.
Pressing the right heel forward, the weight is even between two feet, but the motion is set by the back foot putting pressure into the floor and pushing the front foot out. The more pressure you can put into the feet, the stronger and cleaner the position will be and there will be less chance of rolling, supination.
Transferring the weight by the back foot’s pad or the ballet of the foot, and the arch stretching. This shifts all the weight into the front leg, and the dancer’s head starts to present. I think the important thing in this position is to make sure that the knees still remain over the toes and that the legs are evenly rotated and working.
Finally, with no weight on the back leg, the front leg fully stretches in a turned out position.

The Less Common Arabesques

In America, we often forget about the last three arabesques. It is also probably why people in Europe think we don’t teach real ballet. (I imagine every teacher in America right now being like, “I’m a great teacher and I teach real ballet because I teach the fourth arabesque.” The fourth Arabesque in the Italian pedagogy Cecchetti, is often referred to as croisé arabesque in America. While in this drawing she is wrist and that left arm is rather high, this arabesque requires a good amount of flexibility in the upper back and shoulders to create the opposition needed. While this arabesque is more turnout friendly than the position’s counterpart (second arabesque), this arabesque is equally unforgiving because of the supporting leg.

Then we have the Russian fourth arabesque, while some Americans might refer to it as epaulé, and others will call it other things. Regardless, of what you call this position, it is one of the hardest positions of the arabesque because you can hide nothing. The back is fully exposed, meaning the spinal and scapula alignment must be properly aligned or it is a dead giveaway. Whether it is done de coté or effacé this position should be trained religiously because this position reinforces the ideas of opposition, and the hips being square while the upper body spirals. The demand for turnout on the supporting leg is also a lot, so if you do not have the strength yet, stick to the first arabesque, and then when you are ready, flip it.

Lastly, the Italian fifth arabesque. It might also be the crowning glory of arabesque. While third arabesque is nice and all, fifth arabesque is probably the most stunning line one’s body can make it, It is this radial pinwheel of perfection when aligned properly. It is the combination of the limbs crossing, the working leg crossing the axis, the supporting leg twisting en decors, while the supporting shoulder is rotating the opposite direction. This position is killer if one can achieve the line. Keep the energy pushing away from your axis and core, reaching to all points of the kinesphere.

More body positions: https://aballeteducation.com/the-body-positions-of-ballet/

For more posts on arabesque: click here.

Ballet Vocab of the Day: Entrechat Six

Not that we can all be jumping right now, but here is today’s ballet step of the day: Entrechat Six. This wonderful battu or batterie step is for both men and women of the intermediate and above levels. This jump usually is done in both allegro and grand allegro and can be done in petit allegro for the more advanced student. Entrechat six is translated as six crossings, but sometimes we forget how we count crossings in beats. 1 cross = is an opening or a crossing.

Illustrated above are where the six crossings are counted.

There are different ways and different thoughts on how to approach an entrechat six, whether that is based on musicality and phrasing the beats on the way up, or hitting the final beat at the landing if the accent is down. Some teachers will tell you to just squeeze the buttocks and legs as tight as you can and you will hit the six, while others might say do an entrechat quatre, and close back. Different strokes for different folks… When I teach entrechat six, I really emphasize the second beat and make sure you SUPER over cross the thighs and then let the legs kind of unwind the tension to create the beats. Again, different ways for different people. But here are some things to look out for, regardless of how you are taught to phrase the beat to accomplish it:

DO NOT BEAT YOUR ANKLES…. oof it is the worst to watch and hear. If you are beating your ankles you aren’t really jumping, and most likely are using your quads. Epic fails. It is also just really poor technique.
DO NOT MOVE YOUR HIPS… another thing to look out for is to move your hips while attempting the beats. Your pelvis should be stabilized because you are turning out both hips equally, and the core is pulled up letting the tail bone pointe down and the pubic bone stays forward-facing.
DO NOT SWING YOUR LEGS… if you don’t over cross your tendus/degagé/jeté, or just keep the tendu crossed, you might have a tendency to open your legs at the diagonal when beating, this makes for small little rond de jambe like beats, which are also wrong and outer quad heavy. Plus, you will look like you are swimming/flailing and kicking instead of beating.
USE YOUR CORE. Make sure the core is engaged and not squeezed. Do not squeeze your abs but keep them pressed, or scooped back into your spine. This will ensure that you take off/jump straight up.
STAY IN PLIÉ… make sure you stay in plié as long as you can by constantly pushing down into the floor so you have the most kinetic energy built up. This allows you to spring up and create ballon.

Date Posted: April 7, 2020

Here is étoile at the Paris Opera, Hugo Marchand doing the most amazing Giselle sixes ever.

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A post shared by Hugo Marchand (@humarchand)

Daily Ballet Vocab: Temps de Poisson

Our daily ballet vocabulary lesson with A Ballet Education: April 3, 2020

Temps de Poisson or Pas De Poisson or Sissone Soubresaut, or Temps Collé are all names for this difficult step. While back in the day it was a step of reserved for men, we are now progressive feminists and don’t discriminate steps via gender. Temps de poisson means time of the fish, whlie pas de poisson means step of the fish. While we can debate what school of thought (pedagogy) names what steps, it is more important to talk about the technique behind the step.

This step commonly shares a lot of the ideas and facings with sissone faille. For example, the step starts in croisé, but the position in the air would be effacé, while landing in a fourth croisé. The difference is going to be what the legs actually do in the air. While sissone faille (a very common step in ballet class), focuses on the legs splitting apart, temps de poisson focuses on to keep the legs glued together (like a soubresaut, hence the name) in a tight fifth position in effacé. Now stylistically, people get fancy and focus on the lean back or really shaping the arch of the position, or even the shape of the arms.

THINGS TO FOCUS ON:
DO NOT BEND YOUR KNEES IN THE POSITION! If you bend your knees or a single knee, it is a different step.

I like to encourage staying in the plié before take off for as long as possible so you can really push into the position.

Like an airplane take off, make sure you are on taking off moving forwards, and never backwards or arching too soon.

Keep the arms relaxed so you don’t look snazzy.

Grab a temps de poisson fat panda sticker for $5 – Click the image below.

COVID-19 QUARANTINE (Week 3 for Arizona)

Daily Ballet Vocab: Tendu Pour le Pied

Daily Ballet Vocabulary: Tendu Pour Le Pied

Battement Tendu Relevé (battement stretched and raised) or Battement Tendu Pour le Pied (Battement stretch for the foot) or Tendu Pour le Pied (tendu for the foot):

This is one of my favorite steps to give as a teacher, it really helps develop the foot in every capacity. It works the instep, it works the actual shape of the pointed foot, it works the articulation it works just about everything, and it is a killer for the inner thighs. Don’t confuse this with double tendu because it is not the same. Well, unless you are Soviet-Vaganova trained, then it is the same thing. This step can be done to the front or back, but most commonly it is done to the side or in a la seconde, and it can also be done with dégagé. Okay, let’s just get to it and break down this step:

Starting in fifth position, the working leg will brush to second with a strong tendu position.
Then, using the instep and the inner thigh, you will lower the heel forward as far as you can by rotating from the inner thigh. The minute the heel touches you will spring the instep and the toes back to a super strong pointed foot.
You can double it up, which means you will drop the heel twice before closing fifth. Usually when closing, you will close opposite of where you started. So if you did the tendu starting with the right leg in front, it will usually finish back.

When I teach I use this step a lot because it teaches the kids to lower with their heel fully forward, and that I can see how much natural rotation a student has right away. I also like to give this step a lot in “pre-pointe” class so that students are able to work the foot and toes quite a bit. Finally, I love to give this step because it is such a nice way to really feel the inner thighs connect as you lower; maintaining the rotation on both the working and supporting leg at all times.

Things to look out for:

Don’t force the ankle forward by pushing weight into it. You are going to want to make sure that the weight stays on the supporting leg.

To the side the working hip will slightly drop while the supporting leg works double time.

If you do this step to the front and back, there might be loss of a neutral pelvis for those dancers who aren’t strong enough to rotate on two legs, so avoid giving this to young dancers.

Maintain that the weight stays over the supporting foot to make the working leg the longest and the most beautiful shape possible.

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Issue 15 Ava Arbuckle Elite Classical Coaching

NOTES ON ATTITUDE DEVANT: THE TURNOUT POSITION

In ballet, there are a million rules, but within these rules, there is flexibility based on pedagogy or approach. There are ways to “cheat” a position or “fix” or “make it look better than it really is”… All of these ideas are technically not the best thing, but the reality is, that not every body type can achieve certain positions based on the Russian or French Aesthetics/Technique. Now there are two positions in ballet that can’t be cheated, they are two of the hardest positions: Ecarté Derrière and Attitude Devant. The later being used quite often. The hard thing about these two positions is the ability to identify turnout, flexibility and strength without using the spine. In my opinion, attitude derrière is the hardest position in ballet. (you can disagree…)

So, as a student growing up, I would hear “Shape the foot!” and “Turnout more!” and my favorite one, “You should be able to balance a hot cup of tea on your front foot.” Yes, that is the ideal, but not every bodytype can find that position. Additionally, when I was growing up, teacher would push and prod at my hips, which is probably why I have had to have two hip surgeries. They probably assumed because I had a hypermobile back, that I had flexible hips as well… Which was not true…

Now as a teacher, attitude front has become the bane of my existence. That is a lie, ecarté is. But attitude devant seems to be a position every student struggles with. Here is why:

You have to flexibility in your hamstring, glutes, and hips. In order to have that gorgeous line, your flute has to be flexible enough to release so the hip can rotate the femur head back. With that being said your hamstring can’t get in the way. Your hips also have to have the flexibility to let this process happen without any shift in hips (lateral shifting or tipping) or in core.
A student has to have a strong understanding and grasp on their turnout. If a student doesn’t know how to rotate the hip outwards or laterally, they will struggle with the concept of rotating the leg up, and instead, they grip in the quad and lift. Then with the quad gripped, the leg can only rotate so much, and only gain a certain amount of height.
Students need a very strong and connected core. Because ballet is so core intensive, if you don’t have a connected core, your hips and back can easily become displaced and the dancer will develop poor alignment habits.

The ideal line of attitude front should be that the heel and the knee should be in a line. If your body can’t achieve the ideal, then it should be higher knee than heel with the most rotation possible. Then for those who are extremely hypermobile or hyperflexible, the rules get bent and the heel becomes the highest point of the line with the knee dropping down towards the floor and so on. This is becoming the standard for attitude front, but the reality is, not everybody can achieve this line. The line of attitude front is hard because of the turnout factor.

So, how do you even get into attitude front?

There are a couple of schools of thought. The first being the more common… A lot of schools teach the attitude front from the Sur le coup de pied position. Which is the ideal position of attitude but the leg rotated to 90 degrees. The idea is the rotate the heel forward so much, that the leg has to lift. Without changing the length of the leg or degree of the bend in the knee, you rotate upwards and achieve the line. This creates a very long, and the line goes slightly down from the knee.

The next school of thought is to achieve the attitude through passé. The concept of turnout is the same, but the goal is to keep the 90-degree line of the passé and rotate the hip back into the socket and achieve a tighter attitude. This creates of pressure on the hips, and if you don’t have ideal rotation and flexibility, it will mess your hips up. This creates a very hard line extending from the hips.

Things to avoid when getting to attitude devant? My big concern is the gripping of the quad. When the quad grips instead of lengthening or rotating causes a lot of tension at the hip flexor and the hip joint which unfortunately doesn’t allow the position to grow. Additionally, I dislike when people turn in as they bring the leg up, and then you see the heel or you lose sight the knee at side profile. Hip shifting is also a pet peeve. A lot of people sink into their supporting hip to get the leg up, or their hips aren’t strong enough to hold the position and their hips become wonky. If you are turning out from the hip, it should create a ton of tension to work within to keep the hips stabilized at all times. Avoiding turning in the standing leg, but if you are going to compromise anything in this position, I think slightly turning in the standing leg is the lesser of the evils.

But, I feel the most ideal “cheat” to maintain the technique and the shape of the position is to lift out of the hips and slightly stick your bootie out. NOT SPLAY our sit in your lower back but let the hips slightly tip forward. You have to have a very strong core to do this without looking ridiculous.

BONUS: Add the developpé front by rotating the heel long, and lengthening the back of the knee.

How to get a better attitude front? Get the Attitude Front Technique Tracker here.

Notes on Port de Bras… well clarification

In America, we use the vocabulary term “port de bras” too much. We overuse the term quite a bit… Then again, in the English language, we have a tendency to group ideas together under one word, limiting our vocabularies sometimes. So, I would like to talk about, how in America we use “port de bras” for everything that isn’t necessary. The Vaganova school has numbered their port de bras 1-6, which is kind of nice- but somehow it didn’t catch on in America? Maybe some teachers here use it… but I have never really come across it. And I’m sure one of you will have some smart a$s comment that your teacher used the Russian numbers, but honestly… in all the years I have danced, and all the elite schools I have gone to… haven’t come across it. So, port de bras is the carriage of the arms, and really has nothing to do with back movement or spinal flexion.

Technically speaking “port de bras back” should be referred to as cambré, circular port de bras should be grand port de corps, port de bras forward… well that is still up for debate… Some say you should use port de corps, and some say that it is port de bras… Cambré really does only refer to as arched. Soooo… Where does this leave us? I actually don’t really care, but with that being said, whatever the term is for the movement… Let’s talk about how difficult it is. I know I sound like a broken record that ballet is hard, but it really is. Truthfully, I don’t know why anyone would want to do it… I mean sure, once you are older and smarter, you understand the art and the finesse, but seriously… why would any 13-year-old put themselves to through the stress of ballet?

So, usually during pliés we are given these wonderful movements to warm up our spines and stretch out our bodies. And yes, I know I haven’t written about pliés, but my illustrations still are subpar for the pliés.

a. As you have warmed up in plié you are about to embark on a mission… The mission being… port de bras forward. The first thing you need to do before taking the dive forward, well you shouldn’t be diving at all, but you have to separate as many spinal disks from your pelvic cradle and make as much space as you can from your hips and ribcage. So lift. Press your belly button to your spine, and use your muscles to pull your body apart.

b. When going forward don’t rock back into your legs. You have to go up and forward using your abs and core like crazy. Your abs, ribs, pectorals and such should be pressing back into your spine. Now, the trick in moving forward is to separate each spinal disk and lift them one at a time from the base of your skull down. You actually don’t move down. You move up and forward and then start to trace a semi-circle. Note: adjust your arm at the bar. You are moving forward so the arm has to move forward, or else it distorts the line, connection, and alignment.

c. As you hit the bottom, the top of your head should be reaching through your legs… A lot of students have a tendency to not release their necks, and therefore, shortening the space and range of motion between the vertebrae in the neck.
Again, don’t rock back into your hamstrings because that locks up your ankles, puts stress on the knees, and makes the quads grip and get thicker.

You get to the bottom and then what?

There are two trains of thought on how to get up from this position… Flat back and rolling up. Both actually have the same principal of opening the spine and keeping the space between the vertebrae. I decided to illustrate the flat back because more people are prone to messing this up.

d-f. The most important part, is that from the bottom of the bend, you separate the lower spinal disks from the pelvic cradle. If you are going to “flat back” it up, you then reach accordingly and keep the distance between the vertebrae. That brings you back to a taller, more compact core position.

If you are going to roll up, you want to focus on stacking each vertebra slowly on top of each other from the tailbone up.

Currently, I am looking to create my own technical handbook filled with the illustrations and elaborations on ballet technique, ballet attire, ballet everything… Click here to learn more. And totally not the cover or the name of the book, just a mock up.

Notes on the Styles of Attitude Derrière

There are two MAJOR positions/shapes for ballet dancers. Positions that are based on the negative space the body creates and the idea of intersecting lines and shapes. They are: Developpés en croix: two straight perpendicular lines dissecting at an axis point (like arabesque…. developpé a la seconde, etc etc etc. And then there is Attitude en croix: a curved line. Of the two… attitude is a harder position. It is harder to cheat, harder to clean up, and definitely harder on the body if done correctly…. Unfortunately or fortunately, different pedagogies teach different approaches and lines. It is like the difference between at a Matisse and a Rembrandt. Same tools, same technique different outcome. These are some of my notes on the different styles of Attitude Derriere aka attitude back. I am going to be using attitude back because I don’t like having to switch keyboards back and forth. And sorry for skipping around on techniques. (I am skipping around on techniques based on how well I can draw the positions lol.)

So, for me in my opinion, and from experiencing the wonderfully painful world of ballet, there are five different approaches to attitude back. The five styles are: Cecchetti/French, Balanchine, Russian, Royal Ballet, and for those who are lucky enough to be hypermobile. Each of these are technically correct, but based on two things- how the lines curve and intersect, how your center is placed and weighted, and the tipping of your pelvic cradle.

a. Cecchetti (Italian) and French styles: the two are closely related, as Catherine Medici of Florence brought ballet to the French court. So of course, the two are related and similar. I actually think this probably the most classical position relating to the origins of ballet existing in today’s world… Because attitude back even 80 years ago was kind of a joke…. Ideally, both the standing and working leg are turned out, but the working leg (the leg going into attitude) will shift within the hip joint. The femur head basically roles forward towards the front flipping the passé horizontally and back. Ideally, there is no tipping in the pelvis, and tension is created by the working knee pressing up, while the lower leg’s turnout rotates downward. The lower portion of the leg is slightly opened to give a curved spiraling line. The height of the attitude comes from how far you can rotate the femur head forward to achieve the line. As the femural head rocks forward the passé then flips and shifts directed by the knee and supported by the sartorius and moves behind the spinal cord. The foot gradually opens from the passé position into the coupé position and length. Ironically, no one teaches attitude from sur le coup de pied when that is basically the shape and length. The only attitude that is truly a flipped passe is the Balanchine line. which brings us to the Balanchine line.

b. Balanchine – when in doubt… turn it out. The Balanchine attitude is basically, “How much turn out do I have, and how strong are the backs of my legs. I have had numerous different Balanchine teachers and they all have their own take on the attitude back… Like how crossed is too crossed… But one teacher made it pretty clear: You take your passé, flip it and push your knee behind your spine. Don’t every open the lower portion of your leg, and support from the hamstring, not the sartorius. If you basically take your passé, flip it, and shove it over. Your foot no matter what will be over crossed to the other side… Unless you have a short tibia or a wider torso. The position is extremely hard on the back because ideally the same concept of letting the femoral head roll forward and outwardly rotating the femur behind you. This creates a perfect perpendicular shape from the side but creates the elongated spiral through your back. If you are hypermobile you can separate the hips easily from your spinal chord, but for most, this position has to be cheated with the tipping of the pelvic cradle.

c. Now the Russian/Hypermobile line is modified because the center line is now based on your back in correlation to the front of your standing leg. The Russian line is extremely open, unlike the Balanchine line closing it from passe. Russian attitudes, the height is measured by the working foot. This allows the pelvis to tilt forward, the knee to slightly turn in and the attitude leg to go much higher. Unfortunately, you have to have a very flexible lower back, or else the line and center of gravity get distorted.There is this saying in ballet saying that when you do extensions to the back you move up and forward… and then you end up in these random superman positions, or crunchy necklines… It is just ugly. The idea of up and forward is based that your upper back remains completely straight up without compromising the ribcage or neck and shoulder line. You move your back line to be slightly in front of the standing leg line to counterbalance within the pelvis. Once the pelvis is centered, your body weight is now half and a half… And depending how flexible your back is, you can tilt as far as you want to get into a hypermobile attitude back… In Russia…. it seems every girl and boy at Vaganova Academy has a hypermobile back which gives us the elusive hypermobile attitude back…. The further your hips tilt or pour over, you have to create more space in between the pelvis and ribcage to allow your center of gravity to be balanced without straining your knee or ankle. Additionally these lines have the knee crossing behind the working sides shoulder blades.

d. Royal Ballet, not RAD, uses the hip tilting to the full advantage. Royal ballet students tip their hips completely forward to the back. This allows for two major things, the first is that when you hip your hips you aren’t concentrated on the femur head rotating forward… and for a lot of people that is a hard sensation to feel. Once your hips are tilted forward, your working legs has a ton of freedom. The problem is… that if you aren’t hypermobile and are given perfect turn out… this line causes the upper body to be wonky. Even at 90 degrees it’s pretty hard. The second pro to this line, is it makes your legs look incredibly long. As the pelvis tipping forward adds a good 6-10 inches to your leg line. It basically creates the leg line from the natural waist to the end of the foot versus other attitudes going from the hip joint to the toe. Sarah Lamb is probably the master of this line… Additionally, once the hips are tilted forward at 90 degrees, the leg is free to hit or maximize the penche line in arabesque. Again though, you have to have a gifted body to achieve this line or you get superman flying through the sky, or your get wrinkly neck rolls, or lumpy shoulders.. Royal ballet also places the knee behind the shoulder creating less tension within the lower back and creating a more open curve natural curve from the standing sides shoulder spiraling through to the working foot.

I have said it before, but you really do have to find the right line for you. This is really important for every dance to experience because finding the right line on your body could be the difference between a company contract… and ending up working at a Taco Shop. #justsayin

Notes on the Basics… my basics

Apparently, once again I have to go in depth to defend my blog… and truthfully… At this point I don’t really care, with the exception of recent negative comments and emails from other ballet bloggers and ballet teachers… Let’s talk about the basics of ballet and not the fact that other blogs rarely quote their sources, link the photos to the actual photographers so their readers can, at the least, have access to the photographer, and be bland… *shade* Blogs aren’t newspapers or literary journals… They are opinions… and if you don’t have anything nice to say… Just don’t say anything at all… Or post it on your blog… Seriously… *side eye* Another plus side… is my ability to doodle… so now I can just doodle everything I am talking about.

HOW I TEACH THE BASICS

The basic principal of ballet technique is turnout. (click here to read post on turnout)
Turnout as a concept is easy to understand, but to actually turn out… That is like the lifetime commitment you are making to ballet.

Then as we progress through the ballet vocabulary, I break down ballet technique based on four basics:

Plié (build): the literal translation of plié is to bend.
Tendu (stretch): the translation is to stretch.
Relevé (press): to raise/ to rise
Coupé (rotation): to cut

Side note… the translations of the vocabulary aren’t the definitions or even a guide on how to properly execute the techniques. These words are translated as verbs, so they portray an action or movement, but they aren’t just as simple as bending… I think a lot of times teachers get caught up in the idea of ballet vocabulary versus the actual use of the vocabulary.

Okay, so if you take a glissade… and really break it down it goes from a plié, to a tendu, to a relevé, and then in the reverse. If you look at a jump, it starts in a plié and moves through relevé, and into a tendu in the air… If you look at a pirouette, it goes from a plié, to a relevé, and moves through coupé and rotates higher to passé. These are why I only use the four instead of the classic French 7 by Raoul Auger Feuillet and Jean-Goerges Noverre. (plier, étendre, glisser, relever, sauter, tourner and élancer)

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To talk about elancer, glisser, sauter, and tourner; these ideas still have to be broken down… sooo I use the four I said above. These four terms, or the idea of turning and the idea of jumping are directional concepts. Even then a turn, for me and how I teach, can be broken down to axial turns or spatial turns. A pique turn and a pirouette… both would be categorized as tourné, but let’s be real… The approach to the two are completely different. Even jumps… an entrechat and grand jete would be both categorized as sautés…. buuuuuut ummm completely different in aesthetic and technique… Which is why, I refer to and defend my four principals.
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Why do I say build instead of bend? Well if all you do in a plié is bend… you probably have thunder thighs, wobbly knees and have a jerky jump and fugly pirouettes. (No offense…) But, even starting with 5 and 6-year-olds… We talk about how pliés build kinetic energy, how a plié never ends, and is constantly growing. Even before “bending” there is a slight lift in our hips and cores… I call it our high hips, or the breath before you jump in the pool. Either way… at barre we start talking about how our plié fuels our bodies (rocketships) and you have to have a full tank of gas if you want to get to Mars…

Tendu, again a verb… doesn’t have an end point, unless…. we are preparing for the SAB and other Balanchine schools and work on placing/stopping our tendus.You can click here to read my notes on tendu. But, basically, I use Tendu as stretch, to get the most length and extension through the legs and toes.

To press versus to rise… Relevé as much as it is your heels rising off the floor… there is a huge downward action, so we press our energy into the floor through the balls of our feet causing us to rise.

Coupé…ROTATION I use coupé and the variations of coupé a lot… I use this position for students to feel the rotation of the working leg. If you were to take the coupe position and raise it straight up you end up in passé. If you open the coupé to the front… you are in attitude front… And so on… Coupés definition: to cut, is basically about cutting the line of the leg.

So… these are the reasons I use these four basics to teach ballet opposed to the classical 7.

Ballet Vocabulary: Lesson 1

In the world of ballet, there are three languages. There is the language in which ballet was codified, French. Then there is the language in which interprets ballet, body language backed by emotion. And then there is a language that ballet dancers actually speak, a language of their own, and I’m not talking about French. So, here is the modern vocabulary list every ballet dancer/student should know (part one). These terms you will come across in class, gossiping among your fellow peers in ballet school, blogs like this one, or social media.

Mr. B (noun): AKA, George Balanchine, aka God (just kidding, not really)

The founder of New York City Ballet, and probably the most influential choreographer of the 20th century.

What would Mr. B do?

4 T’s (noun): AKA The Four Temperaments

Choreographed by George Balanchine in 1946 to music by Paul Hindemith.

Dancing 4T’s is really difficult if you aren’t trained Balanchine.

Buiscut (noun or adj):

Dancers with “bad” feet or feet that don’t point.

She has biscuit feet, she’ll never go en pointe.

A La Sebesque, secabesque (noun):

A non existent position in ballet that people with bad technique use. It is a combination of a la seconde, and arabesque.

You are doing a la sebesque dear, you aren’t in jazz class.

Bunhead (noun):

1. A dancer who is overly intense about ballet, to the point where it might be unhealthy.
Maureen is a bunhead, Eva is not.

Snatched (adj):

1. A dancer’s body in peak shape.
Her body is snatched, hence why she is rockin’ a unitard.

Whacked out (adj):
1. Ridiculously flexible
He is so whacked out… but only to the right.

AD (noun) aka Artistic Director:

1. The head of a ballet company.
She only got the part because she is sleeping with the AD.

Leo (noun) aka Leotard:

1. Appropriate ballet attire, made from mesh, nylon, spandex, lycra or another synthetic blend of fabric.
Who wears a white leo to an audition?

________ Hands (_____ (adj) + noun):

1. Spatula Hands: hands that look like spatulas.
2. Oven mitt hands: hands that are shaped like an oven mitt.
3. Hamburger Hands: hands that are shaped like one is holding a hamburger.
She is definitely not getting into SAB because of her spatula hands.

Claws (noun):

1. Hands that have gone through rigorous Balanchine training and are the anti Russian hand.
He has claws, you think he is from SAB?

Nut Season (noun):
1. The part of the season in which one must dance in the annual production of the Nutcracker in which they will be overworked, and over rehearsed. Dancers may cringe, or cry if they are at the mall shopping and the Tchaikovsky score is being played during the holidays. The time of the season in which every dancer wants to quit.
It is Nut Season, I want to die.

Pancaking (verb):
1. The application of a mattifier to match ones skin tone and remove the shine or pink color.
2. When a ballet dancer goes to iHop and dreams of ordering pancakes but orders a salad instead.
Gaynor Mindens should always be pancaked, that way it isn’t obvious you are wearing them.

Floor Barre (noun):

1. An awful, but healthy alternative to taking class. It is the combination of ballet, yoga and pilates.
I would rather do character than floor barre.

This is just part one, and as I compile list two, please feel free to email me for suggestions.

5 Ballet Techniques that make me melt

In today’s world of dance we applaud ridiculous extension, turns that never end, and jumps that defy gravity. Or, we celebrate mediocrity. Either way, it doesn’t do it for me. Don’t get me wrong, I love me some musicality, and artistic achievement but… I’m like a lover of technique. So, as much as I appreciate and glorify dancers of the past… It doesn’t really do much for me either. I recently was watching some video of Maria Tallchief in Allegro Brilliante and I was like -_____-. Like randomly placed passes, and some questionable releves from male dancers of the past… that doesn’t really do anything for me.

So, in today’s world of ridiculousness technique… There are five techniques that if done well, make me melt… Like I get all warm inside, and if it is on youtube I rewind it and watch it again… SOOO, what are they?

1. The technically crisp soutenu.

2. A two butts up glissade.

3. A super generous, and resistant pas de cheval.

4. A Balanchine saute arabesque, jete combo.

5. When a dancer bevels or wings their supporting foot right before they come down from releve, or when they place themselves on the wing of pointe shoe for a balance.

Daily Ballet Vocabulary: Tendu Pour Le Pied

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