Basic Principles of Classical Ballet (4 page)

This is also true of the work of dancers: their daily exercises and preparation for performances. We must approach exercises as we approach the treatment of an illness. We get orders from a doctor, but the individual knows best how the orders should be carried out.

Professional ailments of the legs are frequent among dancers; they must vary the order of exercises so as to bring the affected spot into working condition with the least discomfort.

Here I think it necessary to say that I fully subscribe to the opinion prevalent among many dancers about the usefulness of work during the summer heat. I urge my pupils not to suspend their daily exercises for the summer. Great improvement can be made during the summer months because our system is ready for work. One does not have to lose time in warming up, the legs are warm, more susceptible, and one can get more benefit from every effort.

From the first year of study and until the end of the career, the daily exercises of the pupil and dancer consist of the same steps. True, at the end of the first year the pupil is not yet doing all the exercises, but even the beginner goes through the movements which will later form part of the full exercises of the dancer.

With the exception of the first year, during which the steps come in a different order, the following succession of exercises should be adhered to. The exercises begin with plié in five positions.

It is not an accident or a silly tradition that we work through plies in the order of positions, i.e., beginning with the 1st position. It is easier to do plié in the 2nd position, if you do it carelessly. But it is easier to teach a correct plié in the 1st position.

When you stand in the 1st position your balance is less firm. You have to make a certain effort to keep to the vertical axis around which the balance of the dancer is built. This forces control of the muscles, not to project the buttocks when squatting. The whole body is better concentrated, the position is correct; there is a foundation for any plié.

All this is much more difficult to achieve in the 2nd position. It is easy to get the pupils used to loosened muscles, while we are striving toward a composed body at the straightening of the legs for an elementary demi-plié.

After plié come battements tendus. The purpose of battements tendus is to produce, from the very lowest grades, a dependable and strong turn-out, so that later, during jumps, the feet will form themselves into a precise, correct 5th position.

It would be too late to offer suggestions and corrections during the study of jumps. The teacher should demand from the very beginning that the feet form the 5th position accurately and solidly. Only then will the correct 5th position become part and parcel of the dancer.

After battements tendus come ronds de jambe par terre, battements fondus, battements frappés, ronds de jambe en l’air, petits battements, développés, grands battements jetés.

All these steps may be combined and elaborated depending on the class, the approach of the teacher, and the method he employs to develop the ligaments, muscles and joints. I only want to point out that in the lower grades the pupil’s time should not be taken up with a variety of combinations.

There is nothing bad about the exercises being tedious in their monotony, although this monotony can be broken by doing the movements in different time, four-four and two-four, so that the pupils do not do them mechanically but follow the music.

In these classes a foundation is laid for the development of the muscles, the elasticity of the ligaments; a basis is instilled for the elementary movements.

All this is accomplished by systematic repetitions of the same movement a great number of times in succession. For example, it is better to do one step eight times in succession than two or four combinations of steps for eight bars. Few, scattered movements will not achieve the aim. The teacher must be absolutely certain that the pupil has mastered the movement, that it becomes part of her and that it will be done correctly in any combination, before he may complicate the lesson without harm to the pupil.

If this is not done, the teacher will get the pupil to understand the movement, but her legs will remain loose, and not a single step will be mastered to the finish.

In a word, if we force on the pupils too much posing instead of technical work on the movements, their development will progress very slowly.

In the intermediate grades combinations are allowed, but they should be gone into very carefully. It should be remembered that these intermediate grades must form the great power which the dancer needs, and which allows her, in the higher grades, to concentrate all her attention on the development of the dance art.

Barre exercises in the higher grades seem to be short in time, but this is an erroneous impression. The same exercises are done every day in the higher grades as in the lower grades. But because of a developed technique they are done in fast tempo and they take, therefore, less time. But they still give the muscles the necessary elasticity.

The exercises in the centre consist of the same steps as at the barre; adagio and allegro being added toward the end.
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I

BASIC CONCEPTIONS
OF
CLASSICAL BALLET

POSITIONS OF THE FEET

THE FIVE fundamental positions of the feet are universally known.

There are five of them because, for turned-out legs, a sixth cannot be found, from which it would be easy and convenient to move. There are reversed positions, with the toe pointing in, intermediate positions, between one position and another; but comfortable positions are limited to five only.

2. Positions of the feet

In the first position, the balls of both feet are completely turned out, the heels touch and the feet form a single straight line. In the second position the balls of both feet are also on one line, but there is a distance of one foot between the heels. In the third position one foot is in front of the other, heels touching the middle of the other foot. The fourth position is similar to the third, the feet being parallel and one short step apart. In the fifth position both feet touch so that the toe of one foot reaches the heel of the other.

PLIÉ

Plié is done in five positions. It is begun with a half-movement, demi-plié, and only after this is fully mastered, the full movement, grand plié, is introduced.

Plié is inherent in all dance movements. It is to be found in every dance pas, and therefore particular attention should be paid to it during exercises. If a dancer lacks plié, her performance is dry, coarse and devoid of plasticity. But if the lack of plié is noticed in a pupil, the shortcoming can be corrected to a certain extent.

People who are naturally endowed with a talent for the dance have a very pliant Achilles tendon, and the leg easily forms an acute angle with the foot. Others have an Achilles tendon that bends with great difficulty.

In such cases it is necessary to begin a struggle with nature, and here we must exercise great caution and consideration. Therefore, if the feet of a pupil who finds it hard to plié should begin to hurt, especially the ligaments, it is best to refrain for the time being from working on her plié, and return to this work later and do it gradually and carefully.

In the study of plié the following rules should be complied with, not forgetting at the same time to distribute the weight of the body equally on both feet. The study of plié should begin at the barre, holding on to it with one hand.

3. Grand plié: a—coorect way; b—incotrect way

At the beginning, demi-plié should be carefully mastered. It is done without lifting the heel from the floor. The teacher should pay particular attention to this fact, as keeping the heel on the floor develops the tendons and ligaments of the ankle-joint.

In demi-plié, as well as in grand plié, it is very important to force the knees wide open, i.e. to turn out the whole leg. Particular attention should be paid to the upper part from the hip to the knee. The knee should always be bent in the direction of the toes. That is so that the knee is over the foot.

In grand plié, keep the heels on the floor as long as possible. When it becomes impossible to stretch the tendons any longer, lift the heels off the floor softly and gradually, never with a pull. The heels should not be kept off the floor for any length of time; begin to raise yourself and lower the heels without any delay.

4. Grand plié in 1st position

In the 2nd position, the heels should not be lifted off the floor, because in this position one can squat deeply without lifting the heels. The feet should be one foot apart. This short distance is most helpful in the development of the pliancy of the legs. In this plié the buttocks should not protrude, as this will give an incorrect form to the movement and will not develop the turn-out of the hips, which is the aim of this plié.

Upon reaching the extreme point of the plié in the down movement, the pupil should not remain there even for a moment, but should immediately begin to straighten up. If a pupil remains “sitting” in a plié, she not only does not improve the energy of the muscular drive and the elasticity of the whole leg, but, on the contrary, the legs—the levers of the jumps—acquire a sluggishness. Dancers call it “setting oneself on one’s feet”.

It is equally dangerous for some pupils to do too great a number of pliés at one time. This, too, can “set one on one’s feet”.

The lowering to the extreme point of the plié should last as long as the rising and should progress gradually.

When plié is done in the centre the following movements of the arms are added:

Before beginning the plié the arms are opened in the 2nd position, through the preparatory and 1st position. At the beginning of the plié the wrists are thrown up and the arms are lowered. When the plié reaches its extreme point the hands are down. Upon rising, the arms are opened through the 1st into the 2nd position as gradually as the legs move, without delay at any point and without haste. Such is the movement of the arms for all positions (except the 4th) when plié is done en face
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When the pupils get acquainted with the directions of épaulement, croisé and effacé, they do plié in 4th position holding the arms in the following positions: if the right foot is front, the left arm is in ist position and the right arm in 2nd. The arms should be left in these positions during the entire plié whether the body is efface or croisé. If the left foot is front, the position of the arms changes accordingly.