Pre-Ballet - January 15-19th, 2007

Last week, in Pre-ballet, we began to use third position of the feet. This position is achieved by turning your legs out from the hip - toes to the sides - and placing one heel in front of the other. This is a gentle preparation for fifth position, a more extreme position where the front heel touches the back toe, and the front toe touches the back heel. But that will come later!

In the center we continued to work on tombé from last week. Described in layman's terms this is a small lunge, the leg bearing weight is bent, and the non weight bearing leg is straight. We also worked on our "rocking step," which prepares them for doing balancé in Ballet I.

Across the floor we worked on Triplets. These are done by doing one tombé front and two quick walks on demi-pointe/half-toe. The rhythm is like a waltz: ONE two-three, ONE two-three. Most of my pre-ballet students have had a little trouble with this, so it would be a good thing to practice at home.

We also learned the Fixed Points of the Room, but I am going to put that in a separate post later this evening.

Vocabulary

Third Position (Feet): See above
Tombé: (tawn-BAY) Falling. This is a movement in which the dancer, with the working leg raised in the air, falls forward, backward or sideways into a fondu (bent leg) on the working leg.
Fixed Points of the Room : See upcoming post!