Moving Between Ballet Positions

Jerry Gates: Hi! I'm Jodie Gates, professional ballerina, teacher, choreographer and director and I'm teaching you basic ballet. I'm here with my friend Fanni, she's from the Paris Opera Ballet, she has been kind enough to demonstrate our positions. And now that we know the five basic ballet positions, we can learn some standard ways to move between these positions. Ballet class normally begins with plies, to bend the knees. So let's begin today with our left hand on the bar, as we normally would and what we'll do is we'll do a Demi-plié and a Grand plié with one Port de bras, which is a stretch of the body, and then a Relevé which is to lift the heals. We'll do this starting in the first position, then into the second position, we will not do third; we will go directly into the fourth and then the fifth, okay. So Fanni will demonstrate, we're in first position to begin and one Demi-plié and two, and Grand plié, and up, and Port de bras all the way over and to arm is coordinated with the head and Relevé, and lower the heals, Tendu battement to the second. Repeat Demi-plié, slight bend of the knees. Grand plié is a larger bend of the knees. Then Port de bras meaning to bend the body to the side toward the bar up and again Relevé, heals lifted, lower the heals, Tendu battement to the fourth position. Same thing Demi, knees over the toes, and a Grand plié, the arm continues as you lower all the way down, Port de bras, away from the bar. And again, show Relevé, her arms are in fourth, her legs are in fourth. She lowers into the fifth position. Demi, knees over the toes, she is lifted in the hip as she Grand pliés. Cambré to bend the body back, slight arch of the back, up, feet together, tight legs, fifth position with the arms, the feet lifted in the Relevé and she lowers in to fifth. Great Fanni. That's the beginning of every ballet bar, you start with your left hand on the bar, then you turn around, and then again do the same thing with the left foot. Now if we move forward in the ballet class, the next would be a Tendu battement, which is the straight in the leg out and pointing the toes. If she just demonstrates one set of Tendus from the first, she will point the toes, heels lifted to the front line, we called Devant which we learned earlier. Then she'll close back to the first and à la seconde, which is to the side. Tendu and to the first Derrière meaning behind the body, and to the first, and again à la seconde. You can do the same battement Tendu but from the fifth position, and if she was to do it with the arms; she could Tendu again Devant to the fifth, to the side, closing back Derrière, to the fifth and one more à la seconde to the side. Again, every time you would do this type of exercise, starting in the first, then again turn around with left leg and the right hand on the bar. Then you would do the same thing from fifth. Now as you become more intermediate and advanced; you start progressing through the ballet bar and from the battement Tendu, these are things to look forward to. I'll explain now that you go into the Degagé. Degagé is slightly lifted off the floor, so if she does an en cloche, meaning in all directions, Devant to the front, Degagé à la seconde to the side, slightly off the ground, Derrière behind her, and one more à la seconde. If she did that again but faster as we talked about, speed is also important so just a little bit faster, and fifth, and fifth, and into the fifth, and fifth. Now also we have Rond de jambes which is to circle the leg. If you just try one Rond de jambe, en dehors, or en dedans. One to circle the leg; en dedans, to reverse that circle. Then you have Rond de jambe en l'air which is lifted off the floor, and Rond je jambe and she closes. And again, en dedans circle and close. You also have Frappé battement which is to strike the floor, this is to prepare for jumps later on. And En croix frappé would be again Devant front, à la second side, Derrière to strike the floor. Again, everything is repeated to each side. And when I say En croix that is to go front side back side. Now the last, normally the last combination you do at the bar is a dégagé or Grand battement. Grand battement would then finish within Arabesque, so we'll show you Devant, à la seconde, Derrière, Grand battement to toss the leg up to more high. So she will demonstrate front side and back and Devant to the front, and one to the side, and one back, and Arabesque to finish. Arm is forward, Arabesque long hands and the leg is lifted to the back. That is our ballet basics at the ballet bar and then you'll move forward to the center as we spoke about. Either you would wear pointe shoes perhaps which is dancing on your toes in a specific type of shoe. Your move forward to rotations, pirouettes, jumps, and so on. So first thank you Fanni for being a great demonstration. And next, I'll tell you about how to progress from here.