Terminology
Estelle Souche
> This is a.a.BALLET! I think we shouldn't allow inappropriate use of
> terminology to pass unremarked on...what's being referred to as
> Oksana Baiul's "Faux-Pas de Bourre" is *not* "false steps that are small".
> In all the routine/variations that I've seen her perform...she does perform
> a "faux-bourre"...or as I like to call them "bourre on blades". Not a Pas
> de Bourre to be seen. I think that some posters like to link "Faux Pas"
> with "Pas de Bourre" creating a new and imprecise term.
Just curious: it's spelled "bourre" in english? In French I think
it's "bourre'e" (from a folk dance, I think.)
Estelle.
Edmond Chibeau
I don't think there is such a thing as english spelling of ballet terms.
It was probably just a typo. Most ballet classes never spell out the
name of the steps, and most ballet teachers do not speak french with
a flawless accent. I think many of us spell the steps phonetically
in our mind's eye until we get around to looking the spelling up...
sometimes never. Gail Grant wrote a Technical Manual and Dictionary
of Classical Ballet that many of us rely on to check the spelling of
steps. She spells boure'e as you do, if that apostrophe is an accent.
To my surprise she doesn't list bourre'e by itself, as it is used
in class to describe that hovering pointe step, only with the "pas de"
in front of it.
Amy Reusch
Dance Videographer
c/o Edmond Chibeau
Northwestern University, Evanston, IL. USA
chi...@casbah.acns.nwu.edu
Estelle Souche
> Just curious: it's spelled "bourre" in english? In French I think
> >it's "bourre'e" (from a folk dance, I think.)
> >
>
> It was probably just a typo. Most ballet classes never spell out the
> name of the steps, and most ballet teachers do not speak french with
> a flawless accent. I think many of us spell the steps phonetically
> in our mind's eye until we get around to looking the spelling up...
> sometimes never. Gail Grant wrote a Technical Manual and Dictionary
> of Classical Ballet that many of us rely on to check the spelling of
> steps. She spells boure'e as you do, if that apostrophe is an accent.
> To my surprise she doesn't list bourre'e by itself, as it is used
> in class to describe that hovering pointe step, only with the "pas de"
> in front of it.
>
> Amy Reusch
> Dance Videographer
> c/o Edmond Chibeau
> Northwestern University, Evanston, IL. USA
> chi...@casbah.acns.nwu.edu
The apostrophe is an accent indeed (international standards condamn us
to write a handicapped French... ;-)) I am not a dancer and have never
taken ballet lessons, I am very much ignorant concerning ballet
technique, but I have always seen it (or heard it- by a little cousin
of mine who practices dance) as "pas de bourre'e" (and not "bourre'e"
alone)
I remember of reading an article by Jacqueline Rayet (former etoile
and ballet master at the Paris Opera Ballet) about a book about
the Vaganova technique, in which she said that though they use
French too for ballet, some words are not used with the same meaning in
Russia and in France (but I don't remember the examples she gave)
I thought it was an interesting phenomeneon.
Estelle.
PS: funny to see that French is the international language only
for "frivolous" things... Ballet, fencing, cooking...
Edmond Chibeau
<snip>
>PS: funny to see that French is the international language only
>for "frivolous" things... Ballet, fencing, cooking...
>
.... and of course fashion.
Well, Napolean's & Louis' empire may have receded, English may
have supplanted it as the language of business & diplomacy,
but apparently the art world still bows respectfully to its
French influence! I prefer art to business & politics anyway!