Ballet Theory Book
Nancy Benigar
Thus far, I have explored Plier/to bend, Sauter/to jump, Glisser/to glide, and lancer/to dart in blog articles, videos, and podcasts, and created a Playlist on YouTube about the 7 Movements to support learning about ballet technique, theory, and practice. Soon to come will be more resources on rising, turning, putting it all together, and more!
As we sequentially build dance movements in class, we discover and expand our limits with great care. Similarly in yoga, we are mindful of what state the body and mind are in today, and follow a logical progression to avoid over-stepping; such a haphazard or sloppy approach could lead to injury and ultimately slow our progress.
The stickiness, friction, and resistance of the sliding of the foot against the floor builds muscle tone, control, strength of the entire legs, pliability and articulation of the feet and ankles, and awareness of how to stand with stability and balance. We learn to slide across the floor, carrying one leg through space in axial movements. Later in class we perform similar motions, but take the whole body with the leg through space (locomotor movement), and tendu provides essential practice for larger traveling and jumping movements.
Tendu can take on different qualities depending on energy and attack, but the constants are stretched knees, weight on one standing leg, and the other foot sliding along the floor. I find a number of images helpful in capturing that tendu feeling, such as:
Tendu is a critical component of a full ballet barre training, so I invite you to try out tendus in combination with warmups such as Planking Pleasures, Kicky Kicks, Powerful Plies, Plush Paralleleves, and Saucy Prances & Sautes for a short, effective, and fun exercise program for dance.
DISCLAIMER: A Blythe Coach recommends that you consult your physician regarding the applicability of any recommendations and follow all safety instructions before beginning any exercise program. When participating in any exercise or exercise program, there is the possibility of physical injury. If you engage in this exercise or exercise program, you agree that you do so at your own risk, are voluntarily participating in these activities, assume all risk of injury to yourself.
Although the Waltz has become a beloved ballroom and social dance as well as inspiration for balletic movement performed in concert dance, at first it caused a scandal. As Wikipedia relates:
There are many references to a sliding or gliding dance that would evolve into the waltz that date from 16th century Europe, [and] Around 1750, the peasants of Bavaria, Tyrol, and Styria began dancing a dance called Walzer, a dance for couples. The Lndler, also known as the Schleifer, a country dance in 34 time, was popular in Bohemia, Austria, and Bavaria, and spread from the countryside to the suburbs of the city. While the eighteenth century upper classes continued to dance the minuets (such as those by Mozart, Haydn and Handel), bored noblemen slipped away to the balls of their servants.
Join us for a fun and informative afternoon with hair buns, hair pins, and hair spray! Our ballet staff and Centre students will provide a hands-on opportunity for families to perfect their bun techniques. We will offer guidance for multiple textures, protective styles, and short styles. Each participant must bring their own hair brush, tools, and supplies. This is a complimentary event and is open to the public.
All students will be required to supply their own make-up for performances. Students must wear foundation, eyeliner, eye shadow, blush, and lipstick. Look for more details on your Dance Studio Portal.
When they are of an appropriate age and level, students will be assessed for their readiness for pointe shoes. A student must be conscientious, serious, and physically strong before actually going on the toes or damage can be done to the body. Students must also be taking multiple ballet classes each week to be eligible.
"If one presumes that one of the goals of becoming a conductor is to deepen your interpretation of the repertory," said James DePreist, the director of conducting and orchestral studies at the Juilliard School, "conducting for ballet does not do that, because it's about suiting the dance and the demands of the choreographer." [1]
As a ballet conductor, you need to hone a technique that allows you make changes, sometimes drastic ones, without confusing the orchestra. That requires a special set of skills because the orchestra has to be able to react immediately. [3]
"Generally in the profession it's safe to say that there has been and continues to be a general bias against conducting for dance," Mr. DePreist said. "You might have a reputation as a highly skilled musician, but the fact that you are not able to exercise your creativity counts negatively against you, and the industry has frowned upon conductors who have begun in ballet trying to make a transition to the concert stage." [1]
Orchestral music and opera have much larger audiences than dance, attracting far more money from philanthropic sources, performances, recordings and videos or DVD's. As a result ballet companies, always short of cash, are unlikely to provide union contracts and musicians' salaries comparable to those offered by opera companies or orchestras. [1]
For most orchestral concerts the conductor is "top dog". He gets the lions share of the applause (often rightly so as he has made the performance what it is) and most of the credit. When there is a soloist - for a concerto say - then that balance shifts, slightly, towards the soloist but ususally that is only for a part of a traditional concert and the rest of the programme all belongs to the conductor. The solost may also help the programme in general by attracting more audience members.
I consider the same to be true of opera. The director and the conductor are again lauded as top dogs. People will be attracted by big-name singers but the final plaudits will almost always be for the conductor (perhaps with the director) at the end.
But ballet appears to be different. The music is a supporting component of the spectacle which is all about the movement on-stage. Yes there is applause for the musicians and the conductor but thats more of the polite variety. The audience assesses the performance almost entirely on the on-stage action rather than the musical refinement. I'm not saying that this is fair, I'm just saying that is how it looks to me.
My mother was a ballet dancer and said that on one occasion the conductor was Thomas Beecham. She told me it was terrible - he only cared for the music and wasn't interested in the fact that dancers are constrained by things like gravity and mass.
And that's the problem with ballet - the conductor is effectively just there to keep the orchestra in time with the dancers, and to h*ll with the music. Some ballet companies use pre-recorded music, and I've no idea how they manage if things go slightly wrong on the stage.
First, conductors do program suites, excepts, and sometimes full acts from ballets in orchestra concerts. These are from scores of composers who are considered to have written "the best" ballets, e.g., Ravel, Prokofiev, Tchaikovsky, etc. Keep in mind that full ballets are long. So when you say "conduct ballet," we should distinguish ballet music alone from fully staged ballets with dancers.
Ballet goers of course love the music, but focus on the dancing. There are lots of rehearsals and ballet conductors need to accommodate the dancers to a great extent. It's a skill unto itself, like conducting opera.
The top conductors are in great demand and I'm sure enjoy (and deserve) the big fees and being seen by the audience on the podium. Given a choice, I'm sure they would take conducting opera over ballet.
The repertory of good and great ballets is not huge. You can see this in the ballets that the major companies schedule -- lots of chestnuts, repeated. Some pretty good ballets do have some, shall we say, less interesting parts that don't stand on their own very well without the dance.
A top-notch conductor would want to lead a first-class ballets companies and first-class ballet orchestras. There are not that many of them. Also, ballets seasons tend to be short, for example, tacked onto the end of opera season at the same venue, so less oportunities.
You can program opera aria and even complete scenes for orchestra concerts with guest singers. A "guest ballet dancer" at an orchestral concert won't work -- for one thing, there's no room to dance! We have full concert performances of opera, but full ballets without dance are a rarity.
One of the basic poses in ballet, arabesque takes its name from a form of Moorish ornament. In ballet it is a position of the body, in profile, supported on one leg, which can be straight or demi-pli, with the other leg extended behind and at right angles to it, and the arms held in various harmonious positions creating the longest possible line from the fingertips to the toes. The shoulders must be held square to the line of direction. The forms of arabesque are varied to infinity. The Cecchetti method uses five principal arabesques; the Russian School (Vaganova), four; and the French School, two. Arabesques are generally used to conclude a phrase of steps, both in the slow movements of adagio and the brisk, gay movements of allgro.
Assembled or joined together. A step in which the working foot slides well along the ground before being swept into the air. As the foot goes into the air the dancer pushes off the floor with the supporting leg, extending the toes. Both legs come to the ground simultaneously in the fifth position. If an assembl is port it requires a preparatory step such as a glissade to precede it. If an assembl is en tournant it must be preceded by a preparatory step. Assembls are done petit or grand according to the height of the battement and are executed dessus, dessous, devant, derrire, en avant, en arrire and en tournant. They may be done en face, crois, effac or cart. Assembl may also be done with a beat for greater brilliance. In the Cecchetti assembl both knees are bent and drawn up after the battement so that the flat of the toes of both feet meet while the body is in the air.
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