Ballet 101

In honor of our 101st blog (don't worry, this is my last celebratory number based blogs until 200... or so), I wanted to offer some information on ballet basics, Ballet 101, if you will.  For those of you who have little ones in ballet and you see all the prancing and spinning and emulating of 'ballerinas', this may shed some light on why we do the crazy things we do in ballet.  Even if you know all the basics, it can be fun to learn some new facts (which I've also included here, with the help of the site abridgeclub.com)

Ballet 101

Tutus: Tutus may seem like an odd thing.  Why on Earth would dancers don an itchy, fluffy skirt that reached to their ankles to dance in?  Good question.  It was actually to portray the ethereal and light otherwordly beings that the Romantic era dancers were playing.  In ballets like Les Sylphides, choreographers wanted dancers to seem like the were just skimming the floor (hence the development of pointe shoes as well) and convince audiences that they really were from another world.  As ballet plots and technique developed, tutus got shorter to show fancier footwork.  Starting with Balanchine, many choreographers ditched the tutus all together to focus the choreography and the dancers more on pure movement rather than costumes.

An example of the clean (and non-tutu) costumes Balanchine preferred

Turn Out: Rotating the legs outwards to resemble a duck is also a quality that many question about ballet.  What purpose does turn out serve?  Well, besides giving students something to work out (check out this great video from a previous blog), turnout allows dancers to move quicker than if they were working from a parallel position.  In the court of Louis the XIV, not only did men's fashions (in that day, men did the majority of theatre dancing) demand them to use turn out (their wide topped boots forced them to turn their legs out when they moved), but theaters in that day sat audiences only on one side, and dancers could really only move side to side, and were not allowed to turn their backs to the members of the audience.

Barre: A horizontal wooden hand rail that runs around the wall of a ballet studio.

Warm-up: Exercises taken at the barre (and sometimes centre on the floor) to stretch, lengthen and loosen the body and muscles and prepare them for the more intensive dancing in the centre including jumps and turns.

Positions of the feet: First, Second, Third, Fourth and Fifth.  These have been developed and changed over time.  Beginning students usually only work from First, Second and Third.  Fourth and Fifth positions require more control over the turnout muscles, spine and upper body.

Port de bras: Carriage of the arms that coordinate with the positions of the feet.  Positions of the feet and port de bras are the basis for all classical ballet exercises and much choreography.

Plie: An exercise in which, standing erect and with back straight, you move down and up with

 the bend of the knees.

Releve: A movement in which you rise up high on to the balls of your feet. 

Centre: a group of exercises similar to those at the barre but performed in the centre of the room without the support of the barre. 

Arabesque: A position in which you balance on one leg (or bent leg) with the other

stretched out behind you.

Allegro: An Italian musical term meaning quick and lively. In ballet, allegro steps are completed in fast tempo.

Petit Allegro: Small jumping and turning steps.

Grand Allegro: A combination of large traveling steps and jumps.

Curtsey: A movement by the female dancer where she places one foot behind the other and bends both knees that thanks the instructor at the end of a class, or an audience at the end of a performance.

Bow: A movement by the male dancer where he bends from the waist down that thanks the instructor at the end of a class, or an audience at the end of a performance.  Both curtseys and bows can also be referred to as a Reverence.