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Beginning Ballet
176 Pages
Beginning Ballet With HKPropel Access introduces students to the study of ballet as a performing art and provides instructional support in learning foundational ballet technique. It is ideal for students enrolled in a beginning ballet class at the college, university, or high school level.
The book features more than 80 photos and concise descriptions covering basic foot and arm positions, barre exercises, and centre combinations. Beginning Ballet introduces students to the structure of a ballet class, including expectations, etiquette, and attire. Students also learn how to prepare for class, maintain proper nutrition and hydration, and avoid injury.
This text outlines the unique history of ballet from its beginnings in the Renaissance to the 21st century and discusses the styles, aesthetics, artists, and significant works that have shaped ballet as a performing art.
In addition, related online learning tools present more than 70 instructional video clips and 50 photos to help students learn and practice ballet. It also includes audio clips of ballet terms with pronunciation in French, assignments, and an interactive quiz covering ballet vocabulary, definitions, and translation to and from the French language.
Ballet class provides the foundation for learning the dance form, and Beginning Ballet supports that learning through visual, verbal, and interactive instructional tools. Beginning Ballet text and online tools help bring the grace, artistry, and mental and physical benefits of ballet to students.
Beginning Ballet is a part of Human Kinetics’ Interactive Dance Series. The series includes resources for ballet, modern, tap, jazz, musical theatre, and hip-hop dance that support introductory dance technique courses taught through dance, physical education, and fine arts departments. Each student-friendly text has related online learning tools including video clips of dance instruction, assignments, and activities. The Interactive Dance Series offers students a collection of guides to learning, performing, and viewing dance.
A code for accessing HKPropel is included with this ebook.
Chapter 1. Introduction to Ballet
Benefits of Studying Ballet
Ballet in Academic Settings
Ballet in Community Settings
Basics of Ballet Class
Expectations and Etiquette for Students
Structure of Ballet Class
Challenges of Learning and Performing Ballet
Summary
Chapter 2. Preparing for Class
Dressing for Class
Foot Care and Personal Hygiene
Carrying Dance Gear
Selecting and Fitting Ballet Slippers
Preparing Yourself Mentally and Physically
Summary
Chapter 3. Safety and Health
Studio Safety
Personal Safety
Basic Anatomy and Kinesiology
Preventing and Treating Common Dance Injuries
Understanding Dance Fitness
Nutrition, Hydration, and Rest
Summary
Chapter 4. Learning and Performing Ballet Technique
Languages of Ballet
Learning Ballet Movements
Learning Ballet Technique
Understanding Musicality
Understanding Artistry
Applying Aesthetic Principles to Ballet
Preparing for Class Performance Testing
Summary
Chapter 5. Basics of Ballet Technique
Positions of the Feet
Positions of the Arms and Port de Bras
Movement Principles for Ballet Directions of the Body
Directions of the Feet
Types of Barre Combinations
Types of Center Combinations
Summary
Chapter 6. At the Barre
Standing at the Barre
Pre-Barre Exercises
Barre Exercises
Summary
Chapter 7. In the Center
Rules and Protocols
Center Barre
Port de Bras
Adagio
Introduction and Transition Steps
Allegro
Révérence
Summary
Chapter 8. History of Ballet
Beginnings of Ballet
Ballet Moves From the Court to the Theater
A Century of Contrast: Romanticism to Classicism
Ballet in the United States Before 1900
Ballet in the Twentieth Century
International Perspectives in the Twentieth Century
Viewing Ballet Performances
Distinguishing Types and Styles of Ballet
Summary
Gayle Kassing, PhD, taught beginning ballet through advanced ballet for more than 25 years at four universities. Kassing earned a BFA in ballet and theater, an MS in modern dance, a PhD in dance and related arts, and an MAT in K-12 curriculum integrated with technology. She was the 2010 National Dance Association (NDA) Artist Scholar. She is a member of the National Dance Education Organization (NDEO). She is the author of History of Dance and coauthor of Teaching Beginning Ballet Technique. Kassing is an acquisitions editor at Human Kinetics.
“What is most welcome about Beginning Ballet is the multidisciplines represented—dance medicine and science, dance education, and dance history. This, combined with the preparation-for-class information (foot care, dance gear, selecting and fitting shoes, mental preparation) and technique instruction (positions of the arms and feet, barre and center combinations, center barre, port de bras, adagio and allegro), makes it a valuable text for students.”
Gigi Berardi-- Midwest Book Review
Learn the structure and distinct parts of ballet class
Today’s ballet class structure evolved through history absorbing traditions, movement practices, and dance science.
Structure of Ballet Class
Today's ballet class structure evolved through history absorbing traditions, movement practices, and dance science. In a beginning ballet class, dancers learn basic exercises and steps and they perform simple combinations at slow tempos. They gain technique competency, learn movement principles, develop a professional attitude, and become aware of customary practices in a dance studio.
The ballet class is different from a lecture course or another arts class. The ballet class has two distinct parts: the barre and the center. During both parts of the class, dancers follow protocols and rules of etiquette to expedite transitions from one combination to another so that more class time can be spent dancing.
Barre
The barre has two meanings: It is a piece of equipment and it is a portion of the ballet class. A barre is a wooden or metal rail that is either attached to several walls of the studio or is a free-standing, portable structure placed across the studio space. Barre also refers to the series of exercises done at the barre to warm up and strengthen the body as preparation for the second part of class. In today's ballet class dancers often execute a series of pre-barre exercises that warm up the body and prepare them for performing the traditional barre exercises.
Whether you are a novice, experienced, or professional ballet dancer, executing barre is an essential part of ballet class. It prepares you for dancing during the second part of class. It establishes correct placement and it develops core and leg strength, directionality, balance, foot articulation, and weight transfer skills. Barre exercises help you to reconnect with the mind-body aspects of ballet and to deepen and refine your technique. The sequence of the barre exercises may differ depending on your teacher's training or association with a particular school or method of instruction.
Center
Once you have completed the barre exercises, you move to a place in the middle of the studio for the center portion of class. In the center, you learn steps, positions, and poses to gain a basic movement vocabulary of ballet. You repeat exercises from the barre and learn steps that develop into dynamic movement combinations without an outside means of support. In other words, in the center you apply what you learned at the barre and you learn to dance.
Center combinations vary in tempo and include various steps and poses in changing sequences to challenge you.
Parts of the center include the following:
- Center practice of selected exercises from the barre to refine technique, balance, and directionality
- Slow, or adagio, combinations include classical ballet poses, arm and foot positions, steps, and turns
- Fast, or allegro, combinations include small or large jumps, hops, and leaps that are performed either as short combinations moving side to side, front or back, or across the floor
In the beginning ballet class, exercises, steps, and sections of the class are not always introduced in the same order as they appear in a standard ballet class. By the end of the term, the standard barre and center will have emerged.
The teacher may designate groups of three or four dancers to perform combinations in the center so that everyone has space to dance. The first group takes their places in the middle of the studio to begin. The second and additional groups stand and wait their turn at the side or back of the studio. After the first group completes the combination, the musician for dance may perform a vamp or repetition of the music to cue the first group to exit to one side and the second group to take its place. This rotation of groups continues until everyone has executed the combination.
The teacher may have dancers perform combinations across the floor in lines, groups, duets, or solo from side to side in the studio or on the diagonal beginning at a back corner and traveling to the opposite front corner. Dancers in the first group should get about a third to halfway across the floor, which is usually 8 or more measures of music before the second group begins. The time between groups helps to alleviate any collisions and still keep the class moving across the floor.
When crossing the floor in lines parallel to the front of the classroom, it is easy to go to the end of the line so that the combination can start again. When performing the combination on the other side and moving across the floor in the opposite direction in a line or on a diagonal, often the second row of dancers or second group must move forward to lead the combination.
When waiting your turn to execute a combination in the center or across the floor, stand quietly and observe your peers. Most often dancers stand at the side of the studio toward the back. If the teacher permits, you may mark, or physically move through the combination, or mentally review the combinations. Practicing the combination mentally is an effective way to learn movement. While waiting your turn, try visualizing the steps, directions, and other elements of the combination in time to the music.
Révérence
At the end of the traditional ballet class, dancers perform a révérence, a short combination in the center in which men bow and women curtsy, to thank the teacher and the musician for dance, if your class has one, and say good-bye. The ballet class ends with students applauding the teacher and musician for dance.
Cool-Down
Cool-down exercises include slow movements and stretches that allow your body and mind to relax and regain balance before leaving the studio. Slowly stretching your muscles increases flexibility and helps your body recover from the work in class. Teachers determine when or whether to include a cool-down in class. Sometimes they have you perform stretching exercises between the barre and center, either at the barre or on the floor. They may have you cool down after the center either before or after class is officially over, when the body is warm from performing combinations across the floor. If your teacher does not include a cool-down, you may choose to do personal stretching after class before you leave the studio.
Learn more about Beginning Ballet.
The importance of becoming proficient in ballets several languages
Ballet uses several languages with which you must become proficient.
Languages of Ballet
Ballet uses several languages with which you must become proficient. The first language you learn is that of ballet movements. To aid you in learning and remembering the movements, action words describe body actions, or movements of the legs, arms, and head in a sequence, for an exercise, step, or pose. Learning action words is an intermediate step to learning the French language terms of ballet.
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Action Words to French Terms
The teacher uses action words to describe the movement. Saying these words to yourself helps you make a connection to the movement. Then you progress to condensing several actions into an exercise or step. This sequence of movements is represented by a single ballet term for an exercise or step.
When you begin learning ballet, the action words in their sequence cue your movements. Later, you can execute a step or exercise without thinking about each movement, and you can begin to use French ballet terms for the exercises and steps.
Spoken and Written Terminology
Understanding ballet terminology goes beyond translating the movement sequence to recognizing either the spoken or written term. Knowing all these translations comes in handy when it comes to exam time; you may be expected to perform the exercise or step, recognize or write the French ballet term, and know its translation into action terms.
The vocabulary of ballet technique includes positions, exercises, steps, and poses. Although the terminology is expressed in the French language, don't confuse ballet French with the French you learn in a language class. The pronunciation of some terms may not be exactly the same. Because ballet French is spoken all over the world, ballet terminology may have a regional accent or even a different pronunciation depending on where you are.
Learning Ballet Movements
In ballet class students stand quietly and observe while the teacher performs an exercise or combination to music and speaks the action words or ballet terms. Then you execute the movement. Listening and remembering the movement sequence coupled with the action words and their ballet terms help you while practicing the exercise or combination. Learning new ballet movements can be distilled into an easy method: Watch it and hear it, then do it.
Watching
The first step is to watch sequences of movements as the teacher demonstrates them. When you begin to learn ballet, focus on the starting position of the feet, the working leg and its actions, and the directions in which the leg is moving. Later when exercises or steps include arm positions and traveling, you need to view the whole body doing the movement, what each body part is doing in sequence, and where it is in space.
Hearing
While watching the teacher's demonstration, you should also listen to verbal instructions—the cues the teacher uses to describe the movements while executing them. When the music starts, listen to the movement cues spoken in relation to the music. In your beginning practice, the teacher usually cues you just before you start a movement. This is your chance to identify which movement takes place on which count or measure.
As the ballet course progresses, the teacher demonstrates without the action words and instead uses the ballet terminology in rhythm or counts to the music. Near the end of your beginning ballet course, the teacher might say an exercise or combination using ballet terms without including a demonstration of the combination. At this point, you must translate your listening into movement: You have to hear the ballet term, visualize it, and then perform it to the music with the correct rhythm and tempo.
As a beginning dancer, translating the teacher's words into movement is your ultimate goal for learning terminology. While you move from one phase of listening to translating, you likewise gain control of and responsibility for your movement.
Doing
The next step is to do the movement. When learning a new movement sequence, you usually execute the movements slowly without music, then slowly with music, while the teacher guides you from one movement to the next. As you practice the movement sequence, visualize it and say the action words or terms to yourself. Continue to fit the movements in their proper sequence and in time to the music, then practice the movement sequence until you become comfortable with it. Be prepared to make adjustments in order to perform the movement correctly. Remember, at this time you are learning just the basic movement patterns.
During the course, you begin to think about how technique, principles, rules, and other elements will refine your performance of beginning exercises. In ballet, refining your movement is an unceasing process. After you have the movement sequence in mind, practice it so that both sides of the body can initiate it.
As a beginning dancer, make it a goal to absorb most of the movement presented in class. In some classes, some or many of the components are repeated during the next class meeting. This repetition reinforces learning. In ballet, you have to attain a certain level of learning before you can progress to the next level of technique, style, and artistry. Your ability to remember and replicate movement contributes to your progress as a dancer.
Learn more about Beginning Ballet.
Performing a Second Port de Bras and the movement principle for ballet
To perform a second port de bras, begin in preparatory position, or fifth position en bas.
Second Port de Bras
To perform a second port de bras, begin in preparatory position, or fifth position en bas. Raise both arms to fifth position en haut. There, rotate the arms outward and lower them down to second position. Then lift the elbows slightly and float the arms downward, finishing in preparatory position.
The smooth, continuous, coordinated arm movements of the port de bras can complement or counterpoint the leg and foot movements in an exercise or combination.
Practicing first and second port de bras is the basis for incorporating port de bras into the preparation for barre and center work. Later, arm positions are incorporated into the exercises or arms are held in a specific position until the end of the exercise or combination.
Movement Principles for Ballet
Like all dance forms, ballet relies on a set of movement principles. One or more of the principles interface with poses through exercises, steps, and combinations. Movement principles incorporate scientific and aesthetic concepts into ballet technique. Understanding each principle and how to apply it is part of learning ballet technique.
Looking at the movement principles pyramid shown in figure 5.14, begin at the bottom tier. As your technique increases, you move upward from the bottom tier, which includes the basic principles of alignment, turnout, and stance. The second level of the pyramid comprises distribution of weight and transfer of weight. Moving up the pyramid, squareness is the central principle and relates to lift (also known as pull-up) and counterpull. Counterbalance and aplomb form the next level, and although balance is at the tip of the pyramid, it is the movement principle that connects all of the tiers.
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Alignment
Having proper alignment means having good posture that integrates the dancer's body as a whole—head, torso, arms, and legs. Alignment is both a static and a dynamic movement principle, which means it applies when holding a pose (static) and while the body moves through space (dynamic). Dancers adjust body alignment quickly and with control during exercises and combinations. Once one part the body is out of alignment, other parts compensate, causing misalignment and possible injury. When the body is not aligned it affects all major joints. Learning and practicing good alignment are critical to correct dancing and benefit you both inside and out of class.
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Turnout
The hallmark of ballet technique is turnout, the outward rotation of the legs and feet that begins in the hip socket. Deep rotator muscles around the hip support the ability of the leg to rotate in the hip socket. Turnout extends from the hip joint through the upper and lower leg and the foot. Muscles of the upper and lower legs and the abdominal muscles are essential to attaining and controlling turnout.
As a beginning dancer, the angle of your turnout should be at natural turnout, which is about 90 degrees, or 45 degrees for each leg. As you practice turnout, your legs and feet gain muscle memory to stand, move, and stop while continuing to maintain the turnout in various positions.
Stance
When you stand or move, the weight of your body is either on both feet or one foot. In classical ballet stance, the weight on both feet should be equally distributed over the foot triangle. Stance has an obvious connection to alignment. Weight distribution and weight transfer interact directly with stance.
Weight Distribution and Weight Transfer
Standing poised and ready to move from two feet to one or from one foot to two initially requires thought behind the movement. You have to know where your weight is (weight distribution; on both feet or one foot) and to where it is going (weight transfer;to the same foot, other foot, or both feet) as you stand or move. Good alignment has a direct connection to weight distribution through the feet. Consequently, weight distribution connects to your turnout, too. Together the principles of weight distribution, transfer, turnout, and alignment link to stance and ultimately to the foot triangle (figure 5.15).
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Squareness
Squareness is the central movement principle in the third tier of the pyramid of principles. In ballet, the torso works as a unit, so the shoulders and hips should be level and face the same direction. Using the squareness principle, the torso is quiet and square, which allows focus on leg movements and their directions or on entire body movements in relation to the dance space (figure 5.16). In the beginning ballet class, you first perform barre exercises facing the barre so that you can understand and practice this principle. In the center, squareness applies to using body directions in relation to the space.
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Learn more about Beginning Ballet.
Learning barre exercises in beginning ballet class
The barre exercises presented in this chapter follow the order in which they are performed in the traditional ballet barre.
Barre Exercises
The barre exercises presented in this chapter follow the order in which they are performed in the traditional ballet barre. In the beginning ballet class, the barre exercises may not be taught in this order, but by the end of the term, the barre will contain most of the exercises in this chapter. Different methods of ballet execute the barre exercises in a similar but sometimes different order.
Each barre exercise includes its written pronunciation, definition, purpose, and description. In the web resource that accompanies this book, the ballet term is pronounced in the French language and a video clip presents the exercise. Also included is a self-check list for performing the exercise. Some basic barre exercises are followed by variations. Often these variations are practiced either as separate exercises or with the basic exercise for extended combinations.
Barre exercises begin in classical foot positions. In the beginning ballet class, you learn exercises starting in first position and then move to starting in either third position or fifth position (see chapter 5).
Before each exercise you stand in the beginning position and execute a preparation to music. In some cases the preparation is a port de bras, but for some exercises, foot movements accompany the port de bras as part of the preparation. In a beginning ballet class, the preparation may use four or two bars of music before the exercise begins.
Demi-Plié [duh-MEE plee-AY]
Definition
Half bend of the knees
Purpose
- Warms up the hip, knee, and ankle joints
- Increases strength and flexibility of the lower leg
- Applies the principles of alignment, stance, turnout, and weight distribution
Description
To execute a demi-plié, stand in a classical position of the feet. Descend as far as the knees can bend with the entire foot remaining on the floor, then return to the starting position. Perform the demi-plié in first, second, third, fourth, then fifth position.
Maintaining turnout from the hips, bend the knees directly above the second and third toes of each foot. In second position, bend the legs half as much as for a grand plié.
Grand Plié [grahn plee-AY]
Definition
Large bend of the knees
Purpose
- Stretches the muscles of the inner thigh in addition to those of the lower
leg - Applies the principles of alignment, turnout, weight distribution, squareness, and counterpull
Description
First, execute a demi-plié and then descend deeper to where the thighs are parallel to the floor. The heels release from the floor only as necessary on the descent and return as soon as possible on the ascent. Both knees bend and straighten simultaneously.
Performed in all foot positions, the grand plié is a continuous vertical movement, using the same number of measures for the descent and the ascent. The body weight is equally distributed over both legs. As you descend, the body counterpulls upward. On the ascent, the body remains lifted, appearing to float over
the legs.
In second position, the space between the feet varies from one and 1/2 lengths of your foot to shoulder width. In this position you descend until the thighs are parallel to the floor, but the full foot remains on the floor throughout the grand
plié.
Battement Tendu [bat-MAHN than-DEW]
Definition
Stretched beating
Purpose
- Increases flexibility of the ankle
- Develops full extension and proper alignment of the foot with the leg
- Applies principles of alignment, stance, turnout, weight distribution, weight transfer, and squareness
Description
Start in first position at the beginning and later start in third or fifth position. From a full-foot position, brush the working foot along the floor extending through the arch, then the metatarsals, to a fully pointed position. In the pointed position, the tips of the first three toes rest on the floor and the heel is lifted high and forward. On the return path the foot flexes first through the toes, then the metatarsals, the arch, and finally to the full-foot position as it slides back to the closing. Practice battement tendu devant, à la seconde, and then derrière. For the battement tendu à la seconde, slide the working foot to a point that is in line with the great toe
of the supporting foot (Cecchetti method) or in line with the supporting heel
(Russian method).
Battement Tendu With Demi-Plié
[bat-MAHN than-DEW with duh-MEE plee-AY]
Definition
Stretched beating with half bend
Purpose
- Connects two exercises seamlessly
- Coordinates movements of the supporting leg with the working leg (the working leg does the out and in movement, while the supporting leg does the down and up movement)
Description
The battement tendu with demi-plié is two exercises combined. On the return path of the battement tendu, the working and supporting legs execute a demi-plié. Both legs reach the depth of the demi-plié when the working foot reaches the closed position. From the demi-plié, the next battement tendu begins with each leg simultaneously straightening on the extension section ending when the working foot is fully pointed.
Battement Tendu Relevé
[bat-MAHN than-DEW ruhl-VAY]
Definition
Stretched and raised beating
Purpose
- Develops skills in transferring weight from two feet to one foot and back to two feet
- Challenges balance
Description
The battement tendu relevé begins with the extension of the working leg to a point. Shift the weight from the supporting leg to equally on both legs. The working foot accepts the weight through the toes to the full-foot position. To bring the weight back to the supporting leg, it pulls up to accept the weight as the working foot points and brushes back to the beginning position. You can perform battement tendu relevé without or with a demi-plié when the weight shifts to both legs in the full-foot position. After the working foot returns to the pointed position, it brushes back to the beginning position in demi-plié.
Learn more about Beginning Ballet.
Learn the structure and distinct parts of ballet class
Today’s ballet class structure evolved through history absorbing traditions, movement practices, and dance science.
Structure of Ballet Class
Today's ballet class structure evolved through history absorbing traditions, movement practices, and dance science. In a beginning ballet class, dancers learn basic exercises and steps and they perform simple combinations at slow tempos. They gain technique competency, learn movement principles, develop a professional attitude, and become aware of customary practices in a dance studio.
The ballet class is different from a lecture course or another arts class. The ballet class has two distinct parts: the barre and the center. During both parts of the class, dancers follow protocols and rules of etiquette to expedite transitions from one combination to another so that more class time can be spent dancing.
Barre
The barre has two meanings: It is a piece of equipment and it is a portion of the ballet class. A barre is a wooden or metal rail that is either attached to several walls of the studio or is a free-standing, portable structure placed across the studio space. Barre also refers to the series of exercises done at the barre to warm up and strengthen the body as preparation for the second part of class. In today's ballet class dancers often execute a series of pre-barre exercises that warm up the body and prepare them for performing the traditional barre exercises.
Whether you are a novice, experienced, or professional ballet dancer, executing barre is an essential part of ballet class. It prepares you for dancing during the second part of class. It establishes correct placement and it develops core and leg strength, directionality, balance, foot articulation, and weight transfer skills. Barre exercises help you to reconnect with the mind-body aspects of ballet and to deepen and refine your technique. The sequence of the barre exercises may differ depending on your teacher's training or association with a particular school or method of instruction.
Center
Once you have completed the barre exercises, you move to a place in the middle of the studio for the center portion of class. In the center, you learn steps, positions, and poses to gain a basic movement vocabulary of ballet. You repeat exercises from the barre and learn steps that develop into dynamic movement combinations without an outside means of support. In other words, in the center you apply what you learned at the barre and you learn to dance.
Center combinations vary in tempo and include various steps and poses in changing sequences to challenge you.
Parts of the center include the following:
- Center practice of selected exercises from the barre to refine technique, balance, and directionality
- Slow, or adagio, combinations include classical ballet poses, arm and foot positions, steps, and turns
- Fast, or allegro, combinations include small or large jumps, hops, and leaps that are performed either as short combinations moving side to side, front or back, or across the floor
In the beginning ballet class, exercises, steps, and sections of the class are not always introduced in the same order as they appear in a standard ballet class. By the end of the term, the standard barre and center will have emerged.
The teacher may designate groups of three or four dancers to perform combinations in the center so that everyone has space to dance. The first group takes their places in the middle of the studio to begin. The second and additional groups stand and wait their turn at the side or back of the studio. After the first group completes the combination, the musician for dance may perform a vamp or repetition of the music to cue the first group to exit to one side and the second group to take its place. This rotation of groups continues until everyone has executed the combination.
The teacher may have dancers perform combinations across the floor in lines, groups, duets, or solo from side to side in the studio or on the diagonal beginning at a back corner and traveling to the opposite front corner. Dancers in the first group should get about a third to halfway across the floor, which is usually 8 or more measures of music before the second group begins. The time between groups helps to alleviate any collisions and still keep the class moving across the floor.
When crossing the floor in lines parallel to the front of the classroom, it is easy to go to the end of the line so that the combination can start again. When performing the combination on the other side and moving across the floor in the opposite direction in a line or on a diagonal, often the second row of dancers or second group must move forward to lead the combination.
When waiting your turn to execute a combination in the center or across the floor, stand quietly and observe your peers. Most often dancers stand at the side of the studio toward the back. If the teacher permits, you may mark, or physically move through the combination, or mentally review the combinations. Practicing the combination mentally is an effective way to learn movement. While waiting your turn, try visualizing the steps, directions, and other elements of the combination in time to the music.
Révérence
At the end of the traditional ballet class, dancers perform a révérence, a short combination in the center in which men bow and women curtsy, to thank the teacher and the musician for dance, if your class has one, and say good-bye. The ballet class ends with students applauding the teacher and musician for dance.
Cool-Down
Cool-down exercises include slow movements and stretches that allow your body and mind to relax and regain balance before leaving the studio. Slowly stretching your muscles increases flexibility and helps your body recover from the work in class. Teachers determine when or whether to include a cool-down in class. Sometimes they have you perform stretching exercises between the barre and center, either at the barre or on the floor. They may have you cool down after the center either before or after class is officially over, when the body is warm from performing combinations across the floor. If your teacher does not include a cool-down, you may choose to do personal stretching after class before you leave the studio.
Learn more about Beginning Ballet.
The importance of becoming proficient in ballets several languages
Ballet uses several languages with which you must become proficient.
Languages of Ballet
Ballet uses several languages with which you must become proficient. The first language you learn is that of ballet movements. To aid you in learning and remembering the movements, action words describe body actions, or movements of the legs, arms, and head in a sequence, for an exercise, step, or pose. Learning action words is an intermediate step to learning the French language terms of ballet.
http://www.humankinetics.com/AcuCustom/Sitename/DAM/099/40se_Main.png
Action Words to French Terms
The teacher uses action words to describe the movement. Saying these words to yourself helps you make a connection to the movement. Then you progress to condensing several actions into an exercise or step. This sequence of movements is represented by a single ballet term for an exercise or step.
When you begin learning ballet, the action words in their sequence cue your movements. Later, you can execute a step or exercise without thinking about each movement, and you can begin to use French ballet terms for the exercises and steps.
Spoken and Written Terminology
Understanding ballet terminology goes beyond translating the movement sequence to recognizing either the spoken or written term. Knowing all these translations comes in handy when it comes to exam time; you may be expected to perform the exercise or step, recognize or write the French ballet term, and know its translation into action terms.
The vocabulary of ballet technique includes positions, exercises, steps, and poses. Although the terminology is expressed in the French language, don't confuse ballet French with the French you learn in a language class. The pronunciation of some terms may not be exactly the same. Because ballet French is spoken all over the world, ballet terminology may have a regional accent or even a different pronunciation depending on where you are.
Learning Ballet Movements
In ballet class students stand quietly and observe while the teacher performs an exercise or combination to music and speaks the action words or ballet terms. Then you execute the movement. Listening and remembering the movement sequence coupled with the action words and their ballet terms help you while practicing the exercise or combination. Learning new ballet movements can be distilled into an easy method: Watch it and hear it, then do it.
Watching
The first step is to watch sequences of movements as the teacher demonstrates them. When you begin to learn ballet, focus on the starting position of the feet, the working leg and its actions, and the directions in which the leg is moving. Later when exercises or steps include arm positions and traveling, you need to view the whole body doing the movement, what each body part is doing in sequence, and where it is in space.
Hearing
While watching the teacher's demonstration, you should also listen to verbal instructions—the cues the teacher uses to describe the movements while executing them. When the music starts, listen to the movement cues spoken in relation to the music. In your beginning practice, the teacher usually cues you just before you start a movement. This is your chance to identify which movement takes place on which count or measure.
As the ballet course progresses, the teacher demonstrates without the action words and instead uses the ballet terminology in rhythm or counts to the music. Near the end of your beginning ballet course, the teacher might say an exercise or combination using ballet terms without including a demonstration of the combination. At this point, you must translate your listening into movement: You have to hear the ballet term, visualize it, and then perform it to the music with the correct rhythm and tempo.
As a beginning dancer, translating the teacher's words into movement is your ultimate goal for learning terminology. While you move from one phase of listening to translating, you likewise gain control of and responsibility for your movement.
Doing
The next step is to do the movement. When learning a new movement sequence, you usually execute the movements slowly without music, then slowly with music, while the teacher guides you from one movement to the next. As you practice the movement sequence, visualize it and say the action words or terms to yourself. Continue to fit the movements in their proper sequence and in time to the music, then practice the movement sequence until you become comfortable with it. Be prepared to make adjustments in order to perform the movement correctly. Remember, at this time you are learning just the basic movement patterns.
During the course, you begin to think about how technique, principles, rules, and other elements will refine your performance of beginning exercises. In ballet, refining your movement is an unceasing process. After you have the movement sequence in mind, practice it so that both sides of the body can initiate it.
As a beginning dancer, make it a goal to absorb most of the movement presented in class. In some classes, some or many of the components are repeated during the next class meeting. This repetition reinforces learning. In ballet, you have to attain a certain level of learning before you can progress to the next level of technique, style, and artistry. Your ability to remember and replicate movement contributes to your progress as a dancer.
Learn more about Beginning Ballet.
Performing a Second Port de Bras and the movement principle for ballet
To perform a second port de bras, begin in preparatory position, or fifth position en bas.
Second Port de Bras
To perform a second port de bras, begin in preparatory position, or fifth position en bas. Raise both arms to fifth position en haut. There, rotate the arms outward and lower them down to second position. Then lift the elbows slightly and float the arms downward, finishing in preparatory position.
The smooth, continuous, coordinated arm movements of the port de bras can complement or counterpoint the leg and foot movements in an exercise or combination.
Practicing first and second port de bras is the basis for incorporating port de bras into the preparation for barre and center work. Later, arm positions are incorporated into the exercises or arms are held in a specific position until the end of the exercise or combination.
Movement Principles for Ballet
Like all dance forms, ballet relies on a set of movement principles. One or more of the principles interface with poses through exercises, steps, and combinations. Movement principles incorporate scientific and aesthetic concepts into ballet technique. Understanding each principle and how to apply it is part of learning ballet technique.
Looking at the movement principles pyramid shown in figure 5.14, begin at the bottom tier. As your technique increases, you move upward from the bottom tier, which includes the basic principles of alignment, turnout, and stance. The second level of the pyramid comprises distribution of weight and transfer of weight. Moving up the pyramid, squareness is the central principle and relates to lift (also known as pull-up) and counterpull. Counterbalance and aplomb form the next level, and although balance is at the tip of the pyramid, it is the movement principle that connects all of the tiers.
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Alignment
Having proper alignment means having good posture that integrates the dancer's body as a whole—head, torso, arms, and legs. Alignment is both a static and a dynamic movement principle, which means it applies when holding a pose (static) and while the body moves through space (dynamic). Dancers adjust body alignment quickly and with control during exercises and combinations. Once one part the body is out of alignment, other parts compensate, causing misalignment and possible injury. When the body is not aligned it affects all major joints. Learning and practicing good alignment are critical to correct dancing and benefit you both inside and out of class.
http://www.humankinetics.com/AcuCustom/Sitename/DAM/099/63art_Main.png
Turnout
The hallmark of ballet technique is turnout, the outward rotation of the legs and feet that begins in the hip socket. Deep rotator muscles around the hip support the ability of the leg to rotate in the hip socket. Turnout extends from the hip joint through the upper and lower leg and the foot. Muscles of the upper and lower legs and the abdominal muscles are essential to attaining and controlling turnout.
As a beginning dancer, the angle of your turnout should be at natural turnout, which is about 90 degrees, or 45 degrees for each leg. As you practice turnout, your legs and feet gain muscle memory to stand, move, and stop while continuing to maintain the turnout in various positions.
Stance
When you stand or move, the weight of your body is either on both feet or one foot. In classical ballet stance, the weight on both feet should be equally distributed over the foot triangle. Stance has an obvious connection to alignment. Weight distribution and weight transfer interact directly with stance.
Weight Distribution and Weight Transfer
Standing poised and ready to move from two feet to one or from one foot to two initially requires thought behind the movement. You have to know where your weight is (weight distribution; on both feet or one foot) and to where it is going (weight transfer;to the same foot, other foot, or both feet) as you stand or move. Good alignment has a direct connection to weight distribution through the feet. Consequently, weight distribution connects to your turnout, too. Together the principles of weight distribution, transfer, turnout, and alignment link to stance and ultimately to the foot triangle (figure 5.15).
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Squareness
Squareness is the central movement principle in the third tier of the pyramid of principles. In ballet, the torso works as a unit, so the shoulders and hips should be level and face the same direction. Using the squareness principle, the torso is quiet and square, which allows focus on leg movements and their directions or on entire body movements in relation to the dance space (figure 5.16). In the beginning ballet class, you first perform barre exercises facing the barre so that you can understand and practice this principle. In the center, squareness applies to using body directions in relation to the space.
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Learn more about Beginning Ballet.
Learning barre exercises in beginning ballet class
The barre exercises presented in this chapter follow the order in which they are performed in the traditional ballet barre.
Barre Exercises
The barre exercises presented in this chapter follow the order in which they are performed in the traditional ballet barre. In the beginning ballet class, the barre exercises may not be taught in this order, but by the end of the term, the barre will contain most of the exercises in this chapter. Different methods of ballet execute the barre exercises in a similar but sometimes different order.
Each barre exercise includes its written pronunciation, definition, purpose, and description. In the web resource that accompanies this book, the ballet term is pronounced in the French language and a video clip presents the exercise. Also included is a self-check list for performing the exercise. Some basic barre exercises are followed by variations. Often these variations are practiced either as separate exercises or with the basic exercise for extended combinations.
Barre exercises begin in classical foot positions. In the beginning ballet class, you learn exercises starting in first position and then move to starting in either third position or fifth position (see chapter 5).
Before each exercise you stand in the beginning position and execute a preparation to music. In some cases the preparation is a port de bras, but for some exercises, foot movements accompany the port de bras as part of the preparation. In a beginning ballet class, the preparation may use four or two bars of music before the exercise begins.
Demi-Plié [duh-MEE plee-AY]
Definition
Half bend of the knees
Purpose
- Warms up the hip, knee, and ankle joints
- Increases strength and flexibility of the lower leg
- Applies the principles of alignment, stance, turnout, and weight distribution
Description
To execute a demi-plié, stand in a classical position of the feet. Descend as far as the knees can bend with the entire foot remaining on the floor, then return to the starting position. Perform the demi-plié in first, second, third, fourth, then fifth position.
Maintaining turnout from the hips, bend the knees directly above the second and third toes of each foot. In second position, bend the legs half as much as for a grand plié.
Grand Plié [grahn plee-AY]
Definition
Large bend of the knees
Purpose
- Stretches the muscles of the inner thigh in addition to those of the lower
leg - Applies the principles of alignment, turnout, weight distribution, squareness, and counterpull
Description
First, execute a demi-plié and then descend deeper to where the thighs are parallel to the floor. The heels release from the floor only as necessary on the descent and return as soon as possible on the ascent. Both knees bend and straighten simultaneously.
Performed in all foot positions, the grand plié is a continuous vertical movement, using the same number of measures for the descent and the ascent. The body weight is equally distributed over both legs. As you descend, the body counterpulls upward. On the ascent, the body remains lifted, appearing to float over
the legs.
In second position, the space between the feet varies from one and 1/2 lengths of your foot to shoulder width. In this position you descend until the thighs are parallel to the floor, but the full foot remains on the floor throughout the grand
plié.
Battement Tendu [bat-MAHN than-DEW]
Definition
Stretched beating
Purpose
- Increases flexibility of the ankle
- Develops full extension and proper alignment of the foot with the leg
- Applies principles of alignment, stance, turnout, weight distribution, weight transfer, and squareness
Description
Start in first position at the beginning and later start in third or fifth position. From a full-foot position, brush the working foot along the floor extending through the arch, then the metatarsals, to a fully pointed position. In the pointed position, the tips of the first three toes rest on the floor and the heel is lifted high and forward. On the return path the foot flexes first through the toes, then the metatarsals, the arch, and finally to the full-foot position as it slides back to the closing. Practice battement tendu devant, à la seconde, and then derrière. For the battement tendu à la seconde, slide the working foot to a point that is in line with the great toe
of the supporting foot (Cecchetti method) or in line with the supporting heel
(Russian method).
Battement Tendu With Demi-Plié
[bat-MAHN than-DEW with duh-MEE plee-AY]
Definition
Stretched beating with half bend
Purpose
- Connects two exercises seamlessly
- Coordinates movements of the supporting leg with the working leg (the working leg does the out and in movement, while the supporting leg does the down and up movement)
Description
The battement tendu with demi-plié is two exercises combined. On the return path of the battement tendu, the working and supporting legs execute a demi-plié. Both legs reach the depth of the demi-plié when the working foot reaches the closed position. From the demi-plié, the next battement tendu begins with each leg simultaneously straightening on the extension section ending when the working foot is fully pointed.
Battement Tendu Relevé
[bat-MAHN than-DEW ruhl-VAY]
Definition
Stretched and raised beating
Purpose
- Develops skills in transferring weight from two feet to one foot and back to two feet
- Challenges balance
Description
The battement tendu relevé begins with the extension of the working leg to a point. Shift the weight from the supporting leg to equally on both legs. The working foot accepts the weight through the toes to the full-foot position. To bring the weight back to the supporting leg, it pulls up to accept the weight as the working foot points and brushes back to the beginning position. You can perform battement tendu relevé without or with a demi-plié when the weight shifts to both legs in the full-foot position. After the working foot returns to the pointed position, it brushes back to the beginning position in demi-plié.
Learn more about Beginning Ballet.
Learn the structure and distinct parts of ballet class
Today’s ballet class structure evolved through history absorbing traditions, movement practices, and dance science.
Structure of Ballet Class
Today's ballet class structure evolved through history absorbing traditions, movement practices, and dance science. In a beginning ballet class, dancers learn basic exercises and steps and they perform simple combinations at slow tempos. They gain technique competency, learn movement principles, develop a professional attitude, and become aware of customary practices in a dance studio.
The ballet class is different from a lecture course or another arts class. The ballet class has two distinct parts: the barre and the center. During both parts of the class, dancers follow protocols and rules of etiquette to expedite transitions from one combination to another so that more class time can be spent dancing.
Barre
The barre has two meanings: It is a piece of equipment and it is a portion of the ballet class. A barre is a wooden or metal rail that is either attached to several walls of the studio or is a free-standing, portable structure placed across the studio space. Barre also refers to the series of exercises done at the barre to warm up and strengthen the body as preparation for the second part of class. In today's ballet class dancers often execute a series of pre-barre exercises that warm up the body and prepare them for performing the traditional barre exercises.
Whether you are a novice, experienced, or professional ballet dancer, executing barre is an essential part of ballet class. It prepares you for dancing during the second part of class. It establishes correct placement and it develops core and leg strength, directionality, balance, foot articulation, and weight transfer skills. Barre exercises help you to reconnect with the mind-body aspects of ballet and to deepen and refine your technique. The sequence of the barre exercises may differ depending on your teacher's training or association with a particular school or method of instruction.
Center
Once you have completed the barre exercises, you move to a place in the middle of the studio for the center portion of class. In the center, you learn steps, positions, and poses to gain a basic movement vocabulary of ballet. You repeat exercises from the barre and learn steps that develop into dynamic movement combinations without an outside means of support. In other words, in the center you apply what you learned at the barre and you learn to dance.
Center combinations vary in tempo and include various steps and poses in changing sequences to challenge you.
Parts of the center include the following:
- Center practice of selected exercises from the barre to refine technique, balance, and directionality
- Slow, or adagio, combinations include classical ballet poses, arm and foot positions, steps, and turns
- Fast, or allegro, combinations include small or large jumps, hops, and leaps that are performed either as short combinations moving side to side, front or back, or across the floor
In the beginning ballet class, exercises, steps, and sections of the class are not always introduced in the same order as they appear in a standard ballet class. By the end of the term, the standard barre and center will have emerged.
The teacher may designate groups of three or four dancers to perform combinations in the center so that everyone has space to dance. The first group takes their places in the middle of the studio to begin. The second and additional groups stand and wait their turn at the side or back of the studio. After the first group completes the combination, the musician for dance may perform a vamp or repetition of the music to cue the first group to exit to one side and the second group to take its place. This rotation of groups continues until everyone has executed the combination.
The teacher may have dancers perform combinations across the floor in lines, groups, duets, or solo from side to side in the studio or on the diagonal beginning at a back corner and traveling to the opposite front corner. Dancers in the first group should get about a third to halfway across the floor, which is usually 8 or more measures of music before the second group begins. The time between groups helps to alleviate any collisions and still keep the class moving across the floor.
When crossing the floor in lines parallel to the front of the classroom, it is easy to go to the end of the line so that the combination can start again. When performing the combination on the other side and moving across the floor in the opposite direction in a line or on a diagonal, often the second row of dancers or second group must move forward to lead the combination.
When waiting your turn to execute a combination in the center or across the floor, stand quietly and observe your peers. Most often dancers stand at the side of the studio toward the back. If the teacher permits, you may mark, or physically move through the combination, or mentally review the combinations. Practicing the combination mentally is an effective way to learn movement. While waiting your turn, try visualizing the steps, directions, and other elements of the combination in time to the music.
Révérence
At the end of the traditional ballet class, dancers perform a révérence, a short combination in the center in which men bow and women curtsy, to thank the teacher and the musician for dance, if your class has one, and say good-bye. The ballet class ends with students applauding the teacher and musician for dance.
Cool-Down
Cool-down exercises include slow movements and stretches that allow your body and mind to relax and regain balance before leaving the studio. Slowly stretching your muscles increases flexibility and helps your body recover from the work in class. Teachers determine when or whether to include a cool-down in class. Sometimes they have you perform stretching exercises between the barre and center, either at the barre or on the floor. They may have you cool down after the center either before or after class is officially over, when the body is warm from performing combinations across the floor. If your teacher does not include a cool-down, you may choose to do personal stretching after class before you leave the studio.
Learn more about Beginning Ballet.
The importance of becoming proficient in ballets several languages
Ballet uses several languages with which you must become proficient.
Languages of Ballet
Ballet uses several languages with which you must become proficient. The first language you learn is that of ballet movements. To aid you in learning and remembering the movements, action words describe body actions, or movements of the legs, arms, and head in a sequence, for an exercise, step, or pose. Learning action words is an intermediate step to learning the French language terms of ballet.
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Action Words to French Terms
The teacher uses action words to describe the movement. Saying these words to yourself helps you make a connection to the movement. Then you progress to condensing several actions into an exercise or step. This sequence of movements is represented by a single ballet term for an exercise or step.
When you begin learning ballet, the action words in their sequence cue your movements. Later, you can execute a step or exercise without thinking about each movement, and you can begin to use French ballet terms for the exercises and steps.
Spoken and Written Terminology
Understanding ballet terminology goes beyond translating the movement sequence to recognizing either the spoken or written term. Knowing all these translations comes in handy when it comes to exam time; you may be expected to perform the exercise or step, recognize or write the French ballet term, and know its translation into action terms.
The vocabulary of ballet technique includes positions, exercises, steps, and poses. Although the terminology is expressed in the French language, don't confuse ballet French with the French you learn in a language class. The pronunciation of some terms may not be exactly the same. Because ballet French is spoken all over the world, ballet terminology may have a regional accent or even a different pronunciation depending on where you are.
Learning Ballet Movements
In ballet class students stand quietly and observe while the teacher performs an exercise or combination to music and speaks the action words or ballet terms. Then you execute the movement. Listening and remembering the movement sequence coupled with the action words and their ballet terms help you while practicing the exercise or combination. Learning new ballet movements can be distilled into an easy method: Watch it and hear it, then do it.
Watching
The first step is to watch sequences of movements as the teacher demonstrates them. When you begin to learn ballet, focus on the starting position of the feet, the working leg and its actions, and the directions in which the leg is moving. Later when exercises or steps include arm positions and traveling, you need to view the whole body doing the movement, what each body part is doing in sequence, and where it is in space.
Hearing
While watching the teacher's demonstration, you should also listen to verbal instructions—the cues the teacher uses to describe the movements while executing them. When the music starts, listen to the movement cues spoken in relation to the music. In your beginning practice, the teacher usually cues you just before you start a movement. This is your chance to identify which movement takes place on which count or measure.
As the ballet course progresses, the teacher demonstrates without the action words and instead uses the ballet terminology in rhythm or counts to the music. Near the end of your beginning ballet course, the teacher might say an exercise or combination using ballet terms without including a demonstration of the combination. At this point, you must translate your listening into movement: You have to hear the ballet term, visualize it, and then perform it to the music with the correct rhythm and tempo.
As a beginning dancer, translating the teacher's words into movement is your ultimate goal for learning terminology. While you move from one phase of listening to translating, you likewise gain control of and responsibility for your movement.
Doing
The next step is to do the movement. When learning a new movement sequence, you usually execute the movements slowly without music, then slowly with music, while the teacher guides you from one movement to the next. As you practice the movement sequence, visualize it and say the action words or terms to yourself. Continue to fit the movements in their proper sequence and in time to the music, then practice the movement sequence until you become comfortable with it. Be prepared to make adjustments in order to perform the movement correctly. Remember, at this time you are learning just the basic movement patterns.
During the course, you begin to think about how technique, principles, rules, and other elements will refine your performance of beginning exercises. In ballet, refining your movement is an unceasing process. After you have the movement sequence in mind, practice it so that both sides of the body can initiate it.
As a beginning dancer, make it a goal to absorb most of the movement presented in class. In some classes, some or many of the components are repeated during the next class meeting. This repetition reinforces learning. In ballet, you have to attain a certain level of learning before you can progress to the next level of technique, style, and artistry. Your ability to remember and replicate movement contributes to your progress as a dancer.
Learn more about Beginning Ballet.
Performing a Second Port de Bras and the movement principle for ballet
To perform a second port de bras, begin in preparatory position, or fifth position en bas.
Second Port de Bras
To perform a second port de bras, begin in preparatory position, or fifth position en bas. Raise both arms to fifth position en haut. There, rotate the arms outward and lower them down to second position. Then lift the elbows slightly and float the arms downward, finishing in preparatory position.
The smooth, continuous, coordinated arm movements of the port de bras can complement or counterpoint the leg and foot movements in an exercise or combination.
Practicing first and second port de bras is the basis for incorporating port de bras into the preparation for barre and center work. Later, arm positions are incorporated into the exercises or arms are held in a specific position until the end of the exercise or combination.
Movement Principles for Ballet
Like all dance forms, ballet relies on a set of movement principles. One or more of the principles interface with poses through exercises, steps, and combinations. Movement principles incorporate scientific and aesthetic concepts into ballet technique. Understanding each principle and how to apply it is part of learning ballet technique.
Looking at the movement principles pyramid shown in figure 5.14, begin at the bottom tier. As your technique increases, you move upward from the bottom tier, which includes the basic principles of alignment, turnout, and stance. The second level of the pyramid comprises distribution of weight and transfer of weight. Moving up the pyramid, squareness is the central principle and relates to lift (also known as pull-up) and counterpull. Counterbalance and aplomb form the next level, and although balance is at the tip of the pyramid, it is the movement principle that connects all of the tiers.
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Alignment
Having proper alignment means having good posture that integrates the dancer's body as a whole—head, torso, arms, and legs. Alignment is both a static and a dynamic movement principle, which means it applies when holding a pose (static) and while the body moves through space (dynamic). Dancers adjust body alignment quickly and with control during exercises and combinations. Once one part the body is out of alignment, other parts compensate, causing misalignment and possible injury. When the body is not aligned it affects all major joints. Learning and practicing good alignment are critical to correct dancing and benefit you both inside and out of class.
http://www.humankinetics.com/AcuCustom/Sitename/DAM/099/63art_Main.png
Turnout
The hallmark of ballet technique is turnout, the outward rotation of the legs and feet that begins in the hip socket. Deep rotator muscles around the hip support the ability of the leg to rotate in the hip socket. Turnout extends from the hip joint through the upper and lower leg and the foot. Muscles of the upper and lower legs and the abdominal muscles are essential to attaining and controlling turnout.
As a beginning dancer, the angle of your turnout should be at natural turnout, which is about 90 degrees, or 45 degrees for each leg. As you practice turnout, your legs and feet gain muscle memory to stand, move, and stop while continuing to maintain the turnout in various positions.
Stance
When you stand or move, the weight of your body is either on both feet or one foot. In classical ballet stance, the weight on both feet should be equally distributed over the foot triangle. Stance has an obvious connection to alignment. Weight distribution and weight transfer interact directly with stance.
Weight Distribution and Weight Transfer
Standing poised and ready to move from two feet to one or from one foot to two initially requires thought behind the movement. You have to know where your weight is (weight distribution; on both feet or one foot) and to where it is going (weight transfer;to the same foot, other foot, or both feet) as you stand or move. Good alignment has a direct connection to weight distribution through the feet. Consequently, weight distribution connects to your turnout, too. Together the principles of weight distribution, transfer, turnout, and alignment link to stance and ultimately to the foot triangle (figure 5.15).
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Squareness
Squareness is the central movement principle in the third tier of the pyramid of principles. In ballet, the torso works as a unit, so the shoulders and hips should be level and face the same direction. Using the squareness principle, the torso is quiet and square, which allows focus on leg movements and their directions or on entire body movements in relation to the dance space (figure 5.16). In the beginning ballet class, you first perform barre exercises facing the barre so that you can understand and practice this principle. In the center, squareness applies to using body directions in relation to the space.
http://www.humankinetics.com/AcuCustom/Sitename/DAM/099/64se2_Main.png
Learn more about Beginning Ballet.
Learning barre exercises in beginning ballet class
The barre exercises presented in this chapter follow the order in which they are performed in the traditional ballet barre.
Barre Exercises
The barre exercises presented in this chapter follow the order in which they are performed in the traditional ballet barre. In the beginning ballet class, the barre exercises may not be taught in this order, but by the end of the term, the barre will contain most of the exercises in this chapter. Different methods of ballet execute the barre exercises in a similar but sometimes different order.
Each barre exercise includes its written pronunciation, definition, purpose, and description. In the web resource that accompanies this book, the ballet term is pronounced in the French language and a video clip presents the exercise. Also included is a self-check list for performing the exercise. Some basic barre exercises are followed by variations. Often these variations are practiced either as separate exercises or with the basic exercise for extended combinations.
Barre exercises begin in classical foot positions. In the beginning ballet class, you learn exercises starting in first position and then move to starting in either third position or fifth position (see chapter 5).
Before each exercise you stand in the beginning position and execute a preparation to music. In some cases the preparation is a port de bras, but for some exercises, foot movements accompany the port de bras as part of the preparation. In a beginning ballet class, the preparation may use four or two bars of music before the exercise begins.
Demi-Plié [duh-MEE plee-AY]
Definition
Half bend of the knees
Purpose
- Warms up the hip, knee, and ankle joints
- Increases strength and flexibility of the lower leg
- Applies the principles of alignment, stance, turnout, and weight distribution
Description
To execute a demi-plié, stand in a classical position of the feet. Descend as far as the knees can bend with the entire foot remaining on the floor, then return to the starting position. Perform the demi-plié in first, second, third, fourth, then fifth position.
Maintaining turnout from the hips, bend the knees directly above the second and third toes of each foot. In second position, bend the legs half as much as for a grand plié.
Grand Plié [grahn plee-AY]
Definition
Large bend of the knees
Purpose
- Stretches the muscles of the inner thigh in addition to those of the lower
leg - Applies the principles of alignment, turnout, weight distribution, squareness, and counterpull
Description
First, execute a demi-plié and then descend deeper to where the thighs are parallel to the floor. The heels release from the floor only as necessary on the descent and return as soon as possible on the ascent. Both knees bend and straighten simultaneously.
Performed in all foot positions, the grand plié is a continuous vertical movement, using the same number of measures for the descent and the ascent. The body weight is equally distributed over both legs. As you descend, the body counterpulls upward. On the ascent, the body remains lifted, appearing to float over
the legs.
In second position, the space between the feet varies from one and 1/2 lengths of your foot to shoulder width. In this position you descend until the thighs are parallel to the floor, but the full foot remains on the floor throughout the grand
plié.
Battement Tendu [bat-MAHN than-DEW]
Definition
Stretched beating
Purpose
- Increases flexibility of the ankle
- Develops full extension and proper alignment of the foot with the leg
- Applies principles of alignment, stance, turnout, weight distribution, weight transfer, and squareness
Description
Start in first position at the beginning and later start in third or fifth position. From a full-foot position, brush the working foot along the floor extending through the arch, then the metatarsals, to a fully pointed position. In the pointed position, the tips of the first three toes rest on the floor and the heel is lifted high and forward. On the return path the foot flexes first through the toes, then the metatarsals, the arch, and finally to the full-foot position as it slides back to the closing. Practice battement tendu devant, à la seconde, and then derrière. For the battement tendu à la seconde, slide the working foot to a point that is in line with the great toe
of the supporting foot (Cecchetti method) or in line with the supporting heel
(Russian method).
Battement Tendu With Demi-Plié
[bat-MAHN than-DEW with duh-MEE plee-AY]
Definition
Stretched beating with half bend
Purpose
- Connects two exercises seamlessly
- Coordinates movements of the supporting leg with the working leg (the working leg does the out and in movement, while the supporting leg does the down and up movement)
Description
The battement tendu with demi-plié is two exercises combined. On the return path of the battement tendu, the working and supporting legs execute a demi-plié. Both legs reach the depth of the demi-plié when the working foot reaches the closed position. From the demi-plié, the next battement tendu begins with each leg simultaneously straightening on the extension section ending when the working foot is fully pointed.
Battement Tendu Relevé
[bat-MAHN than-DEW ruhl-VAY]
Definition
Stretched and raised beating
Purpose
- Develops skills in transferring weight from two feet to one foot and back to two feet
- Challenges balance
Description
The battement tendu relevé begins with the extension of the working leg to a point. Shift the weight from the supporting leg to equally on both legs. The working foot accepts the weight through the toes to the full-foot position. To bring the weight back to the supporting leg, it pulls up to accept the weight as the working foot points and brushes back to the beginning position. You can perform battement tendu relevé without or with a demi-plié when the weight shifts to both legs in the full-foot position. After the working foot returns to the pointed position, it brushes back to the beginning position in demi-plié.
Learn more about Beginning Ballet.
Learn the structure and distinct parts of ballet class
Today’s ballet class structure evolved through history absorbing traditions, movement practices, and dance science.
Structure of Ballet Class
Today's ballet class structure evolved through history absorbing traditions, movement practices, and dance science. In a beginning ballet class, dancers learn basic exercises and steps and they perform simple combinations at slow tempos. They gain technique competency, learn movement principles, develop a professional attitude, and become aware of customary practices in a dance studio.
The ballet class is different from a lecture course or another arts class. The ballet class has two distinct parts: the barre and the center. During both parts of the class, dancers follow protocols and rules of etiquette to expedite transitions from one combination to another so that more class time can be spent dancing.
Barre
The barre has two meanings: It is a piece of equipment and it is a portion of the ballet class. A barre is a wooden or metal rail that is either attached to several walls of the studio or is a free-standing, portable structure placed across the studio space. Barre also refers to the series of exercises done at the barre to warm up and strengthen the body as preparation for the second part of class. In today's ballet class dancers often execute a series of pre-barre exercises that warm up the body and prepare them for performing the traditional barre exercises.
Whether you are a novice, experienced, or professional ballet dancer, executing barre is an essential part of ballet class. It prepares you for dancing during the second part of class. It establishes correct placement and it develops core and leg strength, directionality, balance, foot articulation, and weight transfer skills. Barre exercises help you to reconnect with the mind-body aspects of ballet and to deepen and refine your technique. The sequence of the barre exercises may differ depending on your teacher's training or association with a particular school or method of instruction.
Center
Once you have completed the barre exercises, you move to a place in the middle of the studio for the center portion of class. In the center, you learn steps, positions, and poses to gain a basic movement vocabulary of ballet. You repeat exercises from the barre and learn steps that develop into dynamic movement combinations without an outside means of support. In other words, in the center you apply what you learned at the barre and you learn to dance.
Center combinations vary in tempo and include various steps and poses in changing sequences to challenge you.
Parts of the center include the following:
- Center practice of selected exercises from the barre to refine technique, balance, and directionality
- Slow, or adagio, combinations include classical ballet poses, arm and foot positions, steps, and turns
- Fast, or allegro, combinations include small or large jumps, hops, and leaps that are performed either as short combinations moving side to side, front or back, or across the floor
In the beginning ballet class, exercises, steps, and sections of the class are not always introduced in the same order as they appear in a standard ballet class. By the end of the term, the standard barre and center will have emerged.
The teacher may designate groups of three or four dancers to perform combinations in the center so that everyone has space to dance. The first group takes their places in the middle of the studio to begin. The second and additional groups stand and wait their turn at the side or back of the studio. After the first group completes the combination, the musician for dance may perform a vamp or repetition of the music to cue the first group to exit to one side and the second group to take its place. This rotation of groups continues until everyone has executed the combination.
The teacher may have dancers perform combinations across the floor in lines, groups, duets, or solo from side to side in the studio or on the diagonal beginning at a back corner and traveling to the opposite front corner. Dancers in the first group should get about a third to halfway across the floor, which is usually 8 or more measures of music before the second group begins. The time between groups helps to alleviate any collisions and still keep the class moving across the floor.
When crossing the floor in lines parallel to the front of the classroom, it is easy to go to the end of the line so that the combination can start again. When performing the combination on the other side and moving across the floor in the opposite direction in a line or on a diagonal, often the second row of dancers or second group must move forward to lead the combination.
When waiting your turn to execute a combination in the center or across the floor, stand quietly and observe your peers. Most often dancers stand at the side of the studio toward the back. If the teacher permits, you may mark, or physically move through the combination, or mentally review the combinations. Practicing the combination mentally is an effective way to learn movement. While waiting your turn, try visualizing the steps, directions, and other elements of the combination in time to the music.
Révérence
At the end of the traditional ballet class, dancers perform a révérence, a short combination in the center in which men bow and women curtsy, to thank the teacher and the musician for dance, if your class has one, and say good-bye. The ballet class ends with students applauding the teacher and musician for dance.
Cool-Down
Cool-down exercises include slow movements and stretches that allow your body and mind to relax and regain balance before leaving the studio. Slowly stretching your muscles increases flexibility and helps your body recover from the work in class. Teachers determine when or whether to include a cool-down in class. Sometimes they have you perform stretching exercises between the barre and center, either at the barre or on the floor. They may have you cool down after the center either before or after class is officially over, when the body is warm from performing combinations across the floor. If your teacher does not include a cool-down, you may choose to do personal stretching after class before you leave the studio.
Learn more about Beginning Ballet.
The importance of becoming proficient in ballets several languages
Ballet uses several languages with which you must become proficient.
Languages of Ballet
Ballet uses several languages with which you must become proficient. The first language you learn is that of ballet movements. To aid you in learning and remembering the movements, action words describe body actions, or movements of the legs, arms, and head in a sequence, for an exercise, step, or pose. Learning action words is an intermediate step to learning the French language terms of ballet.
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Action Words to French Terms
The teacher uses action words to describe the movement. Saying these words to yourself helps you make a connection to the movement. Then you progress to condensing several actions into an exercise or step. This sequence of movements is represented by a single ballet term for an exercise or step.
When you begin learning ballet, the action words in their sequence cue your movements. Later, you can execute a step or exercise without thinking about each movement, and you can begin to use French ballet terms for the exercises and steps.
Spoken and Written Terminology
Understanding ballet terminology goes beyond translating the movement sequence to recognizing either the spoken or written term. Knowing all these translations comes in handy when it comes to exam time; you may be expected to perform the exercise or step, recognize or write the French ballet term, and know its translation into action terms.
The vocabulary of ballet technique includes positions, exercises, steps, and poses. Although the terminology is expressed in the French language, don't confuse ballet French with the French you learn in a language class. The pronunciation of some terms may not be exactly the same. Because ballet French is spoken all over the world, ballet terminology may have a regional accent or even a different pronunciation depending on where you are.
Learning Ballet Movements
In ballet class students stand quietly and observe while the teacher performs an exercise or combination to music and speaks the action words or ballet terms. Then you execute the movement. Listening and remembering the movement sequence coupled with the action words and their ballet terms help you while practicing the exercise or combination. Learning new ballet movements can be distilled into an easy method: Watch it and hear it, then do it.
Watching
The first step is to watch sequences of movements as the teacher demonstrates them. When you begin to learn ballet, focus on the starting position of the feet, the working leg and its actions, and the directions in which the leg is moving. Later when exercises or steps include arm positions and traveling, you need to view the whole body doing the movement, what each body part is doing in sequence, and where it is in space.
Hearing
While watching the teacher's demonstration, you should also listen to verbal instructions—the cues the teacher uses to describe the movements while executing them. When the music starts, listen to the movement cues spoken in relation to the music. In your beginning practice, the teacher usually cues you just before you start a movement. This is your chance to identify which movement takes place on which count or measure.
As the ballet course progresses, the teacher demonstrates without the action words and instead uses the ballet terminology in rhythm or counts to the music. Near the end of your beginning ballet course, the teacher might say an exercise or combination using ballet terms without including a demonstration of the combination. At this point, you must translate your listening into movement: You have to hear the ballet term, visualize it, and then perform it to the music with the correct rhythm and tempo.
As a beginning dancer, translating the teacher's words into movement is your ultimate goal for learning terminology. While you move from one phase of listening to translating, you likewise gain control of and responsibility for your movement.
Doing
The next step is to do the movement. When learning a new movement sequence, you usually execute the movements slowly without music, then slowly with music, while the teacher guides you from one movement to the next. As you practice the movement sequence, visualize it and say the action words or terms to yourself. Continue to fit the movements in their proper sequence and in time to the music, then practice the movement sequence until you become comfortable with it. Be prepared to make adjustments in order to perform the movement correctly. Remember, at this time you are learning just the basic movement patterns.
During the course, you begin to think about how technique, principles, rules, and other elements will refine your performance of beginning exercises. In ballet, refining your movement is an unceasing process. After you have the movement sequence in mind, practice it so that both sides of the body can initiate it.
As a beginning dancer, make it a goal to absorb most of the movement presented in class. In some classes, some or many of the components are repeated during the next class meeting. This repetition reinforces learning. In ballet, you have to attain a certain level of learning before you can progress to the next level of technique, style, and artistry. Your ability to remember and replicate movement contributes to your progress as a dancer.
Learn more about Beginning Ballet.
Performing a Second Port de Bras and the movement principle for ballet
To perform a second port de bras, begin in preparatory position, or fifth position en bas.
Second Port de Bras
To perform a second port de bras, begin in preparatory position, or fifth position en bas. Raise both arms to fifth position en haut. There, rotate the arms outward and lower them down to second position. Then lift the elbows slightly and float the arms downward, finishing in preparatory position.
The smooth, continuous, coordinated arm movements of the port de bras can complement or counterpoint the leg and foot movements in an exercise or combination.
Practicing first and second port de bras is the basis for incorporating port de bras into the preparation for barre and center work. Later, arm positions are incorporated into the exercises or arms are held in a specific position until the end of the exercise or combination.
Movement Principles for Ballet
Like all dance forms, ballet relies on a set of movement principles. One or more of the principles interface with poses through exercises, steps, and combinations. Movement principles incorporate scientific and aesthetic concepts into ballet technique. Understanding each principle and how to apply it is part of learning ballet technique.
Looking at the movement principles pyramid shown in figure 5.14, begin at the bottom tier. As your technique increases, you move upward from the bottom tier, which includes the basic principles of alignment, turnout, and stance. The second level of the pyramid comprises distribution of weight and transfer of weight. Moving up the pyramid, squareness is the central principle and relates to lift (also known as pull-up) and counterpull. Counterbalance and aplomb form the next level, and although balance is at the tip of the pyramid, it is the movement principle that connects all of the tiers.
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Alignment
Having proper alignment means having good posture that integrates the dancer's body as a whole—head, torso, arms, and legs. Alignment is both a static and a dynamic movement principle, which means it applies when holding a pose (static) and while the body moves through space (dynamic). Dancers adjust body alignment quickly and with control during exercises and combinations. Once one part the body is out of alignment, other parts compensate, causing misalignment and possible injury. When the body is not aligned it affects all major joints. Learning and practicing good alignment are critical to correct dancing and benefit you both inside and out of class.
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Turnout
The hallmark of ballet technique is turnout, the outward rotation of the legs and feet that begins in the hip socket. Deep rotator muscles around the hip support the ability of the leg to rotate in the hip socket. Turnout extends from the hip joint through the upper and lower leg and the foot. Muscles of the upper and lower legs and the abdominal muscles are essential to attaining and controlling turnout.
As a beginning dancer, the angle of your turnout should be at natural turnout, which is about 90 degrees, or 45 degrees for each leg. As you practice turnout, your legs and feet gain muscle memory to stand, move, and stop while continuing to maintain the turnout in various positions.
Stance
When you stand or move, the weight of your body is either on both feet or one foot. In classical ballet stance, the weight on both feet should be equally distributed over the foot triangle. Stance has an obvious connection to alignment. Weight distribution and weight transfer interact directly with stance.
Weight Distribution and Weight Transfer
Standing poised and ready to move from two feet to one or from one foot to two initially requires thought behind the movement. You have to know where your weight is (weight distribution; on both feet or one foot) and to where it is going (weight transfer;to the same foot, other foot, or both feet) as you stand or move. Good alignment has a direct connection to weight distribution through the feet. Consequently, weight distribution connects to your turnout, too. Together the principles of weight distribution, transfer, turnout, and alignment link to stance and ultimately to the foot triangle (figure 5.15).
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Squareness
Squareness is the central movement principle in the third tier of the pyramid of principles. In ballet, the torso works as a unit, so the shoulders and hips should be level and face the same direction. Using the squareness principle, the torso is quiet and square, which allows focus on leg movements and their directions or on entire body movements in relation to the dance space (figure 5.16). In the beginning ballet class, you first perform barre exercises facing the barre so that you can understand and practice this principle. In the center, squareness applies to using body directions in relation to the space.
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Learn more about Beginning Ballet.
Learning barre exercises in beginning ballet class
The barre exercises presented in this chapter follow the order in which they are performed in the traditional ballet barre.
Barre Exercises
The barre exercises presented in this chapter follow the order in which they are performed in the traditional ballet barre. In the beginning ballet class, the barre exercises may not be taught in this order, but by the end of the term, the barre will contain most of the exercises in this chapter. Different methods of ballet execute the barre exercises in a similar but sometimes different order.
Each barre exercise includes its written pronunciation, definition, purpose, and description. In the web resource that accompanies this book, the ballet term is pronounced in the French language and a video clip presents the exercise. Also included is a self-check list for performing the exercise. Some basic barre exercises are followed by variations. Often these variations are practiced either as separate exercises or with the basic exercise for extended combinations.
Barre exercises begin in classical foot positions. In the beginning ballet class, you learn exercises starting in first position and then move to starting in either third position or fifth position (see chapter 5).
Before each exercise you stand in the beginning position and execute a preparation to music. In some cases the preparation is a port de bras, but for some exercises, foot movements accompany the port de bras as part of the preparation. In a beginning ballet class, the preparation may use four or two bars of music before the exercise begins.
Demi-Plié [duh-MEE plee-AY]
Definition
Half bend of the knees
Purpose
- Warms up the hip, knee, and ankle joints
- Increases strength and flexibility of the lower leg
- Applies the principles of alignment, stance, turnout, and weight distribution
Description
To execute a demi-plié, stand in a classical position of the feet. Descend as far as the knees can bend with the entire foot remaining on the floor, then return to the starting position. Perform the demi-plié in first, second, third, fourth, then fifth position.
Maintaining turnout from the hips, bend the knees directly above the second and third toes of each foot. In second position, bend the legs half as much as for a grand plié.
Grand Plié [grahn plee-AY]
Definition
Large bend of the knees
Purpose
- Stretches the muscles of the inner thigh in addition to those of the lower
leg - Applies the principles of alignment, turnout, weight distribution, squareness, and counterpull
Description
First, execute a demi-plié and then descend deeper to where the thighs are parallel to the floor. The heels release from the floor only as necessary on the descent and return as soon as possible on the ascent. Both knees bend and straighten simultaneously.
Performed in all foot positions, the grand plié is a continuous vertical movement, using the same number of measures for the descent and the ascent. The body weight is equally distributed over both legs. As you descend, the body counterpulls upward. On the ascent, the body remains lifted, appearing to float over
the legs.
In second position, the space between the feet varies from one and 1/2 lengths of your foot to shoulder width. In this position you descend until the thighs are parallel to the floor, but the full foot remains on the floor throughout the grand
plié.
Battement Tendu [bat-MAHN than-DEW]
Definition
Stretched beating
Purpose
- Increases flexibility of the ankle
- Develops full extension and proper alignment of the foot with the leg
- Applies principles of alignment, stance, turnout, weight distribution, weight transfer, and squareness
Description
Start in first position at the beginning and later start in third or fifth position. From a full-foot position, brush the working foot along the floor extending through the arch, then the metatarsals, to a fully pointed position. In the pointed position, the tips of the first three toes rest on the floor and the heel is lifted high and forward. On the return path the foot flexes first through the toes, then the metatarsals, the arch, and finally to the full-foot position as it slides back to the closing. Practice battement tendu devant, à la seconde, and then derrière. For the battement tendu à la seconde, slide the working foot to a point that is in line with the great toe
of the supporting foot (Cecchetti method) or in line with the supporting heel
(Russian method).
Battement Tendu With Demi-Plié
[bat-MAHN than-DEW with duh-MEE plee-AY]
Definition
Stretched beating with half bend
Purpose
- Connects two exercises seamlessly
- Coordinates movements of the supporting leg with the working leg (the working leg does the out and in movement, while the supporting leg does the down and up movement)
Description
The battement tendu with demi-plié is two exercises combined. On the return path of the battement tendu, the working and supporting legs execute a demi-plié. Both legs reach the depth of the demi-plié when the working foot reaches the closed position. From the demi-plié, the next battement tendu begins with each leg simultaneously straightening on the extension section ending when the working foot is fully pointed.
Battement Tendu Relevé
[bat-MAHN than-DEW ruhl-VAY]
Definition
Stretched and raised beating
Purpose
- Develops skills in transferring weight from two feet to one foot and back to two feet
- Challenges balance
Description
The battement tendu relevé begins with the extension of the working leg to a point. Shift the weight from the supporting leg to equally on both legs. The working foot accepts the weight through the toes to the full-foot position. To bring the weight back to the supporting leg, it pulls up to accept the weight as the working foot points and brushes back to the beginning position. You can perform battement tendu relevé without or with a demi-plié when the weight shifts to both legs in the full-foot position. After the working foot returns to the pointed position, it brushes back to the beginning position in demi-plié.
Learn more about Beginning Ballet.
Learn the structure and distinct parts of ballet class
Today’s ballet class structure evolved through history absorbing traditions, movement practices, and dance science.
Structure of Ballet Class
Today's ballet class structure evolved through history absorbing traditions, movement practices, and dance science. In a beginning ballet class, dancers learn basic exercises and steps and they perform simple combinations at slow tempos. They gain technique competency, learn movement principles, develop a professional attitude, and become aware of customary practices in a dance studio.
The ballet class is different from a lecture course or another arts class. The ballet class has two distinct parts: the barre and the center. During both parts of the class, dancers follow protocols and rules of etiquette to expedite transitions from one combination to another so that more class time can be spent dancing.
Barre
The barre has two meanings: It is a piece of equipment and it is a portion of the ballet class. A barre is a wooden or metal rail that is either attached to several walls of the studio or is a free-standing, portable structure placed across the studio space. Barre also refers to the series of exercises done at the barre to warm up and strengthen the body as preparation for the second part of class. In today's ballet class dancers often execute a series of pre-barre exercises that warm up the body and prepare them for performing the traditional barre exercises.
Whether you are a novice, experienced, or professional ballet dancer, executing barre is an essential part of ballet class. It prepares you for dancing during the second part of class. It establishes correct placement and it develops core and leg strength, directionality, balance, foot articulation, and weight transfer skills. Barre exercises help you to reconnect with the mind-body aspects of ballet and to deepen and refine your technique. The sequence of the barre exercises may differ depending on your teacher's training or association with a particular school or method of instruction.
Center
Once you have completed the barre exercises, you move to a place in the middle of the studio for the center portion of class. In the center, you learn steps, positions, and poses to gain a basic movement vocabulary of ballet. You repeat exercises from the barre and learn steps that develop into dynamic movement combinations without an outside means of support. In other words, in the center you apply what you learned at the barre and you learn to dance.
Center combinations vary in tempo and include various steps and poses in changing sequences to challenge you.
Parts of the center include the following:
- Center practice of selected exercises from the barre to refine technique, balance, and directionality
- Slow, or adagio, combinations include classical ballet poses, arm and foot positions, steps, and turns
- Fast, or allegro, combinations include small or large jumps, hops, and leaps that are performed either as short combinations moving side to side, front or back, or across the floor
In the beginning ballet class, exercises, steps, and sections of the class are not always introduced in the same order as they appear in a standard ballet class. By the end of the term, the standard barre and center will have emerged.
The teacher may designate groups of three or four dancers to perform combinations in the center so that everyone has space to dance. The first group takes their places in the middle of the studio to begin. The second and additional groups stand and wait their turn at the side or back of the studio. After the first group completes the combination, the musician for dance may perform a vamp or repetition of the music to cue the first group to exit to one side and the second group to take its place. This rotation of groups continues until everyone has executed the combination.
The teacher may have dancers perform combinations across the floor in lines, groups, duets, or solo from side to side in the studio or on the diagonal beginning at a back corner and traveling to the opposite front corner. Dancers in the first group should get about a third to halfway across the floor, which is usually 8 or more measures of music before the second group begins. The time between groups helps to alleviate any collisions and still keep the class moving across the floor.
When crossing the floor in lines parallel to the front of the classroom, it is easy to go to the end of the line so that the combination can start again. When performing the combination on the other side and moving across the floor in the opposite direction in a line or on a diagonal, often the second row of dancers or second group must move forward to lead the combination.
When waiting your turn to execute a combination in the center or across the floor, stand quietly and observe your peers. Most often dancers stand at the side of the studio toward the back. If the teacher permits, you may mark, or physically move through the combination, or mentally review the combinations. Practicing the combination mentally is an effective way to learn movement. While waiting your turn, try visualizing the steps, directions, and other elements of the combination in time to the music.
Révérence
At the end of the traditional ballet class, dancers perform a révérence, a short combination in the center in which men bow and women curtsy, to thank the teacher and the musician for dance, if your class has one, and say good-bye. The ballet class ends with students applauding the teacher and musician for dance.
Cool-Down
Cool-down exercises include slow movements and stretches that allow your body and mind to relax and regain balance before leaving the studio. Slowly stretching your muscles increases flexibility and helps your body recover from the work in class. Teachers determine when or whether to include a cool-down in class. Sometimes they have you perform stretching exercises between the barre and center, either at the barre or on the floor. They may have you cool down after the center either before or after class is officially over, when the body is warm from performing combinations across the floor. If your teacher does not include a cool-down, you may choose to do personal stretching after class before you leave the studio.
Learn more about Beginning Ballet.
The importance of becoming proficient in ballets several languages
Ballet uses several languages with which you must become proficient.
Languages of Ballet
Ballet uses several languages with which you must become proficient. The first language you learn is that of ballet movements. To aid you in learning and remembering the movements, action words describe body actions, or movements of the legs, arms, and head in a sequence, for an exercise, step, or pose. Learning action words is an intermediate step to learning the French language terms of ballet.
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Action Words to French Terms
The teacher uses action words to describe the movement. Saying these words to yourself helps you make a connection to the movement. Then you progress to condensing several actions into an exercise or step. This sequence of movements is represented by a single ballet term for an exercise or step.
When you begin learning ballet, the action words in their sequence cue your movements. Later, you can execute a step or exercise without thinking about each movement, and you can begin to use French ballet terms for the exercises and steps.
Spoken and Written Terminology
Understanding ballet terminology goes beyond translating the movement sequence to recognizing either the spoken or written term. Knowing all these translations comes in handy when it comes to exam time; you may be expected to perform the exercise or step, recognize or write the French ballet term, and know its translation into action terms.
The vocabulary of ballet technique includes positions, exercises, steps, and poses. Although the terminology is expressed in the French language, don't confuse ballet French with the French you learn in a language class. The pronunciation of some terms may not be exactly the same. Because ballet French is spoken all over the world, ballet terminology may have a regional accent or even a different pronunciation depending on where you are.
Learning Ballet Movements
In ballet class students stand quietly and observe while the teacher performs an exercise or combination to music and speaks the action words or ballet terms. Then you execute the movement. Listening and remembering the movement sequence coupled with the action words and their ballet terms help you while practicing the exercise or combination. Learning new ballet movements can be distilled into an easy method: Watch it and hear it, then do it.
Watching
The first step is to watch sequences of movements as the teacher demonstrates them. When you begin to learn ballet, focus on the starting position of the feet, the working leg and its actions, and the directions in which the leg is moving. Later when exercises or steps include arm positions and traveling, you need to view the whole body doing the movement, what each body part is doing in sequence, and where it is in space.
Hearing
While watching the teacher's demonstration, you should also listen to verbal instructions—the cues the teacher uses to describe the movements while executing them. When the music starts, listen to the movement cues spoken in relation to the music. In your beginning practice, the teacher usually cues you just before you start a movement. This is your chance to identify which movement takes place on which count or measure.
As the ballet course progresses, the teacher demonstrates without the action words and instead uses the ballet terminology in rhythm or counts to the music. Near the end of your beginning ballet course, the teacher might say an exercise or combination using ballet terms without including a demonstration of the combination. At this point, you must translate your listening into movement: You have to hear the ballet term, visualize it, and then perform it to the music with the correct rhythm and tempo.
As a beginning dancer, translating the teacher's words into movement is your ultimate goal for learning terminology. While you move from one phase of listening to translating, you likewise gain control of and responsibility for your movement.
Doing
The next step is to do the movement. When learning a new movement sequence, you usually execute the movements slowly without music, then slowly with music, while the teacher guides you from one movement to the next. As you practice the movement sequence, visualize it and say the action words or terms to yourself. Continue to fit the movements in their proper sequence and in time to the music, then practice the movement sequence until you become comfortable with it. Be prepared to make adjustments in order to perform the movement correctly. Remember, at this time you are learning just the basic movement patterns.
During the course, you begin to think about how technique, principles, rules, and other elements will refine your performance of beginning exercises. In ballet, refining your movement is an unceasing process. After you have the movement sequence in mind, practice it so that both sides of the body can initiate it.
As a beginning dancer, make it a goal to absorb most of the movement presented in class. In some classes, some or many of the components are repeated during the next class meeting. This repetition reinforces learning. In ballet, you have to attain a certain level of learning before you can progress to the next level of technique, style, and artistry. Your ability to remember and replicate movement contributes to your progress as a dancer.
Learn more about Beginning Ballet.
Performing a Second Port de Bras and the movement principle for ballet
To perform a second port de bras, begin in preparatory position, or fifth position en bas.
Second Port de Bras
To perform a second port de bras, begin in preparatory position, or fifth position en bas. Raise both arms to fifth position en haut. There, rotate the arms outward and lower them down to second position. Then lift the elbows slightly and float the arms downward, finishing in preparatory position.
The smooth, continuous, coordinated arm movements of the port de bras can complement or counterpoint the leg and foot movements in an exercise or combination.
Practicing first and second port de bras is the basis for incorporating port de bras into the preparation for barre and center work. Later, arm positions are incorporated into the exercises or arms are held in a specific position until the end of the exercise or combination.
Movement Principles for Ballet
Like all dance forms, ballet relies on a set of movement principles. One or more of the principles interface with poses through exercises, steps, and combinations. Movement principles incorporate scientific and aesthetic concepts into ballet technique. Understanding each principle and how to apply it is part of learning ballet technique.
Looking at the movement principles pyramid shown in figure 5.14, begin at the bottom tier. As your technique increases, you move upward from the bottom tier, which includes the basic principles of alignment, turnout, and stance. The second level of the pyramid comprises distribution of weight and transfer of weight. Moving up the pyramid, squareness is the central principle and relates to lift (also known as pull-up) and counterpull. Counterbalance and aplomb form the next level, and although balance is at the tip of the pyramid, it is the movement principle that connects all of the tiers.
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Alignment
Having proper alignment means having good posture that integrates the dancer's body as a whole—head, torso, arms, and legs. Alignment is both a static and a dynamic movement principle, which means it applies when holding a pose (static) and while the body moves through space (dynamic). Dancers adjust body alignment quickly and with control during exercises and combinations. Once one part the body is out of alignment, other parts compensate, causing misalignment and possible injury. When the body is not aligned it affects all major joints. Learning and practicing good alignment are critical to correct dancing and benefit you both inside and out of class.
http://www.humankinetics.com/AcuCustom/Sitename/DAM/099/63art_Main.png
Turnout
The hallmark of ballet technique is turnout, the outward rotation of the legs and feet that begins in the hip socket. Deep rotator muscles around the hip support the ability of the leg to rotate in the hip socket. Turnout extends from the hip joint through the upper and lower leg and the foot. Muscles of the upper and lower legs and the abdominal muscles are essential to attaining and controlling turnout.
As a beginning dancer, the angle of your turnout should be at natural turnout, which is about 90 degrees, or 45 degrees for each leg. As you practice turnout, your legs and feet gain muscle memory to stand, move, and stop while continuing to maintain the turnout in various positions.
Stance
When you stand or move, the weight of your body is either on both feet or one foot. In classical ballet stance, the weight on both feet should be equally distributed over the foot triangle. Stance has an obvious connection to alignment. Weight distribution and weight transfer interact directly with stance.
Weight Distribution and Weight Transfer
Standing poised and ready to move from two feet to one or from one foot to two initially requires thought behind the movement. You have to know where your weight is (weight distribution; on both feet or one foot) and to where it is going (weight transfer;to the same foot, other foot, or both feet) as you stand or move. Good alignment has a direct connection to weight distribution through the feet. Consequently, weight distribution connects to your turnout, too. Together the principles of weight distribution, transfer, turnout, and alignment link to stance and ultimately to the foot triangle (figure 5.15).
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Squareness
Squareness is the central movement principle in the third tier of the pyramid of principles. In ballet, the torso works as a unit, so the shoulders and hips should be level and face the same direction. Using the squareness principle, the torso is quiet and square, which allows focus on leg movements and their directions or on entire body movements in relation to the dance space (figure 5.16). In the beginning ballet class, you first perform barre exercises facing the barre so that you can understand and practice this principle. In the center, squareness applies to using body directions in relation to the space.
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Learn more about Beginning Ballet.
Learning barre exercises in beginning ballet class
The barre exercises presented in this chapter follow the order in which they are performed in the traditional ballet barre.
Barre Exercises
The barre exercises presented in this chapter follow the order in which they are performed in the traditional ballet barre. In the beginning ballet class, the barre exercises may not be taught in this order, but by the end of the term, the barre will contain most of the exercises in this chapter. Different methods of ballet execute the barre exercises in a similar but sometimes different order.
Each barre exercise includes its written pronunciation, definition, purpose, and description. In the web resource that accompanies this book, the ballet term is pronounced in the French language and a video clip presents the exercise. Also included is a self-check list for performing the exercise. Some basic barre exercises are followed by variations. Often these variations are practiced either as separate exercises or with the basic exercise for extended combinations.
Barre exercises begin in classical foot positions. In the beginning ballet class, you learn exercises starting in first position and then move to starting in either third position or fifth position (see chapter 5).
Before each exercise you stand in the beginning position and execute a preparation to music. In some cases the preparation is a port de bras, but for some exercises, foot movements accompany the port de bras as part of the preparation. In a beginning ballet class, the preparation may use four or two bars of music before the exercise begins.
Demi-Plié [duh-MEE plee-AY]
Definition
Half bend of the knees
Purpose
- Warms up the hip, knee, and ankle joints
- Increases strength and flexibility of the lower leg
- Applies the principles of alignment, stance, turnout, and weight distribution
Description
To execute a demi-plié, stand in a classical position of the feet. Descend as far as the knees can bend with the entire foot remaining on the floor, then return to the starting position. Perform the demi-plié in first, second, third, fourth, then fifth position.
Maintaining turnout from the hips, bend the knees directly above the second and third toes of each foot. In second position, bend the legs half as much as for a grand plié.
Grand Plié [grahn plee-AY]
Definition
Large bend of the knees
Purpose
- Stretches the muscles of the inner thigh in addition to those of the lower
leg - Applies the principles of alignment, turnout, weight distribution, squareness, and counterpull
Description
First, execute a demi-plié and then descend deeper to where the thighs are parallel to the floor. The heels release from the floor only as necessary on the descent and return as soon as possible on the ascent. Both knees bend and straighten simultaneously.
Performed in all foot positions, the grand plié is a continuous vertical movement, using the same number of measures for the descent and the ascent. The body weight is equally distributed over both legs. As you descend, the body counterpulls upward. On the ascent, the body remains lifted, appearing to float over
the legs.
In second position, the space between the feet varies from one and 1/2 lengths of your foot to shoulder width. In this position you descend until the thighs are parallel to the floor, but the full foot remains on the floor throughout the grand
plié.
Battement Tendu [bat-MAHN than-DEW]
Definition
Stretched beating
Purpose
- Increases flexibility of the ankle
- Develops full extension and proper alignment of the foot with the leg
- Applies principles of alignment, stance, turnout, weight distribution, weight transfer, and squareness
Description
Start in first position at the beginning and later start in third or fifth position. From a full-foot position, brush the working foot along the floor extending through the arch, then the metatarsals, to a fully pointed position. In the pointed position, the tips of the first three toes rest on the floor and the heel is lifted high and forward. On the return path the foot flexes first through the toes, then the metatarsals, the arch, and finally to the full-foot position as it slides back to the closing. Practice battement tendu devant, à la seconde, and then derrière. For the battement tendu à la seconde, slide the working foot to a point that is in line with the great toe
of the supporting foot (Cecchetti method) or in line with the supporting heel
(Russian method).
Battement Tendu With Demi-Plié
[bat-MAHN than-DEW with duh-MEE plee-AY]
Definition
Stretched beating with half bend
Purpose
- Connects two exercises seamlessly
- Coordinates movements of the supporting leg with the working leg (the working leg does the out and in movement, while the supporting leg does the down and up movement)
Description
The battement tendu with demi-plié is two exercises combined. On the return path of the battement tendu, the working and supporting legs execute a demi-plié. Both legs reach the depth of the demi-plié when the working foot reaches the closed position. From the demi-plié, the next battement tendu begins with each leg simultaneously straightening on the extension section ending when the working foot is fully pointed.
Battement Tendu Relevé
[bat-MAHN than-DEW ruhl-VAY]
Definition
Stretched and raised beating
Purpose
- Develops skills in transferring weight from two feet to one foot and back to two feet
- Challenges balance
Description
The battement tendu relevé begins with the extension of the working leg to a point. Shift the weight from the supporting leg to equally on both legs. The working foot accepts the weight through the toes to the full-foot position. To bring the weight back to the supporting leg, it pulls up to accept the weight as the working foot points and brushes back to the beginning position. You can perform battement tendu relevé without or with a demi-plié when the weight shifts to both legs in the full-foot position. After the working foot returns to the pointed position, it brushes back to the beginning position in demi-plié.
Learn more about Beginning Ballet.
Learn the structure and distinct parts of ballet class
Today’s ballet class structure evolved through history absorbing traditions, movement practices, and dance science.
Structure of Ballet Class
Today's ballet class structure evolved through history absorbing traditions, movement practices, and dance science. In a beginning ballet class, dancers learn basic exercises and steps and they perform simple combinations at slow tempos. They gain technique competency, learn movement principles, develop a professional attitude, and become aware of customary practices in a dance studio.
The ballet class is different from a lecture course or another arts class. The ballet class has two distinct parts: the barre and the center. During both parts of the class, dancers follow protocols and rules of etiquette to expedite transitions from one combination to another so that more class time can be spent dancing.
Barre
The barre has two meanings: It is a piece of equipment and it is a portion of the ballet class. A barre is a wooden or metal rail that is either attached to several walls of the studio or is a free-standing, portable structure placed across the studio space. Barre also refers to the series of exercises done at the barre to warm up and strengthen the body as preparation for the second part of class. In today's ballet class dancers often execute a series of pre-barre exercises that warm up the body and prepare them for performing the traditional barre exercises.
Whether you are a novice, experienced, or professional ballet dancer, executing barre is an essential part of ballet class. It prepares you for dancing during the second part of class. It establishes correct placement and it develops core and leg strength, directionality, balance, foot articulation, and weight transfer skills. Barre exercises help you to reconnect with the mind-body aspects of ballet and to deepen and refine your technique. The sequence of the barre exercises may differ depending on your teacher's training or association with a particular school or method of instruction.
Center
Once you have completed the barre exercises, you move to a place in the middle of the studio for the center portion of class. In the center, you learn steps, positions, and poses to gain a basic movement vocabulary of ballet. You repeat exercises from the barre and learn steps that develop into dynamic movement combinations without an outside means of support. In other words, in the center you apply what you learned at the barre and you learn to dance.
Center combinations vary in tempo and include various steps and poses in changing sequences to challenge you.
Parts of the center include the following:
- Center practice of selected exercises from the barre to refine technique, balance, and directionality
- Slow, or adagio, combinations include classical ballet poses, arm and foot positions, steps, and turns
- Fast, or allegro, combinations include small or large jumps, hops, and leaps that are performed either as short combinations moving side to side, front or back, or across the floor
In the beginning ballet class, exercises, steps, and sections of the class are not always introduced in the same order as they appear in a standard ballet class. By the end of the term, the standard barre and center will have emerged.
The teacher may designate groups of three or four dancers to perform combinations in the center so that everyone has space to dance. The first group takes their places in the middle of the studio to begin. The second and additional groups stand and wait their turn at the side or back of the studio. After the first group completes the combination, the musician for dance may perform a vamp or repetition of the music to cue the first group to exit to one side and the second group to take its place. This rotation of groups continues until everyone has executed the combination.
The teacher may have dancers perform combinations across the floor in lines, groups, duets, or solo from side to side in the studio or on the diagonal beginning at a back corner and traveling to the opposite front corner. Dancers in the first group should get about a third to halfway across the floor, which is usually 8 or more measures of music before the second group begins. The time between groups helps to alleviate any collisions and still keep the class moving across the floor.
When crossing the floor in lines parallel to the front of the classroom, it is easy to go to the end of the line so that the combination can start again. When performing the combination on the other side and moving across the floor in the opposite direction in a line or on a diagonal, often the second row of dancers or second group must move forward to lead the combination.
When waiting your turn to execute a combination in the center or across the floor, stand quietly and observe your peers. Most often dancers stand at the side of the studio toward the back. If the teacher permits, you may mark, or physically move through the combination, or mentally review the combinations. Practicing the combination mentally is an effective way to learn movement. While waiting your turn, try visualizing the steps, directions, and other elements of the combination in time to the music.
Révérence
At the end of the traditional ballet class, dancers perform a révérence, a short combination in the center in which men bow and women curtsy, to thank the teacher and the musician for dance, if your class has one, and say good-bye. The ballet class ends with students applauding the teacher and musician for dance.
Cool-Down
Cool-down exercises include slow movements and stretches that allow your body and mind to relax and regain balance before leaving the studio. Slowly stretching your muscles increases flexibility and helps your body recover from the work in class. Teachers determine when or whether to include a cool-down in class. Sometimes they have you perform stretching exercises between the barre and center, either at the barre or on the floor. They may have you cool down after the center either before or after class is officially over, when the body is warm from performing combinations across the floor. If your teacher does not include a cool-down, you may choose to do personal stretching after class before you leave the studio.
Learn more about Beginning Ballet.
The importance of becoming proficient in ballets several languages
Ballet uses several languages with which you must become proficient.
Languages of Ballet
Ballet uses several languages with which you must become proficient. The first language you learn is that of ballet movements. To aid you in learning and remembering the movements, action words describe body actions, or movements of the legs, arms, and head in a sequence, for an exercise, step, or pose. Learning action words is an intermediate step to learning the French language terms of ballet.
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Action Words to French Terms
The teacher uses action words to describe the movement. Saying these words to yourself helps you make a connection to the movement. Then you progress to condensing several actions into an exercise or step. This sequence of movements is represented by a single ballet term for an exercise or step.
When you begin learning ballet, the action words in their sequence cue your movements. Later, you can execute a step or exercise without thinking about each movement, and you can begin to use French ballet terms for the exercises and steps.
Spoken and Written Terminology
Understanding ballet terminology goes beyond translating the movement sequence to recognizing either the spoken or written term. Knowing all these translations comes in handy when it comes to exam time; you may be expected to perform the exercise or step, recognize or write the French ballet term, and know its translation into action terms.
The vocabulary of ballet technique includes positions, exercises, steps, and poses. Although the terminology is expressed in the French language, don't confuse ballet French with the French you learn in a language class. The pronunciation of some terms may not be exactly the same. Because ballet French is spoken all over the world, ballet terminology may have a regional accent or even a different pronunciation depending on where you are.
Learning Ballet Movements
In ballet class students stand quietly and observe while the teacher performs an exercise or combination to music and speaks the action words or ballet terms. Then you execute the movement. Listening and remembering the movement sequence coupled with the action words and their ballet terms help you while practicing the exercise or combination. Learning new ballet movements can be distilled into an easy method: Watch it and hear it, then do it.
Watching
The first step is to watch sequences of movements as the teacher demonstrates them. When you begin to learn ballet, focus on the starting position of the feet, the working leg and its actions, and the directions in which the leg is moving. Later when exercises or steps include arm positions and traveling, you need to view the whole body doing the movement, what each body part is doing in sequence, and where it is in space.
Hearing
While watching the teacher's demonstration, you should also listen to verbal instructions—the cues the teacher uses to describe the movements while executing them. When the music starts, listen to the movement cues spoken in relation to the music. In your beginning practice, the teacher usually cues you just before you start a movement. This is your chance to identify which movement takes place on which count or measure.
As the ballet course progresses, the teacher demonstrates without the action words and instead uses the ballet terminology in rhythm or counts to the music. Near the end of your beginning ballet course, the teacher might say an exercise or combination using ballet terms without including a demonstration of the combination. At this point, you must translate your listening into movement: You have to hear the ballet term, visualize it, and then perform it to the music with the correct rhythm and tempo.
As a beginning dancer, translating the teacher's words into movement is your ultimate goal for learning terminology. While you move from one phase of listening to translating, you likewise gain control of and responsibility for your movement.
Doing
The next step is to do the movement. When learning a new movement sequence, you usually execute the movements slowly without music, then slowly with music, while the teacher guides you from one movement to the next. As you practice the movement sequence, visualize it and say the action words or terms to yourself. Continue to fit the movements in their proper sequence and in time to the music, then practice the movement sequence until you become comfortable with it. Be prepared to make adjustments in order to perform the movement correctly. Remember, at this time you are learning just the basic movement patterns.
During the course, you begin to think about how technique, principles, rules, and other elements will refine your performance of beginning exercises. In ballet, refining your movement is an unceasing process. After you have the movement sequence in mind, practice it so that both sides of the body can initiate it.
As a beginning dancer, make it a goal to absorb most of the movement presented in class. In some classes, some or many of the components are repeated during the next class meeting. This repetition reinforces learning. In ballet, you have to attain a certain level of learning before you can progress to the next level of technique, style, and artistry. Your ability to remember and replicate movement contributes to your progress as a dancer.
Learn more about Beginning Ballet.
Performing a Second Port de Bras and the movement principle for ballet
To perform a second port de bras, begin in preparatory position, or fifth position en bas.
Second Port de Bras
To perform a second port de bras, begin in preparatory position, or fifth position en bas. Raise both arms to fifth position en haut. There, rotate the arms outward and lower them down to second position. Then lift the elbows slightly and float the arms downward, finishing in preparatory position.
The smooth, continuous, coordinated arm movements of the port de bras can complement or counterpoint the leg and foot movements in an exercise or combination.
Practicing first and second port de bras is the basis for incorporating port de bras into the preparation for barre and center work. Later, arm positions are incorporated into the exercises or arms are held in a specific position until the end of the exercise or combination.
Movement Principles for Ballet
Like all dance forms, ballet relies on a set of movement principles. One or more of the principles interface with poses through exercises, steps, and combinations. Movement principles incorporate scientific and aesthetic concepts into ballet technique. Understanding each principle and how to apply it is part of learning ballet technique.
Looking at the movement principles pyramid shown in figure 5.14, begin at the bottom tier. As your technique increases, you move upward from the bottom tier, which includes the basic principles of alignment, turnout, and stance. The second level of the pyramid comprises distribution of weight and transfer of weight. Moving up the pyramid, squareness is the central principle and relates to lift (also known as pull-up) and counterpull. Counterbalance and aplomb form the next level, and although balance is at the tip of the pyramid, it is the movement principle that connects all of the tiers.
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Alignment
Having proper alignment means having good posture that integrates the dancer's body as a whole—head, torso, arms, and legs. Alignment is both a static and a dynamic movement principle, which means it applies when holding a pose (static) and while the body moves through space (dynamic). Dancers adjust body alignment quickly and with control during exercises and combinations. Once one part the body is out of alignment, other parts compensate, causing misalignment and possible injury. When the body is not aligned it affects all major joints. Learning and practicing good alignment are critical to correct dancing and benefit you both inside and out of class.
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Turnout
The hallmark of ballet technique is turnout, the outward rotation of the legs and feet that begins in the hip socket. Deep rotator muscles around the hip support the ability of the leg to rotate in the hip socket. Turnout extends from the hip joint through the upper and lower leg and the foot. Muscles of the upper and lower legs and the abdominal muscles are essential to attaining and controlling turnout.
As a beginning dancer, the angle of your turnout should be at natural turnout, which is about 90 degrees, or 45 degrees for each leg. As you practice turnout, your legs and feet gain muscle memory to stand, move, and stop while continuing to maintain the turnout in various positions.
Stance
When you stand or move, the weight of your body is either on both feet or one foot. In classical ballet stance, the weight on both feet should be equally distributed over the foot triangle. Stance has an obvious connection to alignment. Weight distribution and weight transfer interact directly with stance.
Weight Distribution and Weight Transfer
Standing poised and ready to move from two feet to one or from one foot to two initially requires thought behind the movement. You have to know where your weight is (weight distribution; on both feet or one foot) and to where it is going (weight transfer;to the same foot, other foot, or both feet) as you stand or move. Good alignment has a direct connection to weight distribution through the feet. Consequently, weight distribution connects to your turnout, too. Together the principles of weight distribution, transfer, turnout, and alignment link to stance and ultimately to the foot triangle (figure 5.15).
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Squareness
Squareness is the central movement principle in the third tier of the pyramid of principles. In ballet, the torso works as a unit, so the shoulders and hips should be level and face the same direction. Using the squareness principle, the torso is quiet and square, which allows focus on leg movements and their directions or on entire body movements in relation to the dance space (figure 5.16). In the beginning ballet class, you first perform barre exercises facing the barre so that you can understand and practice this principle. In the center, squareness applies to using body directions in relation to the space.
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Learn more about Beginning Ballet.
Learning barre exercises in beginning ballet class
The barre exercises presented in this chapter follow the order in which they are performed in the traditional ballet barre.
Barre Exercises
The barre exercises presented in this chapter follow the order in which they are performed in the traditional ballet barre. In the beginning ballet class, the barre exercises may not be taught in this order, but by the end of the term, the barre will contain most of the exercises in this chapter. Different methods of ballet execute the barre exercises in a similar but sometimes different order.
Each barre exercise includes its written pronunciation, definition, purpose, and description. In the web resource that accompanies this book, the ballet term is pronounced in the French language and a video clip presents the exercise. Also included is a self-check list for performing the exercise. Some basic barre exercises are followed by variations. Often these variations are practiced either as separate exercises or with the basic exercise for extended combinations.
Barre exercises begin in classical foot positions. In the beginning ballet class, you learn exercises starting in first position and then move to starting in either third position or fifth position (see chapter 5).
Before each exercise you stand in the beginning position and execute a preparation to music. In some cases the preparation is a port de bras, but for some exercises, foot movements accompany the port de bras as part of the preparation. In a beginning ballet class, the preparation may use four or two bars of music before the exercise begins.
Demi-Plié [duh-MEE plee-AY]
Definition
Half bend of the knees
Purpose
- Warms up the hip, knee, and ankle joints
- Increases strength and flexibility of the lower leg
- Applies the principles of alignment, stance, turnout, and weight distribution
Description
To execute a demi-plié, stand in a classical position of the feet. Descend as far as the knees can bend with the entire foot remaining on the floor, then return to the starting position. Perform the demi-plié in first, second, third, fourth, then fifth position.
Maintaining turnout from the hips, bend the knees directly above the second and third toes of each foot. In second position, bend the legs half as much as for a grand plié.
Grand Plié [grahn plee-AY]
Definition
Large bend of the knees
Purpose
- Stretches the muscles of the inner thigh in addition to those of the lower
leg - Applies the principles of alignment, turnout, weight distribution, squareness, and counterpull
Description
First, execute a demi-plié and then descend deeper to where the thighs are parallel to the floor. The heels release from the floor only as necessary on the descent and return as soon as possible on the ascent. Both knees bend and straighten simultaneously.
Performed in all foot positions, the grand plié is a continuous vertical movement, using the same number of measures for the descent and the ascent. The body weight is equally distributed over both legs. As you descend, the body counterpulls upward. On the ascent, the body remains lifted, appearing to float over
the legs.
In second position, the space between the feet varies from one and 1/2 lengths of your foot to shoulder width. In this position you descend until the thighs are parallel to the floor, but the full foot remains on the floor throughout the grand
plié.
Battement Tendu [bat-MAHN than-DEW]
Definition
Stretched beating
Purpose
- Increases flexibility of the ankle
- Develops full extension and proper alignment of the foot with the leg
- Applies principles of alignment, stance, turnout, weight distribution, weight transfer, and squareness
Description
Start in first position at the beginning and later start in third or fifth position. From a full-foot position, brush the working foot along the floor extending through the arch, then the metatarsals, to a fully pointed position. In the pointed position, the tips of the first three toes rest on the floor and the heel is lifted high and forward. On the return path the foot flexes first through the toes, then the metatarsals, the arch, and finally to the full-foot position as it slides back to the closing. Practice battement tendu devant, à la seconde, and then derrière. For the battement tendu à la seconde, slide the working foot to a point that is in line with the great toe
of the supporting foot (Cecchetti method) or in line with the supporting heel
(Russian method).
Battement Tendu With Demi-Plié
[bat-MAHN than-DEW with duh-MEE plee-AY]
Definition
Stretched beating with half bend
Purpose
- Connects two exercises seamlessly
- Coordinates movements of the supporting leg with the working leg (the working leg does the out and in movement, while the supporting leg does the down and up movement)
Description
The battement tendu with demi-plié is two exercises combined. On the return path of the battement tendu, the working and supporting legs execute a demi-plié. Both legs reach the depth of the demi-plié when the working foot reaches the closed position. From the demi-plié, the next battement tendu begins with each leg simultaneously straightening on the extension section ending when the working foot is fully pointed.
Battement Tendu Relevé
[bat-MAHN than-DEW ruhl-VAY]
Definition
Stretched and raised beating
Purpose
- Develops skills in transferring weight from two feet to one foot and back to two feet
- Challenges balance
Description
The battement tendu relevé begins with the extension of the working leg to a point. Shift the weight from the supporting leg to equally on both legs. The working foot accepts the weight through the toes to the full-foot position. To bring the weight back to the supporting leg, it pulls up to accept the weight as the working foot points and brushes back to the beginning position. You can perform battement tendu relevé without or with a demi-plié when the weight shifts to both legs in the full-foot position. After the working foot returns to the pointed position, it brushes back to the beginning position in demi-plié.
Learn more about Beginning Ballet.
Learn the structure and distinct parts of ballet class
Today’s ballet class structure evolved through history absorbing traditions, movement practices, and dance science.
Structure of Ballet Class
Today's ballet class structure evolved through history absorbing traditions, movement practices, and dance science. In a beginning ballet class, dancers learn basic exercises and steps and they perform simple combinations at slow tempos. They gain technique competency, learn movement principles, develop a professional attitude, and become aware of customary practices in a dance studio.
The ballet class is different from a lecture course or another arts class. The ballet class has two distinct parts: the barre and the center. During both parts of the class, dancers follow protocols and rules of etiquette to expedite transitions from one combination to another so that more class time can be spent dancing.
Barre
The barre has two meanings: It is a piece of equipment and it is a portion of the ballet class. A barre is a wooden or metal rail that is either attached to several walls of the studio or is a free-standing, portable structure placed across the studio space. Barre also refers to the series of exercises done at the barre to warm up and strengthen the body as preparation for the second part of class. In today's ballet class dancers often execute a series of pre-barre exercises that warm up the body and prepare them for performing the traditional barre exercises.
Whether you are a novice, experienced, or professional ballet dancer, executing barre is an essential part of ballet class. It prepares you for dancing during the second part of class. It establishes correct placement and it develops core and leg strength, directionality, balance, foot articulation, and weight transfer skills. Barre exercises help you to reconnect with the mind-body aspects of ballet and to deepen and refine your technique. The sequence of the barre exercises may differ depending on your teacher's training or association with a particular school or method of instruction.
Center
Once you have completed the barre exercises, you move to a place in the middle of the studio for the center portion of class. In the center, you learn steps, positions, and poses to gain a basic movement vocabulary of ballet. You repeat exercises from the barre and learn steps that develop into dynamic movement combinations without an outside means of support. In other words, in the center you apply what you learned at the barre and you learn to dance.
Center combinations vary in tempo and include various steps and poses in changing sequences to challenge you.
Parts of the center include the following:
- Center practice of selected exercises from the barre to refine technique, balance, and directionality
- Slow, or adagio, combinations include classical ballet poses, arm and foot positions, steps, and turns
- Fast, or allegro, combinations include small or large jumps, hops, and leaps that are performed either as short combinations moving side to side, front or back, or across the floor
In the beginning ballet class, exercises, steps, and sections of the class are not always introduced in the same order as they appear in a standard ballet class. By the end of the term, the standard barre and center will have emerged.
The teacher may designate groups of three or four dancers to perform combinations in the center so that everyone has space to dance. The first group takes their places in the middle of the studio to begin. The second and additional groups stand and wait their turn at the side or back of the studio. After the first group completes the combination, the musician for dance may perform a vamp or repetition of the music to cue the first group to exit to one side and the second group to take its place. This rotation of groups continues until everyone has executed the combination.
The teacher may have dancers perform combinations across the floor in lines, groups, duets, or solo from side to side in the studio or on the diagonal beginning at a back corner and traveling to the opposite front corner. Dancers in the first group should get about a third to halfway across the floor, which is usually 8 or more measures of music before the second group begins. The time between groups helps to alleviate any collisions and still keep the class moving across the floor.
When crossing the floor in lines parallel to the front of the classroom, it is easy to go to the end of the line so that the combination can start again. When performing the combination on the other side and moving across the floor in the opposite direction in a line or on a diagonal, often the second row of dancers or second group must move forward to lead the combination.
When waiting your turn to execute a combination in the center or across the floor, stand quietly and observe your peers. Most often dancers stand at the side of the studio toward the back. If the teacher permits, you may mark, or physically move through the combination, or mentally review the combinations. Practicing the combination mentally is an effective way to learn movement. While waiting your turn, try visualizing the steps, directions, and other elements of the combination in time to the music.
Révérence
At the end of the traditional ballet class, dancers perform a révérence, a short combination in the center in which men bow and women curtsy, to thank the teacher and the musician for dance, if your class has one, and say good-bye. The ballet class ends with students applauding the teacher and musician for dance.
Cool-Down
Cool-down exercises include slow movements and stretches that allow your body and mind to relax and regain balance before leaving the studio. Slowly stretching your muscles increases flexibility and helps your body recover from the work in class. Teachers determine when or whether to include a cool-down in class. Sometimes they have you perform stretching exercises between the barre and center, either at the barre or on the floor. They may have you cool down after the center either before or after class is officially over, when the body is warm from performing combinations across the floor. If your teacher does not include a cool-down, you may choose to do personal stretching after class before you leave the studio.
Learn more about Beginning Ballet.
The importance of becoming proficient in ballets several languages
Ballet uses several languages with which you must become proficient.
Languages of Ballet
Ballet uses several languages with which you must become proficient. The first language you learn is that of ballet movements. To aid you in learning and remembering the movements, action words describe body actions, or movements of the legs, arms, and head in a sequence, for an exercise, step, or pose. Learning action words is an intermediate step to learning the French language terms of ballet.
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Action Words to French Terms
The teacher uses action words to describe the movement. Saying these words to yourself helps you make a connection to the movement. Then you progress to condensing several actions into an exercise or step. This sequence of movements is represented by a single ballet term for an exercise or step.
When you begin learning ballet, the action words in their sequence cue your movements. Later, you can execute a step or exercise without thinking about each movement, and you can begin to use French ballet terms for the exercises and steps.
Spoken and Written Terminology
Understanding ballet terminology goes beyond translating the movement sequence to recognizing either the spoken or written term. Knowing all these translations comes in handy when it comes to exam time; you may be expected to perform the exercise or step, recognize or write the French ballet term, and know its translation into action terms.
The vocabulary of ballet technique includes positions, exercises, steps, and poses. Although the terminology is expressed in the French language, don't confuse ballet French with the French you learn in a language class. The pronunciation of some terms may not be exactly the same. Because ballet French is spoken all over the world, ballet terminology may have a regional accent or even a different pronunciation depending on where you are.
Learning Ballet Movements
In ballet class students stand quietly and observe while the teacher performs an exercise or combination to music and speaks the action words or ballet terms. Then you execute the movement. Listening and remembering the movement sequence coupled with the action words and their ballet terms help you while practicing the exercise or combination. Learning new ballet movements can be distilled into an easy method: Watch it and hear it, then do it.
Watching
The first step is to watch sequences of movements as the teacher demonstrates them. When you begin to learn ballet, focus on the starting position of the feet, the working leg and its actions, and the directions in which the leg is moving. Later when exercises or steps include arm positions and traveling, you need to view the whole body doing the movement, what each body part is doing in sequence, and where it is in space.
Hearing
While watching the teacher's demonstration, you should also listen to verbal instructions—the cues the teacher uses to describe the movements while executing them. When the music starts, listen to the movement cues spoken in relation to the music. In your beginning practice, the teacher usually cues you just before you start a movement. This is your chance to identify which movement takes place on which count or measure.
As the ballet course progresses, the teacher demonstrates without the action words and instead uses the ballet terminology in rhythm or counts to the music. Near the end of your beginning ballet course, the teacher might say an exercise or combination using ballet terms without including a demonstration of the combination. At this point, you must translate your listening into movement: You have to hear the ballet term, visualize it, and then perform it to the music with the correct rhythm and tempo.
As a beginning dancer, translating the teacher's words into movement is your ultimate goal for learning terminology. While you move from one phase of listening to translating, you likewise gain control of and responsibility for your movement.
Doing
The next step is to do the movement. When learning a new movement sequence, you usually execute the movements slowly without music, then slowly with music, while the teacher guides you from one movement to the next. As you practice the movement sequence, visualize it and say the action words or terms to yourself. Continue to fit the movements in their proper sequence and in time to the music, then practice the movement sequence until you become comfortable with it. Be prepared to make adjustments in order to perform the movement correctly. Remember, at this time you are learning just the basic movement patterns.
During the course, you begin to think about how technique, principles, rules, and other elements will refine your performance of beginning exercises. In ballet, refining your movement is an unceasing process. After you have the movement sequence in mind, practice it so that both sides of the body can initiate it.
As a beginning dancer, make it a goal to absorb most of the movement presented in class. In some classes, some or many of the components are repeated during the next class meeting. This repetition reinforces learning. In ballet, you have to attain a certain level of learning before you can progress to the next level of technique, style, and artistry. Your ability to remember and replicate movement contributes to your progress as a dancer.
Learn more about Beginning Ballet.
Performing a Second Port de Bras and the movement principle for ballet
To perform a second port de bras, begin in preparatory position, or fifth position en bas.
Second Port de Bras
To perform a second port de bras, begin in preparatory position, or fifth position en bas. Raise both arms to fifth position en haut. There, rotate the arms outward and lower them down to second position. Then lift the elbows slightly and float the arms downward, finishing in preparatory position.
The smooth, continuous, coordinated arm movements of the port de bras can complement or counterpoint the leg and foot movements in an exercise or combination.
Practicing first and second port de bras is the basis for incorporating port de bras into the preparation for barre and center work. Later, arm positions are incorporated into the exercises or arms are held in a specific position until the end of the exercise or combination.
Movement Principles for Ballet
Like all dance forms, ballet relies on a set of movement principles. One or more of the principles interface with poses through exercises, steps, and combinations. Movement principles incorporate scientific and aesthetic concepts into ballet technique. Understanding each principle and how to apply it is part of learning ballet technique.
Looking at the movement principles pyramid shown in figure 5.14, begin at the bottom tier. As your technique increases, you move upward from the bottom tier, which includes the basic principles of alignment, turnout, and stance. The second level of the pyramid comprises distribution of weight and transfer of weight. Moving up the pyramid, squareness is the central principle and relates to lift (also known as pull-up) and counterpull. Counterbalance and aplomb form the next level, and although balance is at the tip of the pyramid, it is the movement principle that connects all of the tiers.
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Alignment
Having proper alignment means having good posture that integrates the dancer's body as a whole—head, torso, arms, and legs. Alignment is both a static and a dynamic movement principle, which means it applies when holding a pose (static) and while the body moves through space (dynamic). Dancers adjust body alignment quickly and with control during exercises and combinations. Once one part the body is out of alignment, other parts compensate, causing misalignment and possible injury. When the body is not aligned it affects all major joints. Learning and practicing good alignment are critical to correct dancing and benefit you both inside and out of class.
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Turnout
The hallmark of ballet technique is turnout, the outward rotation of the legs and feet that begins in the hip socket. Deep rotator muscles around the hip support the ability of the leg to rotate in the hip socket. Turnout extends from the hip joint through the upper and lower leg and the foot. Muscles of the upper and lower legs and the abdominal muscles are essential to attaining and controlling turnout.
As a beginning dancer, the angle of your turnout should be at natural turnout, which is about 90 degrees, or 45 degrees for each leg. As you practice turnout, your legs and feet gain muscle memory to stand, move, and stop while continuing to maintain the turnout in various positions.
Stance
When you stand or move, the weight of your body is either on both feet or one foot. In classical ballet stance, the weight on both feet should be equally distributed over the foot triangle. Stance has an obvious connection to alignment. Weight distribution and weight transfer interact directly with stance.
Weight Distribution and Weight Transfer
Standing poised and ready to move from two feet to one or from one foot to two initially requires thought behind the movement. You have to know where your weight is (weight distribution; on both feet or one foot) and to where it is going (weight transfer;to the same foot, other foot, or both feet) as you stand or move. Good alignment has a direct connection to weight distribution through the feet. Consequently, weight distribution connects to your turnout, too. Together the principles of weight distribution, transfer, turnout, and alignment link to stance and ultimately to the foot triangle (figure 5.15).
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Squareness
Squareness is the central movement principle in the third tier of the pyramid of principles. In ballet, the torso works as a unit, so the shoulders and hips should be level and face the same direction. Using the squareness principle, the torso is quiet and square, which allows focus on leg movements and their directions or on entire body movements in relation to the dance space (figure 5.16). In the beginning ballet class, you first perform barre exercises facing the barre so that you can understand and practice this principle. In the center, squareness applies to using body directions in relation to the space.
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Learn more about Beginning Ballet.
Learning barre exercises in beginning ballet class
The barre exercises presented in this chapter follow the order in which they are performed in the traditional ballet barre.
Barre Exercises
The barre exercises presented in this chapter follow the order in which they are performed in the traditional ballet barre. In the beginning ballet class, the barre exercises may not be taught in this order, but by the end of the term, the barre will contain most of the exercises in this chapter. Different methods of ballet execute the barre exercises in a similar but sometimes different order.
Each barre exercise includes its written pronunciation, definition, purpose, and description. In the web resource that accompanies this book, the ballet term is pronounced in the French language and a video clip presents the exercise. Also included is a self-check list for performing the exercise. Some basic barre exercises are followed by variations. Often these variations are practiced either as separate exercises or with the basic exercise for extended combinations.
Barre exercises begin in classical foot positions. In the beginning ballet class, you learn exercises starting in first position and then move to starting in either third position or fifth position (see chapter 5).
Before each exercise you stand in the beginning position and execute a preparation to music. In some cases the preparation is a port de bras, but for some exercises, foot movements accompany the port de bras as part of the preparation. In a beginning ballet class, the preparation may use four or two bars of music before the exercise begins.
Demi-Plié [duh-MEE plee-AY]
Definition
Half bend of the knees
Purpose
- Warms up the hip, knee, and ankle joints
- Increases strength and flexibility of the lower leg
- Applies the principles of alignment, stance, turnout, and weight distribution
Description
To execute a demi-plié, stand in a classical position of the feet. Descend as far as the knees can bend with the entire foot remaining on the floor, then return to the starting position. Perform the demi-plié in first, second, third, fourth, then fifth position.
Maintaining turnout from the hips, bend the knees directly above the second and third toes of each foot. In second position, bend the legs half as much as for a grand plié.
Grand Plié [grahn plee-AY]
Definition
Large bend of the knees
Purpose
- Stretches the muscles of the inner thigh in addition to those of the lower
leg - Applies the principles of alignment, turnout, weight distribution, squareness, and counterpull
Description
First, execute a demi-plié and then descend deeper to where the thighs are parallel to the floor. The heels release from the floor only as necessary on the descent and return as soon as possible on the ascent. Both knees bend and straighten simultaneously.
Performed in all foot positions, the grand plié is a continuous vertical movement, using the same number of measures for the descent and the ascent. The body weight is equally distributed over both legs. As you descend, the body counterpulls upward. On the ascent, the body remains lifted, appearing to float over
the legs.
In second position, the space between the feet varies from one and 1/2 lengths of your foot to shoulder width. In this position you descend until the thighs are parallel to the floor, but the full foot remains on the floor throughout the grand
plié.
Battement Tendu [bat-MAHN than-DEW]
Definition
Stretched beating
Purpose
- Increases flexibility of the ankle
- Develops full extension and proper alignment of the foot with the leg
- Applies principles of alignment, stance, turnout, weight distribution, weight transfer, and squareness
Description
Start in first position at the beginning and later start in third or fifth position. From a full-foot position, brush the working foot along the floor extending through the arch, then the metatarsals, to a fully pointed position. In the pointed position, the tips of the first three toes rest on the floor and the heel is lifted high and forward. On the return path the foot flexes first through the toes, then the metatarsals, the arch, and finally to the full-foot position as it slides back to the closing. Practice battement tendu devant, à la seconde, and then derrière. For the battement tendu à la seconde, slide the working foot to a point that is in line with the great toe
of the supporting foot (Cecchetti method) or in line with the supporting heel
(Russian method).
Battement Tendu With Demi-Plié
[bat-MAHN than-DEW with duh-MEE plee-AY]
Definition
Stretched beating with half bend
Purpose
- Connects two exercises seamlessly
- Coordinates movements of the supporting leg with the working leg (the working leg does the out and in movement, while the supporting leg does the down and up movement)
Description
The battement tendu with demi-plié is two exercises combined. On the return path of the battement tendu, the working and supporting legs execute a demi-plié. Both legs reach the depth of the demi-plié when the working foot reaches the closed position. From the demi-plié, the next battement tendu begins with each leg simultaneously straightening on the extension section ending when the working foot is fully pointed.
Battement Tendu Relevé
[bat-MAHN than-DEW ruhl-VAY]
Definition
Stretched and raised beating
Purpose
- Develops skills in transferring weight from two feet to one foot and back to two feet
- Challenges balance
Description
The battement tendu relevé begins with the extension of the working leg to a point. Shift the weight from the supporting leg to equally on both legs. The working foot accepts the weight through the toes to the full-foot position. To bring the weight back to the supporting leg, it pulls up to accept the weight as the working foot points and brushes back to the beginning position. You can perform battement tendu relevé without or with a demi-plié when the weight shifts to both legs in the full-foot position. After the working foot returns to the pointed position, it brushes back to the beginning position in demi-plié.
Learn more about Beginning Ballet.
Learn the structure and distinct parts of ballet class
Today’s ballet class structure evolved through history absorbing traditions, movement practices, and dance science.
Structure of Ballet Class
Today's ballet class structure evolved through history absorbing traditions, movement practices, and dance science. In a beginning ballet class, dancers learn basic exercises and steps and they perform simple combinations at slow tempos. They gain technique competency, learn movement principles, develop a professional attitude, and become aware of customary practices in a dance studio.
The ballet class is different from a lecture course or another arts class. The ballet class has two distinct parts: the barre and the center. During both parts of the class, dancers follow protocols and rules of etiquette to expedite transitions from one combination to another so that more class time can be spent dancing.
Barre
The barre has two meanings: It is a piece of equipment and it is a portion of the ballet class. A barre is a wooden or metal rail that is either attached to several walls of the studio or is a free-standing, portable structure placed across the studio space. Barre also refers to the series of exercises done at the barre to warm up and strengthen the body as preparation for the second part of class. In today's ballet class dancers often execute a series of pre-barre exercises that warm up the body and prepare them for performing the traditional barre exercises.
Whether you are a novice, experienced, or professional ballet dancer, executing barre is an essential part of ballet class. It prepares you for dancing during the second part of class. It establishes correct placement and it develops core and leg strength, directionality, balance, foot articulation, and weight transfer skills. Barre exercises help you to reconnect with the mind-body aspects of ballet and to deepen and refine your technique. The sequence of the barre exercises may differ depending on your teacher's training or association with a particular school or method of instruction.
Center
Once you have completed the barre exercises, you move to a place in the middle of the studio for the center portion of class. In the center, you learn steps, positions, and poses to gain a basic movement vocabulary of ballet. You repeat exercises from the barre and learn steps that develop into dynamic movement combinations without an outside means of support. In other words, in the center you apply what you learned at the barre and you learn to dance.
Center combinations vary in tempo and include various steps and poses in changing sequences to challenge you.
Parts of the center include the following:
- Center practice of selected exercises from the barre to refine technique, balance, and directionality
- Slow, or adagio, combinations include classical ballet poses, arm and foot positions, steps, and turns
- Fast, or allegro, combinations include small or large jumps, hops, and leaps that are performed either as short combinations moving side to side, front or back, or across the floor
In the beginning ballet class, exercises, steps, and sections of the class are not always introduced in the same order as they appear in a standard ballet class. By the end of the term, the standard barre and center will have emerged.
The teacher may designate groups of three or four dancers to perform combinations in the center so that everyone has space to dance. The first group takes their places in the middle of the studio to begin. The second and additional groups stand and wait their turn at the side or back of the studio. After the first group completes the combination, the musician for dance may perform a vamp or repetition of the music to cue the first group to exit to one side and the second group to take its place. This rotation of groups continues until everyone has executed the combination.
The teacher may have dancers perform combinations across the floor in lines, groups, duets, or solo from side to side in the studio or on the diagonal beginning at a back corner and traveling to the opposite front corner. Dancers in the first group should get about a third to halfway across the floor, which is usually 8 or more measures of music before the second group begins. The time between groups helps to alleviate any collisions and still keep the class moving across the floor.
When crossing the floor in lines parallel to the front of the classroom, it is easy to go to the end of the line so that the combination can start again. When performing the combination on the other side and moving across the floor in the opposite direction in a line or on a diagonal, often the second row of dancers or second group must move forward to lead the combination.
When waiting your turn to execute a combination in the center or across the floor, stand quietly and observe your peers. Most often dancers stand at the side of the studio toward the back. If the teacher permits, you may mark, or physically move through the combination, or mentally review the combinations. Practicing the combination mentally is an effective way to learn movement. While waiting your turn, try visualizing the steps, directions, and other elements of the combination in time to the music.
Révérence
At the end of the traditional ballet class, dancers perform a révérence, a short combination in the center in which men bow and women curtsy, to thank the teacher and the musician for dance, if your class has one, and say good-bye. The ballet class ends with students applauding the teacher and musician for dance.
Cool-Down
Cool-down exercises include slow movements and stretches that allow your body and mind to relax and regain balance before leaving the studio. Slowly stretching your muscles increases flexibility and helps your body recover from the work in class. Teachers determine when or whether to include a cool-down in class. Sometimes they have you perform stretching exercises between the barre and center, either at the barre or on the floor. They may have you cool down after the center either before or after class is officially over, when the body is warm from performing combinations across the floor. If your teacher does not include a cool-down, you may choose to do personal stretching after class before you leave the studio.
Learn more about Beginning Ballet.
The importance of becoming proficient in ballets several languages
Ballet uses several languages with which you must become proficient.
Languages of Ballet
Ballet uses several languages with which you must become proficient. The first language you learn is that of ballet movements. To aid you in learning and remembering the movements, action words describe body actions, or movements of the legs, arms, and head in a sequence, for an exercise, step, or pose. Learning action words is an intermediate step to learning the French language terms of ballet.
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Action Words to French Terms
The teacher uses action words to describe the movement. Saying these words to yourself helps you make a connection to the movement. Then you progress to condensing several actions into an exercise or step. This sequence of movements is represented by a single ballet term for an exercise or step.
When you begin learning ballet, the action words in their sequence cue your movements. Later, you can execute a step or exercise without thinking about each movement, and you can begin to use French ballet terms for the exercises and steps.
Spoken and Written Terminology
Understanding ballet terminology goes beyond translating the movement sequence to recognizing either the spoken or written term. Knowing all these translations comes in handy when it comes to exam time; you may be expected to perform the exercise or step, recognize or write the French ballet term, and know its translation into action terms.
The vocabulary of ballet technique includes positions, exercises, steps, and poses. Although the terminology is expressed in the French language, don't confuse ballet French with the French you learn in a language class. The pronunciation of some terms may not be exactly the same. Because ballet French is spoken all over the world, ballet terminology may have a regional accent or even a different pronunciation depending on where you are.
Learning Ballet Movements
In ballet class students stand quietly and observe while the teacher performs an exercise or combination to music and speaks the action words or ballet terms. Then you execute the movement. Listening and remembering the movement sequence coupled with the action words and their ballet terms help you while practicing the exercise or combination. Learning new ballet movements can be distilled into an easy method: Watch it and hear it, then do it.
Watching
The first step is to watch sequences of movements as the teacher demonstrates them. When you begin to learn ballet, focus on the starting position of the feet, the working leg and its actions, and the directions in which the leg is moving. Later when exercises or steps include arm positions and traveling, you need to view the whole body doing the movement, what each body part is doing in sequence, and where it is in space.
Hearing
While watching the teacher's demonstration, you should also listen to verbal instructions—the cues the teacher uses to describe the movements while executing them. When the music starts, listen to the movement cues spoken in relation to the music. In your beginning practice, the teacher usually cues you just before you start a movement. This is your chance to identify which movement takes place on which count or measure.
As the ballet course progresses, the teacher demonstrates without the action words and instead uses the ballet terminology in rhythm or counts to the music. Near the end of your beginning ballet course, the teacher might say an exercise or combination using ballet terms without including a demonstration of the combination. At this point, you must translate your listening into movement: You have to hear the ballet term, visualize it, and then perform it to the music with the correct rhythm and tempo.
As a beginning dancer, translating the teacher's words into movement is your ultimate goal for learning terminology. While you move from one phase of listening to translating, you likewise gain control of and responsibility for your movement.
Doing
The next step is to do the movement. When learning a new movement sequence, you usually execute the movements slowly without music, then slowly with music, while the teacher guides you from one movement to the next. As you practice the movement sequence, visualize it and say the action words or terms to yourself. Continue to fit the movements in their proper sequence and in time to the music, then practice the movement sequence until you become comfortable with it. Be prepared to make adjustments in order to perform the movement correctly. Remember, at this time you are learning just the basic movement patterns.
During the course, you begin to think about how technique, principles, rules, and other elements will refine your performance of beginning exercises. In ballet, refining your movement is an unceasing process. After you have the movement sequence in mind, practice it so that both sides of the body can initiate it.
As a beginning dancer, make it a goal to absorb most of the movement presented in class. In some classes, some or many of the components are repeated during the next class meeting. This repetition reinforces learning. In ballet, you have to attain a certain level of learning before you can progress to the next level of technique, style, and artistry. Your ability to remember and replicate movement contributes to your progress as a dancer.
Learn more about Beginning Ballet.
Performing a Second Port de Bras and the movement principle for ballet
To perform a second port de bras, begin in preparatory position, or fifth position en bas.
Second Port de Bras
To perform a second port de bras, begin in preparatory position, or fifth position en bas. Raise both arms to fifth position en haut. There, rotate the arms outward and lower them down to second position. Then lift the elbows slightly and float the arms downward, finishing in preparatory position.
The smooth, continuous, coordinated arm movements of the port de bras can complement or counterpoint the leg and foot movements in an exercise or combination.
Practicing first and second port de bras is the basis for incorporating port de bras into the preparation for barre and center work. Later, arm positions are incorporated into the exercises or arms are held in a specific position until the end of the exercise or combination.
Movement Principles for Ballet
Like all dance forms, ballet relies on a set of movement principles. One or more of the principles interface with poses through exercises, steps, and combinations. Movement principles incorporate scientific and aesthetic concepts into ballet technique. Understanding each principle and how to apply it is part of learning ballet technique.
Looking at the movement principles pyramid shown in figure 5.14, begin at the bottom tier. As your technique increases, you move upward from the bottom tier, which includes the basic principles of alignment, turnout, and stance. The second level of the pyramid comprises distribution of weight and transfer of weight. Moving up the pyramid, squareness is the central principle and relates to lift (also known as pull-up) and counterpull. Counterbalance and aplomb form the next level, and although balance is at the tip of the pyramid, it is the movement principle that connects all of the tiers.
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Alignment
Having proper alignment means having good posture that integrates the dancer's body as a whole—head, torso, arms, and legs. Alignment is both a static and a dynamic movement principle, which means it applies when holding a pose (static) and while the body moves through space (dynamic). Dancers adjust body alignment quickly and with control during exercises and combinations. Once one part the body is out of alignment, other parts compensate, causing misalignment and possible injury. When the body is not aligned it affects all major joints. Learning and practicing good alignment are critical to correct dancing and benefit you both inside and out of class.
http://www.humankinetics.com/AcuCustom/Sitename/DAM/099/63art_Main.png
Turnout
The hallmark of ballet technique is turnout, the outward rotation of the legs and feet that begins in the hip socket. Deep rotator muscles around the hip support the ability of the leg to rotate in the hip socket. Turnout extends from the hip joint through the upper and lower leg and the foot. Muscles of the upper and lower legs and the abdominal muscles are essential to attaining and controlling turnout.
As a beginning dancer, the angle of your turnout should be at natural turnout, which is about 90 degrees, or 45 degrees for each leg. As you practice turnout, your legs and feet gain muscle memory to stand, move, and stop while continuing to maintain the turnout in various positions.
Stance
When you stand or move, the weight of your body is either on both feet or one foot. In classical ballet stance, the weight on both feet should be equally distributed over the foot triangle. Stance has an obvious connection to alignment. Weight distribution and weight transfer interact directly with stance.
Weight Distribution and Weight Transfer
Standing poised and ready to move from two feet to one or from one foot to two initially requires thought behind the movement. You have to know where your weight is (weight distribution; on both feet or one foot) and to where it is going (weight transfer;to the same foot, other foot, or both feet) as you stand or move. Good alignment has a direct connection to weight distribution through the feet. Consequently, weight distribution connects to your turnout, too. Together the principles of weight distribution, transfer, turnout, and alignment link to stance and ultimately to the foot triangle (figure 5.15).
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Squareness
Squareness is the central movement principle in the third tier of the pyramid of principles. In ballet, the torso works as a unit, so the shoulders and hips should be level and face the same direction. Using the squareness principle, the torso is quiet and square, which allows focus on leg movements and their directions or on entire body movements in relation to the dance space (figure 5.16). In the beginning ballet class, you first perform barre exercises facing the barre so that you can understand and practice this principle. In the center, squareness applies to using body directions in relation to the space.
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Learn more about Beginning Ballet.
Learning barre exercises in beginning ballet class
The barre exercises presented in this chapter follow the order in which they are performed in the traditional ballet barre.
Barre Exercises
The barre exercises presented in this chapter follow the order in which they are performed in the traditional ballet barre. In the beginning ballet class, the barre exercises may not be taught in this order, but by the end of the term, the barre will contain most of the exercises in this chapter. Different methods of ballet execute the barre exercises in a similar but sometimes different order.
Each barre exercise includes its written pronunciation, definition, purpose, and description. In the web resource that accompanies this book, the ballet term is pronounced in the French language and a video clip presents the exercise. Also included is a self-check list for performing the exercise. Some basic barre exercises are followed by variations. Often these variations are practiced either as separate exercises or with the basic exercise for extended combinations.
Barre exercises begin in classical foot positions. In the beginning ballet class, you learn exercises starting in first position and then move to starting in either third position or fifth position (see chapter 5).
Before each exercise you stand in the beginning position and execute a preparation to music. In some cases the preparation is a port de bras, but for some exercises, foot movements accompany the port de bras as part of the preparation. In a beginning ballet class, the preparation may use four or two bars of music before the exercise begins.
Demi-Plié [duh-MEE plee-AY]
Definition
Half bend of the knees
Purpose
- Warms up the hip, knee, and ankle joints
- Increases strength and flexibility of the lower leg
- Applies the principles of alignment, stance, turnout, and weight distribution
Description
To execute a demi-plié, stand in a classical position of the feet. Descend as far as the knees can bend with the entire foot remaining on the floor, then return to the starting position. Perform the demi-plié in first, second, third, fourth, then fifth position.
Maintaining turnout from the hips, bend the knees directly above the second and third toes of each foot. In second position, bend the legs half as much as for a grand plié.
Grand Plié [grahn plee-AY]
Definition
Large bend of the knees
Purpose
- Stretches the muscles of the inner thigh in addition to those of the lower
leg - Applies the principles of alignment, turnout, weight distribution, squareness, and counterpull
Description
First, execute a demi-plié and then descend deeper to where the thighs are parallel to the floor. The heels release from the floor only as necessary on the descent and return as soon as possible on the ascent. Both knees bend and straighten simultaneously.
Performed in all foot positions, the grand plié is a continuous vertical movement, using the same number of measures for the descent and the ascent. The body weight is equally distributed over both legs. As you descend, the body counterpulls upward. On the ascent, the body remains lifted, appearing to float over
the legs.
In second position, the space between the feet varies from one and 1/2 lengths of your foot to shoulder width. In this position you descend until the thighs are parallel to the floor, but the full foot remains on the floor throughout the grand
plié.
Battement Tendu [bat-MAHN than-DEW]
Definition
Stretched beating
Purpose
- Increases flexibility of the ankle
- Develops full extension and proper alignment of the foot with the leg
- Applies principles of alignment, stance, turnout, weight distribution, weight transfer, and squareness
Description
Start in first position at the beginning and later start in third or fifth position. From a full-foot position, brush the working foot along the floor extending through the arch, then the metatarsals, to a fully pointed position. In the pointed position, the tips of the first three toes rest on the floor and the heel is lifted high and forward. On the return path the foot flexes first through the toes, then the metatarsals, the arch, and finally to the full-foot position as it slides back to the closing. Practice battement tendu devant, à la seconde, and then derrière. For the battement tendu à la seconde, slide the working foot to a point that is in line with the great toe
of the supporting foot (Cecchetti method) or in line with the supporting heel
(Russian method).
Battement Tendu With Demi-Plié
[bat-MAHN than-DEW with duh-MEE plee-AY]
Definition
Stretched beating with half bend
Purpose
- Connects two exercises seamlessly
- Coordinates movements of the supporting leg with the working leg (the working leg does the out and in movement, while the supporting leg does the down and up movement)
Description
The battement tendu with demi-plié is two exercises combined. On the return path of the battement tendu, the working and supporting legs execute a demi-plié. Both legs reach the depth of the demi-plié when the working foot reaches the closed position. From the demi-plié, the next battement tendu begins with each leg simultaneously straightening on the extension section ending when the working foot is fully pointed.
Battement Tendu Relevé
[bat-MAHN than-DEW ruhl-VAY]
Definition
Stretched and raised beating
Purpose
- Develops skills in transferring weight from two feet to one foot and back to two feet
- Challenges balance
Description
The battement tendu relevé begins with the extension of the working leg to a point. Shift the weight from the supporting leg to equally on both legs. The working foot accepts the weight through the toes to the full-foot position. To bring the weight back to the supporting leg, it pulls up to accept the weight as the working foot points and brushes back to the beginning position. You can perform battement tendu relevé without or with a demi-plié when the weight shifts to both legs in the full-foot position. After the working foot returns to the pointed position, it brushes back to the beginning position in demi-plié.
Learn more about Beginning Ballet.
Learn the structure and distinct parts of ballet class
Today’s ballet class structure evolved through history absorbing traditions, movement practices, and dance science.
Structure of Ballet Class
Today's ballet class structure evolved through history absorbing traditions, movement practices, and dance science. In a beginning ballet class, dancers learn basic exercises and steps and they perform simple combinations at slow tempos. They gain technique competency, learn movement principles, develop a professional attitude, and become aware of customary practices in a dance studio.
The ballet class is different from a lecture course or another arts class. The ballet class has two distinct parts: the barre and the center. During both parts of the class, dancers follow protocols and rules of etiquette to expedite transitions from one combination to another so that more class time can be spent dancing.
Barre
The barre has two meanings: It is a piece of equipment and it is a portion of the ballet class. A barre is a wooden or metal rail that is either attached to several walls of the studio or is a free-standing, portable structure placed across the studio space. Barre also refers to the series of exercises done at the barre to warm up and strengthen the body as preparation for the second part of class. In today's ballet class dancers often execute a series of pre-barre exercises that warm up the body and prepare them for performing the traditional barre exercises.
Whether you are a novice, experienced, or professional ballet dancer, executing barre is an essential part of ballet class. It prepares you for dancing during the second part of class. It establishes correct placement and it develops core and leg strength, directionality, balance, foot articulation, and weight transfer skills. Barre exercises help you to reconnect with the mind-body aspects of ballet and to deepen and refine your technique. The sequence of the barre exercises may differ depending on your teacher's training or association with a particular school or method of instruction.
Center
Once you have completed the barre exercises, you move to a place in the middle of the studio for the center portion of class. In the center, you learn steps, positions, and poses to gain a basic movement vocabulary of ballet. You repeat exercises from the barre and learn steps that develop into dynamic movement combinations without an outside means of support. In other words, in the center you apply what you learned at the barre and you learn to dance.
Center combinations vary in tempo and include various steps and poses in changing sequences to challenge you.
Parts of the center include the following:
- Center practice of selected exercises from the barre to refine technique, balance, and directionality
- Slow, or adagio, combinations include classical ballet poses, arm and foot positions, steps, and turns
- Fast, or allegro, combinations include small or large jumps, hops, and leaps that are performed either as short combinations moving side to side, front or back, or across the floor
In the beginning ballet class, exercises, steps, and sections of the class are not always introduced in the same order as they appear in a standard ballet class. By the end of the term, the standard barre and center will have emerged.
The teacher may designate groups of three or four dancers to perform combinations in the center so that everyone has space to dance. The first group takes their places in the middle of the studio to begin. The second and additional groups stand and wait their turn at the side or back of the studio. After the first group completes the combination, the musician for dance may perform a vamp or repetition of the music to cue the first group to exit to one side and the second group to take its place. This rotation of groups continues until everyone has executed the combination.
The teacher may have dancers perform combinations across the floor in lines, groups, duets, or solo from side to side in the studio or on the diagonal beginning at a back corner and traveling to the opposite front corner. Dancers in the first group should get about a third to halfway across the floor, which is usually 8 or more measures of music before the second group begins. The time between groups helps to alleviate any collisions and still keep the class moving across the floor.
When crossing the floor in lines parallel to the front of the classroom, it is easy to go to the end of the line so that the combination can start again. When performing the combination on the other side and moving across the floor in the opposite direction in a line or on a diagonal, often the second row of dancers or second group must move forward to lead the combination.
When waiting your turn to execute a combination in the center or across the floor, stand quietly and observe your peers. Most often dancers stand at the side of the studio toward the back. If the teacher permits, you may mark, or physically move through the combination, or mentally review the combinations. Practicing the combination mentally is an effective way to learn movement. While waiting your turn, try visualizing the steps, directions, and other elements of the combination in time to the music.
Révérence
At the end of the traditional ballet class, dancers perform a révérence, a short combination in the center in which men bow and women curtsy, to thank the teacher and the musician for dance, if your class has one, and say good-bye. The ballet class ends with students applauding the teacher and musician for dance.
Cool-Down
Cool-down exercises include slow movements and stretches that allow your body and mind to relax and regain balance before leaving the studio. Slowly stretching your muscles increases flexibility and helps your body recover from the work in class. Teachers determine when or whether to include a cool-down in class. Sometimes they have you perform stretching exercises between the barre and center, either at the barre or on the floor. They may have you cool down after the center either before or after class is officially over, when the body is warm from performing combinations across the floor. If your teacher does not include a cool-down, you may choose to do personal stretching after class before you leave the studio.
Learn more about Beginning Ballet.
The importance of becoming proficient in ballets several languages
Ballet uses several languages with which you must become proficient.
Languages of Ballet
Ballet uses several languages with which you must become proficient. The first language you learn is that of ballet movements. To aid you in learning and remembering the movements, action words describe body actions, or movements of the legs, arms, and head in a sequence, for an exercise, step, or pose. Learning action words is an intermediate step to learning the French language terms of ballet.
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Action Words to French Terms
The teacher uses action words to describe the movement. Saying these words to yourself helps you make a connection to the movement. Then you progress to condensing several actions into an exercise or step. This sequence of movements is represented by a single ballet term for an exercise or step.
When you begin learning ballet, the action words in their sequence cue your movements. Later, you can execute a step or exercise without thinking about each movement, and you can begin to use French ballet terms for the exercises and steps.
Spoken and Written Terminology
Understanding ballet terminology goes beyond translating the movement sequence to recognizing either the spoken or written term. Knowing all these translations comes in handy when it comes to exam time; you may be expected to perform the exercise or step, recognize or write the French ballet term, and know its translation into action terms.
The vocabulary of ballet technique includes positions, exercises, steps, and poses. Although the terminology is expressed in the French language, don't confuse ballet French with the French you learn in a language class. The pronunciation of some terms may not be exactly the same. Because ballet French is spoken all over the world, ballet terminology may have a regional accent or even a different pronunciation depending on where you are.
Learning Ballet Movements
In ballet class students stand quietly and observe while the teacher performs an exercise or combination to music and speaks the action words or ballet terms. Then you execute the movement. Listening and remembering the movement sequence coupled with the action words and their ballet terms help you while practicing the exercise or combination. Learning new ballet movements can be distilled into an easy method: Watch it and hear it, then do it.
Watching
The first step is to watch sequences of movements as the teacher demonstrates them. When you begin to learn ballet, focus on the starting position of the feet, the working leg and its actions, and the directions in which the leg is moving. Later when exercises or steps include arm positions and traveling, you need to view the whole body doing the movement, what each body part is doing in sequence, and where it is in space.
Hearing
While watching the teacher's demonstration, you should also listen to verbal instructions—the cues the teacher uses to describe the movements while executing them. When the music starts, listen to the movement cues spoken in relation to the music. In your beginning practice, the teacher usually cues you just before you start a movement. This is your chance to identify which movement takes place on which count or measure.
As the ballet course progresses, the teacher demonstrates without the action words and instead uses the ballet terminology in rhythm or counts to the music. Near the end of your beginning ballet course, the teacher might say an exercise or combination using ballet terms without including a demonstration of the combination. At this point, you must translate your listening into movement: You have to hear the ballet term, visualize it, and then perform it to the music with the correct rhythm and tempo.
As a beginning dancer, translating the teacher's words into movement is your ultimate goal for learning terminology. While you move from one phase of listening to translating, you likewise gain control of and responsibility for your movement.
Doing
The next step is to do the movement. When learning a new movement sequence, you usually execute the movements slowly without music, then slowly with music, while the teacher guides you from one movement to the next. As you practice the movement sequence, visualize it and say the action words or terms to yourself. Continue to fit the movements in their proper sequence and in time to the music, then practice the movement sequence until you become comfortable with it. Be prepared to make adjustments in order to perform the movement correctly. Remember, at this time you are learning just the basic movement patterns.
During the course, you begin to think about how technique, principles, rules, and other elements will refine your performance of beginning exercises. In ballet, refining your movement is an unceasing process. After you have the movement sequence in mind, practice it so that both sides of the body can initiate it.
As a beginning dancer, make it a goal to absorb most of the movement presented in class. In some classes, some or many of the components are repeated during the next class meeting. This repetition reinforces learning. In ballet, you have to attain a certain level of learning before you can progress to the next level of technique, style, and artistry. Your ability to remember and replicate movement contributes to your progress as a dancer.
Learn more about Beginning Ballet.
Performing a Second Port de Bras and the movement principle for ballet
To perform a second port de bras, begin in preparatory position, or fifth position en bas.
Second Port de Bras
To perform a second port de bras, begin in preparatory position, or fifth position en bas. Raise both arms to fifth position en haut. There, rotate the arms outward and lower them down to second position. Then lift the elbows slightly and float the arms downward, finishing in preparatory position.
The smooth, continuous, coordinated arm movements of the port de bras can complement or counterpoint the leg and foot movements in an exercise or combination.
Practicing first and second port de bras is the basis for incorporating port de bras into the preparation for barre and center work. Later, arm positions are incorporated into the exercises or arms are held in a specific position until the end of the exercise or combination.
Movement Principles for Ballet
Like all dance forms, ballet relies on a set of movement principles. One or more of the principles interface with poses through exercises, steps, and combinations. Movement principles incorporate scientific and aesthetic concepts into ballet technique. Understanding each principle and how to apply it is part of learning ballet technique.
Looking at the movement principles pyramid shown in figure 5.14, begin at the bottom tier. As your technique increases, you move upward from the bottom tier, which includes the basic principles of alignment, turnout, and stance. The second level of the pyramid comprises distribution of weight and transfer of weight. Moving up the pyramid, squareness is the central principle and relates to lift (also known as pull-up) and counterpull. Counterbalance and aplomb form the next level, and although balance is at the tip of the pyramid, it is the movement principle that connects all of the tiers.
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Alignment
Having proper alignment means having good posture that integrates the dancer's body as a whole—head, torso, arms, and legs. Alignment is both a static and a dynamic movement principle, which means it applies when holding a pose (static) and while the body moves through space (dynamic). Dancers adjust body alignment quickly and with control during exercises and combinations. Once one part the body is out of alignment, other parts compensate, causing misalignment and possible injury. When the body is not aligned it affects all major joints. Learning and practicing good alignment are critical to correct dancing and benefit you both inside and out of class.
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Turnout
The hallmark of ballet technique is turnout, the outward rotation of the legs and feet that begins in the hip socket. Deep rotator muscles around the hip support the ability of the leg to rotate in the hip socket. Turnout extends from the hip joint through the upper and lower leg and the foot. Muscles of the upper and lower legs and the abdominal muscles are essential to attaining and controlling turnout.
As a beginning dancer, the angle of your turnout should be at natural turnout, which is about 90 degrees, or 45 degrees for each leg. As you practice turnout, your legs and feet gain muscle memory to stand, move, and stop while continuing to maintain the turnout in various positions.
Stance
When you stand or move, the weight of your body is either on both feet or one foot. In classical ballet stance, the weight on both feet should be equally distributed over the foot triangle. Stance has an obvious connection to alignment. Weight distribution and weight transfer interact directly with stance.
Weight Distribution and Weight Transfer
Standing poised and ready to move from two feet to one or from one foot to two initially requires thought behind the movement. You have to know where your weight is (weight distribution; on both feet or one foot) and to where it is going (weight transfer;to the same foot, other foot, or both feet) as you stand or move. Good alignment has a direct connection to weight distribution through the feet. Consequently, weight distribution connects to your turnout, too. Together the principles of weight distribution, transfer, turnout, and alignment link to stance and ultimately to the foot triangle (figure 5.15).
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Squareness
Squareness is the central movement principle in the third tier of the pyramid of principles. In ballet, the torso works as a unit, so the shoulders and hips should be level and face the same direction. Using the squareness principle, the torso is quiet and square, which allows focus on leg movements and their directions or on entire body movements in relation to the dance space (figure 5.16). In the beginning ballet class, you first perform barre exercises facing the barre so that you can understand and practice this principle. In the center, squareness applies to using body directions in relation to the space.
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Learn more about Beginning Ballet.
Learning barre exercises in beginning ballet class
The barre exercises presented in this chapter follow the order in which they are performed in the traditional ballet barre.
Barre Exercises
The barre exercises presented in this chapter follow the order in which they are performed in the traditional ballet barre. In the beginning ballet class, the barre exercises may not be taught in this order, but by the end of the term, the barre will contain most of the exercises in this chapter. Different methods of ballet execute the barre exercises in a similar but sometimes different order.
Each barre exercise includes its written pronunciation, definition, purpose, and description. In the web resource that accompanies this book, the ballet term is pronounced in the French language and a video clip presents the exercise. Also included is a self-check list for performing the exercise. Some basic barre exercises are followed by variations. Often these variations are practiced either as separate exercises or with the basic exercise for extended combinations.
Barre exercises begin in classical foot positions. In the beginning ballet class, you learn exercises starting in first position and then move to starting in either third position or fifth position (see chapter 5).
Before each exercise you stand in the beginning position and execute a preparation to music. In some cases the preparation is a port de bras, but for some exercises, foot movements accompany the port de bras as part of the preparation. In a beginning ballet class, the preparation may use four or two bars of music before the exercise begins.
Demi-Plié [duh-MEE plee-AY]
Definition
Half bend of the knees
Purpose
- Warms up the hip, knee, and ankle joints
- Increases strength and flexibility of the lower leg
- Applies the principles of alignment, stance, turnout, and weight distribution
Description
To execute a demi-plié, stand in a classical position of the feet. Descend as far as the knees can bend with the entire foot remaining on the floor, then return to the starting position. Perform the demi-plié in first, second, third, fourth, then fifth position.
Maintaining turnout from the hips, bend the knees directly above the second and third toes of each foot. In second position, bend the legs half as much as for a grand plié.
Grand Plié [grahn plee-AY]
Definition
Large bend of the knees
Purpose
- Stretches the muscles of the inner thigh in addition to those of the lower
leg - Applies the principles of alignment, turnout, weight distribution, squareness, and counterpull
Description
First, execute a demi-plié and then descend deeper to where the thighs are parallel to the floor. The heels release from the floor only as necessary on the descent and return as soon as possible on the ascent. Both knees bend and straighten simultaneously.
Performed in all foot positions, the grand plié is a continuous vertical movement, using the same number of measures for the descent and the ascent. The body weight is equally distributed over both legs. As you descend, the body counterpulls upward. On the ascent, the body remains lifted, appearing to float over
the legs.
In second position, the space between the feet varies from one and 1/2 lengths of your foot to shoulder width. In this position you descend until the thighs are parallel to the floor, but the full foot remains on the floor throughout the grand
plié.
Battement Tendu [bat-MAHN than-DEW]
Definition
Stretched beating
Purpose
- Increases flexibility of the ankle
- Develops full extension and proper alignment of the foot with the leg
- Applies principles of alignment, stance, turnout, weight distribution, weight transfer, and squareness
Description
Start in first position at the beginning and later start in third or fifth position. From a full-foot position, brush the working foot along the floor extending through the arch, then the metatarsals, to a fully pointed position. In the pointed position, the tips of the first three toes rest on the floor and the heel is lifted high and forward. On the return path the foot flexes first through the toes, then the metatarsals, the arch, and finally to the full-foot position as it slides back to the closing. Practice battement tendu devant, à la seconde, and then derrière. For the battement tendu à la seconde, slide the working foot to a point that is in line with the great toe
of the supporting foot (Cecchetti method) or in line with the supporting heel
(Russian method).
Battement Tendu With Demi-Plié
[bat-MAHN than-DEW with duh-MEE plee-AY]
Definition
Stretched beating with half bend
Purpose
- Connects two exercises seamlessly
- Coordinates movements of the supporting leg with the working leg (the working leg does the out and in movement, while the supporting leg does the down and up movement)
Description
The battement tendu with demi-plié is two exercises combined. On the return path of the battement tendu, the working and supporting legs execute a demi-plié. Both legs reach the depth of the demi-plié when the working foot reaches the closed position. From the demi-plié, the next battement tendu begins with each leg simultaneously straightening on the extension section ending when the working foot is fully pointed.
Battement Tendu Relevé
[bat-MAHN than-DEW ruhl-VAY]
Definition
Stretched and raised beating
Purpose
- Develops skills in transferring weight from two feet to one foot and back to two feet
- Challenges balance
Description
The battement tendu relevé begins with the extension of the working leg to a point. Shift the weight from the supporting leg to equally on both legs. The working foot accepts the weight through the toes to the full-foot position. To bring the weight back to the supporting leg, it pulls up to accept the weight as the working foot points and brushes back to the beginning position. You can perform battement tendu relevé without or with a demi-plié when the weight shifts to both legs in the full-foot position. After the working foot returns to the pointed position, it brushes back to the beginning position in demi-plié.
Learn more about Beginning Ballet.
Learn the structure and distinct parts of ballet class
Today’s ballet class structure evolved through history absorbing traditions, movement practices, and dance science.
Structure of Ballet Class
Today's ballet class structure evolved through history absorbing traditions, movement practices, and dance science. In a beginning ballet class, dancers learn basic exercises and steps and they perform simple combinations at slow tempos. They gain technique competency, learn movement principles, develop a professional attitude, and become aware of customary practices in a dance studio.
The ballet class is different from a lecture course or another arts class. The ballet class has two distinct parts: the barre and the center. During both parts of the class, dancers follow protocols and rules of etiquette to expedite transitions from one combination to another so that more class time can be spent dancing.
Barre
The barre has two meanings: It is a piece of equipment and it is a portion of the ballet class. A barre is a wooden or metal rail that is either attached to several walls of the studio or is a free-standing, portable structure placed across the studio space. Barre also refers to the series of exercises done at the barre to warm up and strengthen the body as preparation for the second part of class. In today's ballet class dancers often execute a series of pre-barre exercises that warm up the body and prepare them for performing the traditional barre exercises.
Whether you are a novice, experienced, or professional ballet dancer, executing barre is an essential part of ballet class. It prepares you for dancing during the second part of class. It establishes correct placement and it develops core and leg strength, directionality, balance, foot articulation, and weight transfer skills. Barre exercises help you to reconnect with the mind-body aspects of ballet and to deepen and refine your technique. The sequence of the barre exercises may differ depending on your teacher's training or association with a particular school or method of instruction.
Center
Once you have completed the barre exercises, you move to a place in the middle of the studio for the center portion of class. In the center, you learn steps, positions, and poses to gain a basic movement vocabulary of ballet. You repeat exercises from the barre and learn steps that develop into dynamic movement combinations without an outside means of support. In other words, in the center you apply what you learned at the barre and you learn to dance.
Center combinations vary in tempo and include various steps and poses in changing sequences to challenge you.
Parts of the center include the following:
- Center practice of selected exercises from the barre to refine technique, balance, and directionality
- Slow, or adagio, combinations include classical ballet poses, arm and foot positions, steps, and turns
- Fast, or allegro, combinations include small or large jumps, hops, and leaps that are performed either as short combinations moving side to side, front or back, or across the floor
In the beginning ballet class, exercises, steps, and sections of the class are not always introduced in the same order as they appear in a standard ballet class. By the end of the term, the standard barre and center will have emerged.
The teacher may designate groups of three or four dancers to perform combinations in the center so that everyone has space to dance. The first group takes their places in the middle of the studio to begin. The second and additional groups stand and wait their turn at the side or back of the studio. After the first group completes the combination, the musician for dance may perform a vamp or repetition of the music to cue the first group to exit to one side and the second group to take its place. This rotation of groups continues until everyone has executed the combination.
The teacher may have dancers perform combinations across the floor in lines, groups, duets, or solo from side to side in the studio or on the diagonal beginning at a back corner and traveling to the opposite front corner. Dancers in the first group should get about a third to halfway across the floor, which is usually 8 or more measures of music before the second group begins. The time between groups helps to alleviate any collisions and still keep the class moving across the floor.
When crossing the floor in lines parallel to the front of the classroom, it is easy to go to the end of the line so that the combination can start again. When performing the combination on the other side and moving across the floor in the opposite direction in a line or on a diagonal, often the second row of dancers or second group must move forward to lead the combination.
When waiting your turn to execute a combination in the center or across the floor, stand quietly and observe your peers. Most often dancers stand at the side of the studio toward the back. If the teacher permits, you may mark, or physically move through the combination, or mentally review the combinations. Practicing the combination mentally is an effective way to learn movement. While waiting your turn, try visualizing the steps, directions, and other elements of the combination in time to the music.
Révérence
At the end of the traditional ballet class, dancers perform a révérence, a short combination in the center in which men bow and women curtsy, to thank the teacher and the musician for dance, if your class has one, and say good-bye. The ballet class ends with students applauding the teacher and musician for dance.
Cool-Down
Cool-down exercises include slow movements and stretches that allow your body and mind to relax and regain balance before leaving the studio. Slowly stretching your muscles increases flexibility and helps your body recover from the work in class. Teachers determine when or whether to include a cool-down in class. Sometimes they have you perform stretching exercises between the barre and center, either at the barre or on the floor. They may have you cool down after the center either before or after class is officially over, when the body is warm from performing combinations across the floor. If your teacher does not include a cool-down, you may choose to do personal stretching after class before you leave the studio.
Learn more about Beginning Ballet.
The importance of becoming proficient in ballets several languages
Ballet uses several languages with which you must become proficient.
Languages of Ballet
Ballet uses several languages with which you must become proficient. The first language you learn is that of ballet movements. To aid you in learning and remembering the movements, action words describe body actions, or movements of the legs, arms, and head in a sequence, for an exercise, step, or pose. Learning action words is an intermediate step to learning the French language terms of ballet.
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Action Words to French Terms
The teacher uses action words to describe the movement. Saying these words to yourself helps you make a connection to the movement. Then you progress to condensing several actions into an exercise or step. This sequence of movements is represented by a single ballet term for an exercise or step.
When you begin learning ballet, the action words in their sequence cue your movements. Later, you can execute a step or exercise without thinking about each movement, and you can begin to use French ballet terms for the exercises and steps.
Spoken and Written Terminology
Understanding ballet terminology goes beyond translating the movement sequence to recognizing either the spoken or written term. Knowing all these translations comes in handy when it comes to exam time; you may be expected to perform the exercise or step, recognize or write the French ballet term, and know its translation into action terms.
The vocabulary of ballet technique includes positions, exercises, steps, and poses. Although the terminology is expressed in the French language, don't confuse ballet French with the French you learn in a language class. The pronunciation of some terms may not be exactly the same. Because ballet French is spoken all over the world, ballet terminology may have a regional accent or even a different pronunciation depending on where you are.
Learning Ballet Movements
In ballet class students stand quietly and observe while the teacher performs an exercise or combination to music and speaks the action words or ballet terms. Then you execute the movement. Listening and remembering the movement sequence coupled with the action words and their ballet terms help you while practicing the exercise or combination. Learning new ballet movements can be distilled into an easy method: Watch it and hear it, then do it.
Watching
The first step is to watch sequences of movements as the teacher demonstrates them. When you begin to learn ballet, focus on the starting position of the feet, the working leg and its actions, and the directions in which the leg is moving. Later when exercises or steps include arm positions and traveling, you need to view the whole body doing the movement, what each body part is doing in sequence, and where it is in space.
Hearing
While watching the teacher's demonstration, you should also listen to verbal instructions—the cues the teacher uses to describe the movements while executing them. When the music starts, listen to the movement cues spoken in relation to the music. In your beginning practice, the teacher usually cues you just before you start a movement. This is your chance to identify which movement takes place on which count or measure.
As the ballet course progresses, the teacher demonstrates without the action words and instead uses the ballet terminology in rhythm or counts to the music. Near the end of your beginning ballet course, the teacher might say an exercise or combination using ballet terms without including a demonstration of the combination. At this point, you must translate your listening into movement: You have to hear the ballet term, visualize it, and then perform it to the music with the correct rhythm and tempo.
As a beginning dancer, translating the teacher's words into movement is your ultimate goal for learning terminology. While you move from one phase of listening to translating, you likewise gain control of and responsibility for your movement.
Doing
The next step is to do the movement. When learning a new movement sequence, you usually execute the movements slowly without music, then slowly with music, while the teacher guides you from one movement to the next. As you practice the movement sequence, visualize it and say the action words or terms to yourself. Continue to fit the movements in their proper sequence and in time to the music, then practice the movement sequence until you become comfortable with it. Be prepared to make adjustments in order to perform the movement correctly. Remember, at this time you are learning just the basic movement patterns.
During the course, you begin to think about how technique, principles, rules, and other elements will refine your performance of beginning exercises. In ballet, refining your movement is an unceasing process. After you have the movement sequence in mind, practice it so that both sides of the body can initiate it.
As a beginning dancer, make it a goal to absorb most of the movement presented in class. In some classes, some or many of the components are repeated during the next class meeting. This repetition reinforces learning. In ballet, you have to attain a certain level of learning before you can progress to the next level of technique, style, and artistry. Your ability to remember and replicate movement contributes to your progress as a dancer.
Learn more about Beginning Ballet.
Performing a Second Port de Bras and the movement principle for ballet
To perform a second port de bras, begin in preparatory position, or fifth position en bas.
Second Port de Bras
To perform a second port de bras, begin in preparatory position, or fifth position en bas. Raise both arms to fifth position en haut. There, rotate the arms outward and lower them down to second position. Then lift the elbows slightly and float the arms downward, finishing in preparatory position.
The smooth, continuous, coordinated arm movements of the port de bras can complement or counterpoint the leg and foot movements in an exercise or combination.
Practicing first and second port de bras is the basis for incorporating port de bras into the preparation for barre and center work. Later, arm positions are incorporated into the exercises or arms are held in a specific position until the end of the exercise or combination.
Movement Principles for Ballet
Like all dance forms, ballet relies on a set of movement principles. One or more of the principles interface with poses through exercises, steps, and combinations. Movement principles incorporate scientific and aesthetic concepts into ballet technique. Understanding each principle and how to apply it is part of learning ballet technique.
Looking at the movement principles pyramid shown in figure 5.14, begin at the bottom tier. As your technique increases, you move upward from the bottom tier, which includes the basic principles of alignment, turnout, and stance. The second level of the pyramid comprises distribution of weight and transfer of weight. Moving up the pyramid, squareness is the central principle and relates to lift (also known as pull-up) and counterpull. Counterbalance and aplomb form the next level, and although balance is at the tip of the pyramid, it is the movement principle that connects all of the tiers.
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Alignment
Having proper alignment means having good posture that integrates the dancer's body as a whole—head, torso, arms, and legs. Alignment is both a static and a dynamic movement principle, which means it applies when holding a pose (static) and while the body moves through space (dynamic). Dancers adjust body alignment quickly and with control during exercises and combinations. Once one part the body is out of alignment, other parts compensate, causing misalignment and possible injury. When the body is not aligned it affects all major joints. Learning and practicing good alignment are critical to correct dancing and benefit you both inside and out of class.
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Turnout
The hallmark of ballet technique is turnout, the outward rotation of the legs and feet that begins in the hip socket. Deep rotator muscles around the hip support the ability of the leg to rotate in the hip socket. Turnout extends from the hip joint through the upper and lower leg and the foot. Muscles of the upper and lower legs and the abdominal muscles are essential to attaining and controlling turnout.
As a beginning dancer, the angle of your turnout should be at natural turnout, which is about 90 degrees, or 45 degrees for each leg. As you practice turnout, your legs and feet gain muscle memory to stand, move, and stop while continuing to maintain the turnout in various positions.
Stance
When you stand or move, the weight of your body is either on both feet or one foot. In classical ballet stance, the weight on both feet should be equally distributed over the foot triangle. Stance has an obvious connection to alignment. Weight distribution and weight transfer interact directly with stance.
Weight Distribution and Weight Transfer
Standing poised and ready to move from two feet to one or from one foot to two initially requires thought behind the movement. You have to know where your weight is (weight distribution; on both feet or one foot) and to where it is going (weight transfer;to the same foot, other foot, or both feet) as you stand or move. Good alignment has a direct connection to weight distribution through the feet. Consequently, weight distribution connects to your turnout, too. Together the principles of weight distribution, transfer, turnout, and alignment link to stance and ultimately to the foot triangle (figure 5.15).
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Squareness
Squareness is the central movement principle in the third tier of the pyramid of principles. In ballet, the torso works as a unit, so the shoulders and hips should be level and face the same direction. Using the squareness principle, the torso is quiet and square, which allows focus on leg movements and their directions or on entire body movements in relation to the dance space (figure 5.16). In the beginning ballet class, you first perform barre exercises facing the barre so that you can understand and practice this principle. In the center, squareness applies to using body directions in relation to the space.
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Learn more about Beginning Ballet.
Learning barre exercises in beginning ballet class
The barre exercises presented in this chapter follow the order in which they are performed in the traditional ballet barre.
Barre Exercises
The barre exercises presented in this chapter follow the order in which they are performed in the traditional ballet barre. In the beginning ballet class, the barre exercises may not be taught in this order, but by the end of the term, the barre will contain most of the exercises in this chapter. Different methods of ballet execute the barre exercises in a similar but sometimes different order.
Each barre exercise includes its written pronunciation, definition, purpose, and description. In the web resource that accompanies this book, the ballet term is pronounced in the French language and a video clip presents the exercise. Also included is a self-check list for performing the exercise. Some basic barre exercises are followed by variations. Often these variations are practiced either as separate exercises or with the basic exercise for extended combinations.
Barre exercises begin in classical foot positions. In the beginning ballet class, you learn exercises starting in first position and then move to starting in either third position or fifth position (see chapter 5).
Before each exercise you stand in the beginning position and execute a preparation to music. In some cases the preparation is a port de bras, but for some exercises, foot movements accompany the port de bras as part of the preparation. In a beginning ballet class, the preparation may use four or two bars of music before the exercise begins.
Demi-Plié [duh-MEE plee-AY]
Definition
Half bend of the knees
Purpose
- Warms up the hip, knee, and ankle joints
- Increases strength and flexibility of the lower leg
- Applies the principles of alignment, stance, turnout, and weight distribution
Description
To execute a demi-plié, stand in a classical position of the feet. Descend as far as the knees can bend with the entire foot remaining on the floor, then return to the starting position. Perform the demi-plié in first, second, third, fourth, then fifth position.
Maintaining turnout from the hips, bend the knees directly above the second and third toes of each foot. In second position, bend the legs half as much as for a grand plié.
Grand Plié [grahn plee-AY]
Definition
Large bend of the knees
Purpose
- Stretches the muscles of the inner thigh in addition to those of the lower
leg - Applies the principles of alignment, turnout, weight distribution, squareness, and counterpull
Description
First, execute a demi-plié and then descend deeper to where the thighs are parallel to the floor. The heels release from the floor only as necessary on the descent and return as soon as possible on the ascent. Both knees bend and straighten simultaneously.
Performed in all foot positions, the grand plié is a continuous vertical movement, using the same number of measures for the descent and the ascent. The body weight is equally distributed over both legs. As you descend, the body counterpulls upward. On the ascent, the body remains lifted, appearing to float over
the legs.
In second position, the space between the feet varies from one and 1/2 lengths of your foot to shoulder width. In this position you descend until the thighs are parallel to the floor, but the full foot remains on the floor throughout the grand
plié.
Battement Tendu [bat-MAHN than-DEW]
Definition
Stretched beating
Purpose
- Increases flexibility of the ankle
- Develops full extension and proper alignment of the foot with the leg
- Applies principles of alignment, stance, turnout, weight distribution, weight transfer, and squareness
Description
Start in first position at the beginning and later start in third or fifth position. From a full-foot position, brush the working foot along the floor extending through the arch, then the metatarsals, to a fully pointed position. In the pointed position, the tips of the first three toes rest on the floor and the heel is lifted high and forward. On the return path the foot flexes first through the toes, then the metatarsals, the arch, and finally to the full-foot position as it slides back to the closing. Practice battement tendu devant, à la seconde, and then derrière. For the battement tendu à la seconde, slide the working foot to a point that is in line with the great toe
of the supporting foot (Cecchetti method) or in line with the supporting heel
(Russian method).
Battement Tendu With Demi-Plié
[bat-MAHN than-DEW with duh-MEE plee-AY]
Definition
Stretched beating with half bend
Purpose
- Connects two exercises seamlessly
- Coordinates movements of the supporting leg with the working leg (the working leg does the out and in movement, while the supporting leg does the down and up movement)
Description
The battement tendu with demi-plié is two exercises combined. On the return path of the battement tendu, the working and supporting legs execute a demi-plié. Both legs reach the depth of the demi-plié when the working foot reaches the closed position. From the demi-plié, the next battement tendu begins with each leg simultaneously straightening on the extension section ending when the working foot is fully pointed.
Battement Tendu Relevé
[bat-MAHN than-DEW ruhl-VAY]
Definition
Stretched and raised beating
Purpose
- Develops skills in transferring weight from two feet to one foot and back to two feet
- Challenges balance
Description
The battement tendu relevé begins with the extension of the working leg to a point. Shift the weight from the supporting leg to equally on both legs. The working foot accepts the weight through the toes to the full-foot position. To bring the weight back to the supporting leg, it pulls up to accept the weight as the working foot points and brushes back to the beginning position. You can perform battement tendu relevé without or with a demi-plié when the weight shifts to both legs in the full-foot position. After the working foot returns to the pointed position, it brushes back to the beginning position in demi-plié.
Learn more about Beginning Ballet.
Learn the structure and distinct parts of ballet class
Today’s ballet class structure evolved through history absorbing traditions, movement practices, and dance science.
Structure of Ballet Class
Today's ballet class structure evolved through history absorbing traditions, movement practices, and dance science. In a beginning ballet class, dancers learn basic exercises and steps and they perform simple combinations at slow tempos. They gain technique competency, learn movement principles, develop a professional attitude, and become aware of customary practices in a dance studio.
The ballet class is different from a lecture course or another arts class. The ballet class has two distinct parts: the barre and the center. During both parts of the class, dancers follow protocols and rules of etiquette to expedite transitions from one combination to another so that more class time can be spent dancing.
Barre
The barre has two meanings: It is a piece of equipment and it is a portion of the ballet class. A barre is a wooden or metal rail that is either attached to several walls of the studio or is a free-standing, portable structure placed across the studio space. Barre also refers to the series of exercises done at the barre to warm up and strengthen the body as preparation for the second part of class. In today's ballet class dancers often execute a series of pre-barre exercises that warm up the body and prepare them for performing the traditional barre exercises.
Whether you are a novice, experienced, or professional ballet dancer, executing barre is an essential part of ballet class. It prepares you for dancing during the second part of class. It establishes correct placement and it develops core and leg strength, directionality, balance, foot articulation, and weight transfer skills. Barre exercises help you to reconnect with the mind-body aspects of ballet and to deepen and refine your technique. The sequence of the barre exercises may differ depending on your teacher's training or association with a particular school or method of instruction.
Center
Once you have completed the barre exercises, you move to a place in the middle of the studio for the center portion of class. In the center, you learn steps, positions, and poses to gain a basic movement vocabulary of ballet. You repeat exercises from the barre and learn steps that develop into dynamic movement combinations without an outside means of support. In other words, in the center you apply what you learned at the barre and you learn to dance.
Center combinations vary in tempo and include various steps and poses in changing sequences to challenge you.
Parts of the center include the following:
- Center practice of selected exercises from the barre to refine technique, balance, and directionality
- Slow, or adagio, combinations include classical ballet poses, arm and foot positions, steps, and turns
- Fast, or allegro, combinations include small or large jumps, hops, and leaps that are performed either as short combinations moving side to side, front or back, or across the floor
In the beginning ballet class, exercises, steps, and sections of the class are not always introduced in the same order as they appear in a standard ballet class. By the end of the term, the standard barre and center will have emerged.
The teacher may designate groups of three or four dancers to perform combinations in the center so that everyone has space to dance. The first group takes their places in the middle of the studio to begin. The second and additional groups stand and wait their turn at the side or back of the studio. After the first group completes the combination, the musician for dance may perform a vamp or repetition of the music to cue the first group to exit to one side and the second group to take its place. This rotation of groups continues until everyone has executed the combination.
The teacher may have dancers perform combinations across the floor in lines, groups, duets, or solo from side to side in the studio or on the diagonal beginning at a back corner and traveling to the opposite front corner. Dancers in the first group should get about a third to halfway across the floor, which is usually 8 or more measures of music before the second group begins. The time between groups helps to alleviate any collisions and still keep the class moving across the floor.
When crossing the floor in lines parallel to the front of the classroom, it is easy to go to the end of the line so that the combination can start again. When performing the combination on the other side and moving across the floor in the opposite direction in a line or on a diagonal, often the second row of dancers or second group must move forward to lead the combination.
When waiting your turn to execute a combination in the center or across the floor, stand quietly and observe your peers. Most often dancers stand at the side of the studio toward the back. If the teacher permits, you may mark, or physically move through the combination, or mentally review the combinations. Practicing the combination mentally is an effective way to learn movement. While waiting your turn, try visualizing the steps, directions, and other elements of the combination in time to the music.
Révérence
At the end of the traditional ballet class, dancers perform a révérence, a short combination in the center in which men bow and women curtsy, to thank the teacher and the musician for dance, if your class has one, and say good-bye. The ballet class ends with students applauding the teacher and musician for dance.
Cool-Down
Cool-down exercises include slow movements and stretches that allow your body and mind to relax and regain balance before leaving the studio. Slowly stretching your muscles increases flexibility and helps your body recover from the work in class. Teachers determine when or whether to include a cool-down in class. Sometimes they have you perform stretching exercises between the barre and center, either at the barre or on the floor. They may have you cool down after the center either before or after class is officially over, when the body is warm from performing combinations across the floor. If your teacher does not include a cool-down, you may choose to do personal stretching after class before you leave the studio.
Learn more about Beginning Ballet.
The importance of becoming proficient in ballets several languages
Ballet uses several languages with which you must become proficient.
Languages of Ballet
Ballet uses several languages with which you must become proficient. The first language you learn is that of ballet movements. To aid you in learning and remembering the movements, action words describe body actions, or movements of the legs, arms, and head in a sequence, for an exercise, step, or pose. Learning action words is an intermediate step to learning the French language terms of ballet.
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Action Words to French Terms
The teacher uses action words to describe the movement. Saying these words to yourself helps you make a connection to the movement. Then you progress to condensing several actions into an exercise or step. This sequence of movements is represented by a single ballet term for an exercise or step.
When you begin learning ballet, the action words in their sequence cue your movements. Later, you can execute a step or exercise without thinking about each movement, and you can begin to use French ballet terms for the exercises and steps.
Spoken and Written Terminology
Understanding ballet terminology goes beyond translating the movement sequence to recognizing either the spoken or written term. Knowing all these translations comes in handy when it comes to exam time; you may be expected to perform the exercise or step, recognize or write the French ballet term, and know its translation into action terms.
The vocabulary of ballet technique includes positions, exercises, steps, and poses. Although the terminology is expressed in the French language, don't confuse ballet French with the French you learn in a language class. The pronunciation of some terms may not be exactly the same. Because ballet French is spoken all over the world, ballet terminology may have a regional accent or even a different pronunciation depending on where you are.
Learning Ballet Movements
In ballet class students stand quietly and observe while the teacher performs an exercise or combination to music and speaks the action words or ballet terms. Then you execute the movement. Listening and remembering the movement sequence coupled with the action words and their ballet terms help you while practicing the exercise or combination. Learning new ballet movements can be distilled into an easy method: Watch it and hear it, then do it.
Watching
The first step is to watch sequences of movements as the teacher demonstrates them. When you begin to learn ballet, focus on the starting position of the feet, the working leg and its actions, and the directions in which the leg is moving. Later when exercises or steps include arm positions and traveling, you need to view the whole body doing the movement, what each body part is doing in sequence, and where it is in space.
Hearing
While watching the teacher's demonstration, you should also listen to verbal instructions—the cues the teacher uses to describe the movements while executing them. When the music starts, listen to the movement cues spoken in relation to the music. In your beginning practice, the teacher usually cues you just before you start a movement. This is your chance to identify which movement takes place on which count or measure.
As the ballet course progresses, the teacher demonstrates without the action words and instead uses the ballet terminology in rhythm or counts to the music. Near the end of your beginning ballet course, the teacher might say an exercise or combination using ballet terms without including a demonstration of the combination. At this point, you must translate your listening into movement: You have to hear the ballet term, visualize it, and then perform it to the music with the correct rhythm and tempo.
As a beginning dancer, translating the teacher's words into movement is your ultimate goal for learning terminology. While you move from one phase of listening to translating, you likewise gain control of and responsibility for your movement.
Doing
The next step is to do the movement. When learning a new movement sequence, you usually execute the movements slowly without music, then slowly with music, while the teacher guides you from one movement to the next. As you practice the movement sequence, visualize it and say the action words or terms to yourself. Continue to fit the movements in their proper sequence and in time to the music, then practice the movement sequence until you become comfortable with it. Be prepared to make adjustments in order to perform the movement correctly. Remember, at this time you are learning just the basic movement patterns.
During the course, you begin to think about how technique, principles, rules, and other elements will refine your performance of beginning exercises. In ballet, refining your movement is an unceasing process. After you have the movement sequence in mind, practice it so that both sides of the body can initiate it.
As a beginning dancer, make it a goal to absorb most of the movement presented in class. In some classes, some or many of the components are repeated during the next class meeting. This repetition reinforces learning. In ballet, you have to attain a certain level of learning before you can progress to the next level of technique, style, and artistry. Your ability to remember and replicate movement contributes to your progress as a dancer.
Learn more about Beginning Ballet.
Performing a Second Port de Bras and the movement principle for ballet
To perform a second port de bras, begin in preparatory position, or fifth position en bas.
Second Port de Bras
To perform a second port de bras, begin in preparatory position, or fifth position en bas. Raise both arms to fifth position en haut. There, rotate the arms outward and lower them down to second position. Then lift the elbows slightly and float the arms downward, finishing in preparatory position.
The smooth, continuous, coordinated arm movements of the port de bras can complement or counterpoint the leg and foot movements in an exercise or combination.
Practicing first and second port de bras is the basis for incorporating port de bras into the preparation for barre and center work. Later, arm positions are incorporated into the exercises or arms are held in a specific position until the end of the exercise or combination.
Movement Principles for Ballet
Like all dance forms, ballet relies on a set of movement principles. One or more of the principles interface with poses through exercises, steps, and combinations. Movement principles incorporate scientific and aesthetic concepts into ballet technique. Understanding each principle and how to apply it is part of learning ballet technique.
Looking at the movement principles pyramid shown in figure 5.14, begin at the bottom tier. As your technique increases, you move upward from the bottom tier, which includes the basic principles of alignment, turnout, and stance. The second level of the pyramid comprises distribution of weight and transfer of weight. Moving up the pyramid, squareness is the central principle and relates to lift (also known as pull-up) and counterpull. Counterbalance and aplomb form the next level, and although balance is at the tip of the pyramid, it is the movement principle that connects all of the tiers.
http://www.humankinetics.com/AcuCustom/Sitename/DAM/099/62se_Main.png
Alignment
Having proper alignment means having good posture that integrates the dancer's body as a whole—head, torso, arms, and legs. Alignment is both a static and a dynamic movement principle, which means it applies when holding a pose (static) and while the body moves through space (dynamic). Dancers adjust body alignment quickly and with control during exercises and combinations. Once one part the body is out of alignment, other parts compensate, causing misalignment and possible injury. When the body is not aligned it affects all major joints. Learning and practicing good alignment are critical to correct dancing and benefit you both inside and out of class.
http://www.humankinetics.com/AcuCustom/Sitename/DAM/099/63art_Main.png
Turnout
The hallmark of ballet technique is turnout, the outward rotation of the legs and feet that begins in the hip socket. Deep rotator muscles around the hip support the ability of the leg to rotate in the hip socket. Turnout extends from the hip joint through the upper and lower leg and the foot. Muscles of the upper and lower legs and the abdominal muscles are essential to attaining and controlling turnout.
As a beginning dancer, the angle of your turnout should be at natural turnout, which is about 90 degrees, or 45 degrees for each leg. As you practice turnout, your legs and feet gain muscle memory to stand, move, and stop while continuing to maintain the turnout in various positions.
Stance
When you stand or move, the weight of your body is either on both feet or one foot. In classical ballet stance, the weight on both feet should be equally distributed over the foot triangle. Stance has an obvious connection to alignment. Weight distribution and weight transfer interact directly with stance.
Weight Distribution and Weight Transfer
Standing poised and ready to move from two feet to one or from one foot to two initially requires thought behind the movement. You have to know where your weight is (weight distribution; on both feet or one foot) and to where it is going (weight transfer;to the same foot, other foot, or both feet) as you stand or move. Good alignment has a direct connection to weight distribution through the feet. Consequently, weight distribution connects to your turnout, too. Together the principles of weight distribution, transfer, turnout, and alignment link to stance and ultimately to the foot triangle (figure 5.15).
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Squareness
Squareness is the central movement principle in the third tier of the pyramid of principles. In ballet, the torso works as a unit, so the shoulders and hips should be level and face the same direction. Using the squareness principle, the torso is quiet and square, which allows focus on leg movements and their directions or on entire body movements in relation to the dance space (figure 5.16). In the beginning ballet class, you first perform barre exercises facing the barre so that you can understand and practice this principle. In the center, squareness applies to using body directions in relation to the space.
http://www.humankinetics.com/AcuCustom/Sitename/DAM/099/64se2_Main.png
Learn more about Beginning Ballet.
Learning barre exercises in beginning ballet class
The barre exercises presented in this chapter follow the order in which they are performed in the traditional ballet barre.
Barre Exercises
The barre exercises presented in this chapter follow the order in which they are performed in the traditional ballet barre. In the beginning ballet class, the barre exercises may not be taught in this order, but by the end of the term, the barre will contain most of the exercises in this chapter. Different methods of ballet execute the barre exercises in a similar but sometimes different order.
Each barre exercise includes its written pronunciation, definition, purpose, and description. In the web resource that accompanies this book, the ballet term is pronounced in the French language and a video clip presents the exercise. Also included is a self-check list for performing the exercise. Some basic barre exercises are followed by variations. Often these variations are practiced either as separate exercises or with the basic exercise for extended combinations.
Barre exercises begin in classical foot positions. In the beginning ballet class, you learn exercises starting in first position and then move to starting in either third position or fifth position (see chapter 5).
Before each exercise you stand in the beginning position and execute a preparation to music. In some cases the preparation is a port de bras, but for some exercises, foot movements accompany the port de bras as part of the preparation. In a beginning ballet class, the preparation may use four or two bars of music before the exercise begins.
Demi-Plié [duh-MEE plee-AY]
Definition
Half bend of the knees
Purpose
- Warms up the hip, knee, and ankle joints
- Increases strength and flexibility of the lower leg
- Applies the principles of alignment, stance, turnout, and weight distribution
Description
To execute a demi-plié, stand in a classical position of the feet. Descend as far as the knees can bend with the entire foot remaining on the floor, then return to the starting position. Perform the demi-plié in first, second, third, fourth, then fifth position.
Maintaining turnout from the hips, bend the knees directly above the second and third toes of each foot. In second position, bend the legs half as much as for a grand plié.
Grand Plié [grahn plee-AY]
Definition
Large bend of the knees
Purpose
- Stretches the muscles of the inner thigh in addition to those of the lower
leg - Applies the principles of alignment, turnout, weight distribution, squareness, and counterpull
Description
First, execute a demi-plié and then descend deeper to where the thighs are parallel to the floor. The heels release from the floor only as necessary on the descent and return as soon as possible on the ascent. Both knees bend and straighten simultaneously.
Performed in all foot positions, the grand plié is a continuous vertical movement, using the same number of measures for the descent and the ascent. The body weight is equally distributed over both legs. As you descend, the body counterpulls upward. On the ascent, the body remains lifted, appearing to float over
the legs.
In second position, the space between the feet varies from one and 1/2 lengths of your foot to shoulder width. In this position you descend until the thighs are parallel to the floor, but the full foot remains on the floor throughout the grand
plié.
Battement Tendu [bat-MAHN than-DEW]
Definition
Stretched beating
Purpose
- Increases flexibility of the ankle
- Develops full extension and proper alignment of the foot with the leg
- Applies principles of alignment, stance, turnout, weight distribution, weight transfer, and squareness
Description
Start in first position at the beginning and later start in third or fifth position. From a full-foot position, brush the working foot along the floor extending through the arch, then the metatarsals, to a fully pointed position. In the pointed position, the tips of the first three toes rest on the floor and the heel is lifted high and forward. On the return path the foot flexes first through the toes, then the metatarsals, the arch, and finally to the full-foot position as it slides back to the closing. Practice battement tendu devant, à la seconde, and then derrière. For the battement tendu à la seconde, slide the working foot to a point that is in line with the great toe
of the supporting foot (Cecchetti method) or in line with the supporting heel
(Russian method).
Battement Tendu With Demi-Plié
[bat-MAHN than-DEW with duh-MEE plee-AY]
Definition
Stretched beating with half bend
Purpose
- Connects two exercises seamlessly
- Coordinates movements of the supporting leg with the working leg (the working leg does the out and in movement, while the supporting leg does the down and up movement)
Description
The battement tendu with demi-plié is two exercises combined. On the return path of the battement tendu, the working and supporting legs execute a demi-plié. Both legs reach the depth of the demi-plié when the working foot reaches the closed position. From the demi-plié, the next battement tendu begins with each leg simultaneously straightening on the extension section ending when the working foot is fully pointed.
Battement Tendu Relevé
[bat-MAHN than-DEW ruhl-VAY]
Definition
Stretched and raised beating
Purpose
- Develops skills in transferring weight from two feet to one foot and back to two feet
- Challenges balance
Description
The battement tendu relevé begins with the extension of the working leg to a point. Shift the weight from the supporting leg to equally on both legs. The working foot accepts the weight through the toes to the full-foot position. To bring the weight back to the supporting leg, it pulls up to accept the weight as the working foot points and brushes back to the beginning position. You can perform battement tendu relevé without or with a demi-plié when the weight shifts to both legs in the full-foot position. After the working foot returns to the pointed position, it brushes back to the beginning position in demi-plié.
Learn more about Beginning Ballet.