By Jan Rasband

The Art of Ballet

In ballet class, there are two very important things that you need to remember to do

throughout the whole class, no matter what you are doing. These two things are

keeping good posture and turning out.

To have good posture you have to stretch your whole body upwards, as though you are

being pulled up by a string attached to the top of your head. Your need to squeeze

every muscle group in your body and make it reach up towards the sky.

Turning out is a process of making your thigh and hip muscles turn outwards. This is not a natural position to your body, and that is why it takes a long time to master a good turned out position. But with time and hard work, it will become more natural and easy.

Good Posture

Turn out

First Position

Second Position

Third Position

Fourth Position

Fifth Position

There are five basic positions in ballet. When executing any of these positions, you have to make sure that you are turned out. Notice how the

knee’s are facing outwards in each position instead of forward. To be turned out, you need to turn out from your hips, so that your whole leg is turned out. Every step that you perform in ballet will pass through one of

these positions. This is why these five positions are so important.

The number of ways that you can hold your arms in ballet is countless, however there is five basic arm positions in ballet that are most common. When using your arms you need to be sure that you keep you elbows up

and your shoulders pushed down. You also need to remember to keep your whole body pulled up towards the sky, using correct ballet posture.

First Position

Second Position

Third Position

Fourth Position

Fifth Position

When taking a ballet class, you always start by working out at the barre. The first exercise you do at the barre is called plie. Plie means to bend. There are two types of plie – demi plie and grande plie. Demi

plie is a smaller bending of the knees, only bending as far as you

can while keeping your heels on the floor, or just bending half way.

Grande Plie is a large bending of the knees, bending all the way down

and letting your heels come off the floor (except in second position they remain on the floor). A plie can be

executed in all five positions. Remember to keep your turnout, and to squeeze your body tight the whole

time.

Plie

This exercise at the bar is called battement tendu. Tendu means to stretch. This exercise strengthens the feet and the legs, and helps to develop the arched instep of your feet. This step can be executed to the front (devant), to the side (a la seconde), or to the back (derriere). A battement tendu usually begins in either first or fifth

position. You want to slide your leg and foot along the floor, keeping your knees straight, until you toes are fully extended to a full and complete point. You then return you foot, keeping your leg very straight, to your beginning position.

Battement Tendu

Posse Passé means to pass and is a ballet step

that you practice at the bar to learn the correct position. This step however is executed in many different steps that you would perform in the middle of the floor. The passé position is used in many ballet steps such as pirouette turns and pique turns. When executing passé the most important thing you need to remember is

to keep your knee turned out. You also need to keep your hip bones straight, not letting one lift up higher than the other.

Pirouette Turn

Pique Turns

Eleve

Releve

Eleve and releve are two different types of balancing steps. You practice these steps at the bar to find your center and to make sure that you have the correct posture. Balancing is a very important aspect because everything you do in the center of the floor requires you to be able to hold your body correctly and balance your self.

Eleve means to rise, and you can rise in every position. Releve on the other hand, means to re-rise. Releve always begins with a demi plie, and you use the power from your plie to rise up as high as you can.

Stretching

Stretching is a vital part of any exercise program. What stretching does is allow you to achieve your best

performance. It will also extend your performance years, by helping you to avoid long term muscle strains. Muscles that are stretched properly and consistently are more flexible and

therefore are less prone to injury. Think of stretching as a way to train your body, but do not force your body to go

beyond what it is capable of doing.

First

Arabesque

Second

Arabesque

Third

Arabesque

An arabesque is a basic pose in ballet. It is a position of the body in which you are standing on one leg with the other leg extended behind you. Your extended leg can either be on the floor, at a 45 degree angle or at a 90 degree angle. There are three basic arm positions for arabesque. In

first arabesque you have the same arm forward as your standing leg and the same arm back as your

extended leg. In second arabesque you have the opposite arm and leg forward. In third arabesque you have both arms in the front of you with the arm closest to the audience straight out from your shoulder and your back arm extended upward from your shoulder.

Pas de Chat

Pas de chat means step of the cat and it is a jumping step. Starting in demi plie, in 5th position, you bring one leg up to passé and while you are in the air, you switch legs and end up back where you started. Remember to use

Pas de Bouree

your plie to get up in the air.

Pas de Bouree is a three part step that you use in preparation to many ballet steps. When executing a pas de bouree, you always want to think of your steps as going back - side - front. If you always say this to yourself, then it is less confusing when you try to turn this step.

Reverance

The end of every ballet class usually ends with reverance. Reverance is lead by the teacher, and is a way to end the class and thank the teacher for the hard work that he or she did. After the reverance the class usually claps for the teacher, to show respect and appreciation.

If you have a live pianist in your class room, you would also thank them.

Another place you will want to execute reverance is after a performance, to thank your audience for coming out to support the art of ballet.

Reference

Rachel Boyd

Rebekah Mees

Connie Sanchez

Kelsey Burford

http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.mariinsky.ru/lib/ballet/ballet.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.mariinsky.ru/ru/ballet&h=206&w=300&sz=5&tbnid=oW580U23EQ4J

Rachel Boyd is 17 years old and has been dancing for 2 years. She dances at several different dance studios in Albuquerque and is an advanced dancer at the All

Star Dance Academy. She also a member of the Top Hat Entertainment Company.

Rebekah Mees is 15 years old and has been dancing for 9 years. She is an advanced dancer at the All Star Dance Academy and is a member of the junior company at the New Mexico Ballet Company.

Kelsey Burford is 14 years old and has been dancing for 4 years. She is an advanced dancer at All Star Dance Academy and loves to show off her balance and coordination on the basketball court.

Connie Sanchez is 14 years old and has been dancing for 3 ½ years. Connie used to dance at the All Star Dance Academy and is now with Ballet Theatre of the

Southwest. She is also a member of the junior company at the New Mexico Ballet Company