Final Study Guide Flashcards
Demi-plié
Half - bend of the legs
Grand plié
Big bend of the legs
port de bras
carriage of the arms
Battement tendu
Held stretched beat, slow from 1st position
Battement tendu
Faster usually from 3rd or 5th position
Battement dégagé
Disengaged beat, also called battement tendu jeté literally, “thrown stretched beat, from first and/or 5th position
Rond de jambe à terre
leg circles on the floor
En dehors
Outside, away from the working leg
En dedans
Inside, toward the working leg
Battement frappé
Struck beat
Petit battement sur le coup de pied
Little beating on the neck of the foot
Rond de jambe en l’air
Leg circle in the air sometimes with grand rond de jambe
Pas de cheval
Literally, “horse step”
Temps développé
Unfolding step
Battement fondu
Melted beat
Grand battement
Big beating
Relevés
Rising up on ½ or ¾ pointe can be included in any of these exercises
Sous-sus
Under-over, a tightly closed 5th position in relevé, is introduced at the barre and used in many ways in the center floor and across the floor
Soutenu
Sustained turns, a pivot turn in relevé that can be done at the barre or across the floor, rotating 180 or 360 degrees.
Détourné
A half soutenu turn that changes from one facing to the other. (“turned away”). This is usually an outside half-turn toward the back leg that reverses from one 5th position of the feet to the other.
Battement en balançoire
Like a seesaw or a swing is a swinging back-and-forth motion of the entire leg at any height, with a straight working leg or en attitude (in attitude position of the working leg,
with a bent knee).
battement en cloche
see above
battement balancé
see above
pas
steps
battement
beat or beating
temps
time
temps lié
linked time
Adagio
Literally, “slow” in Italian, a word borrowed from musical notation; sometimes the French equivalent, adage, is used: Slow, smoothly connected (legato) movement phrases, with a focus on balances and extensions (battement développé), variations on the arabesque and attitude positions, other big leg movements such as grand rond de jambe, promenades (slow pivot turns
on a flat foot), slow single pirouettes, etc. Adagio exercises develop strength, balance, fluidity, and line. (In choreography for the theater, adagio phrases or sections of a ballet are a crucial part of
ballet’s expressiveness. In traditional narrative ballets, story and character points and emotions such as sorrow, enchantment, regret, foreboding, and so on are often rendered through adagio movement.)
Center barre
Variations of barre exercises, usually in condensed form, that focus on executing the basic ballet movements developed at the barre but with the added challenge of balancing without support. The most common center barre exercises are plié and battement tendu.
Pirouettes
Turns literally, “whirl” or “spin.” There are many kinds of pirouettes, including
pirouettes in arabesque and attitude positions, and with a bent knee of the supporting leg (en fondu).
Pirouette en dehors
Outside, The pirouette is executed by turning away from the supporting leg and toward the working leg. If the turn is made on the left foot, the turn will be toward the right side, with the right leg in retiré position.
Pirouette en dedans
Inside, The pirouette is executed by turning toward the supporting leg and away from the working leg. If the turn is made on the right foot, the turn will be toward the right with the left leg in retiré position.
ballon
a light, elastic takeoff and a soft, quiet landing. The term is usually heard as a term of praise “She has so much ballon in her jetés!”
Petit allegro
Little fast: small, fast jumps usually done in the center floor without much traveling
Grand allegro
Big fast: big traveling jumps done across the floor, usually on the diagonal
Soubresaut
Sudden jump, A simple jump taking off from and landing in the same position of the feet (usually 5th ); the jump can also travel, usually forward or back.
Changement de pieds
Change of the feet, Usually abbreviated to changements. Jumps with both feet landing in alternating 5th positions.
Échappé sauté
Usually abbreviated to échappés (“ay-shap-ayz” in English). The most common forms of this jump are jumps from 1st or 5th position to 2nd or 4th position and back again.
Jeté
Petit jeté (small leap)
Grand jeté (big leap)
Temps levé
(literally, “lifted/raised time”), a hop on one foot with the working/free leg in any position; this term is largely a synonym of sauté, but is often used to name a small hop made at the beginning of a grand allegro phrase.
Sauté
(literally, “jumped”). Strictly speaking, this word is an adjective applied to nouns that describe positions created in the air. For example, an arabesque sauté is a jump that takes off and lands in arabesque position. In “ballet English,” we often call such jumps sautés (soh-tayz). They are hops on one foot, with the working/free leg usually in arabesque, attitude, or retiré.
Assemblé
Jumps that take off from one foot and land on both foot
Sissonne
Jumps that take off from both feet and land one one foot
Sissonne ouverte (open), landing without closing both feet in 5th position
Sissonne fermée (closed), landing on the leading foot and immediately closing the
trailing foot in 5th position
Sissonne simple (simple), landing with one foot sur le coup de pied, either in front or
behind
Retiré
Pulled up/in: With the thigh lifted fully to the side (à la seconde); the toe of the fully
pointed working foot touches the leg in front the notch just above the kneecap. In retiré derrière (in the back, behind), the toe of the working foot touches the back of knee, and sometimes crosses the standing let slightly. Today, the term retiré is often confused with passé—so much so that some North American teachers hardly ever say retiré at all. Strictly speaking, passé refers not to the retiré action or position but to the action of passing the toe through the retiré position.
Arabesque:
with the working leg extended behind the body, at any height
Three variations on this position to know are:
Arabesque allongé (lengthened)
Arabesque penché (leaning, bending down)
Arabesque voyagé (traveling: in fact, hopping forward or backward)
Attitude:
with the working leg bent at the knee; in classical dancing, this term refers only to
attitude devant (“in front”) or attitude derrière (“in back”). Modern ballet borrowed an attitude de côté/à la seconde (“to the side”) from modern dance early in the 20th century.
en bas
“low” (just in front of the thighs)
en avant
“in front,” at mid-chest level middle (opposite the lower edge of the
breastbone)
en haut
“high” (overhead), also called en couronne (like a crown”)
first port de bras:
a circling path of the arms below shoulder height
second port de bras:
a circling path of the arms that rises through high fifth position overhead. Usually, these ports de bras are initiated with a downward action toward the body’s centerline; when executed by lifting the arms upward or inward toward the centerline, the port de bras is said to be
reversed.
en croix:
This term (literally, “in a cross,” pronounced “ah[n] krwah”) defines movements of the working leg repeated (especially at the barre) in a cross shape, in the following pattern: to the front, to the side, to the back, and usually again to the side. Variations of this pattern can begin to the side or back, but all must
include all three directions of the leg movement. Note that the word croisé (“crossed,” pronounced “krwah-zay”) means something different (see below); both words do share the same root in Latin.
à la seconde:
to the side [also called de côté]
en avant:
to/toward the front] In North America, most ballet professionals just use the English term, “to
the front.”
en arrière:
to/toward the back] In North America, most ballet professionals just use the English term, “to
the back.”
Glissade en avant
(“to the front”) travels forward, beginning and ending in the same 5 th position. E.g., start in 5th position, R foot front, leap forward and close in 5th position with the R foot still in front.
Glissade devant
(“in front”—meaning that the starting foot stays in front) travels to the front-foot side, also beginning and ending in the same 5th position. E.g., start in 5th position, R foot front, leap to the right and close in 5th position with the R foot still in front.
Glissade dessous
(“over”) travels to the front-foot side and changes from one 5 th position to the other, so that the front foot finishes in back. E.g., start in 5th position, R foot front, leap to the right and close in 5th position with the R foot in back.
de face:
Standing facing directly front (with either foot in front if the feet are in 5th position). [Facing de face is the same as facing devant.]
croisé:
(literally, “crossed”): This term is the opposite of: effacé
effacé
Literally, “erased,” “shaded”, also called ouvert (literally “open”) These two terms are most easily defined by example: A dancer facing on the diagonal toward the
downstage left corner of the stage or studio, with the right leg extended to the front, or with the left leg extended behind, is in a croisé position, because the legs look crossed from the king’s seat in the center of the audience, the one with the best view. With the left leg extended to the front, or with the right leg extended behind, the dancer is in an effacé position.
écarté
Literally, “spread open/apart: This term refers only to movements and poses in which the working leg is extended to the side of the dancer’s body and aiming on a diagonal.
en dehors:
Turning in the direction away from the supporting leg
en dedans:
Turning in the direction toward the supporting leg
Plier
(to bend)
Relever
(to raise or rise)
Tourner
(to turn)
Étendre
(to stretch)
Glisser
(to glide or slide)
Sauter
(to jump)
Élancer
(to dart)
