Year One Lesson 3 Center: Focusing on keeping turnout with rond de jambes. Working on graceful port de bras including my head movements. Have switched from a fifth to third. <-- Those were my notes in between movements. Regarding the last one, I've been reading here and there that if you don't have a full fifth position, you can instead substitute it for third to get cleaner lines. So I was trying that today.
The one thing I really have trouble with on that class is the battement tendu jete. This is what they look like done slow, but in this class, the music is fast, and we do a battement tendu jete on each count. This is supposed to be a center exercise, but due to how fast the movements are, I find it very hard to balance. So I hold onto my barre while doing it (and STILL have trouble, especially with getting any kind of articulation of the movement going!)
Year One Lesson 5 Barre: This is the second time I've done this class all the way through. I LOVE IT. The beginning starts off dull, routine. Both times, after about three exercises (both sides), I'm bored and about to switch to something else. And then, suddenly, the rest of the exercises are fun and/or challenging (yet not overly so).
I think my current favorite exercise is what Tamra says is preparation for a rond de jambe. I think one of the reasons I like it is because it incorporates the arms, and it all feels very fluid and "ballet-like" to me. It starts in first, no preparation. 1) Plie in first, hand at waist (uh, first? still learning arms). 2) Still in plie, tendu to the front, arm/hand extend straight out in front. 3) While rising from plie, rond de jamb (move in a circular motion) to second while hand moves out and around with the foot to second position. 4) Close foot back to first, arm stays where it was in 3, then when you go back to number one, swoop the arm down to first. So there's a lot of arm swooping with rounded, circular leg movements.
After doing that for a few counts, it reverses. 1) Plie in first. 2) Plie still with tendu to the back. 3) Straighten body with rond de jambe from the back to second. 4) Close to first. But with all of this, the arms are doing what they were doing with the first movements, so now instead of the arm following the leg, it's going in opposition, then rounding out to meet in second.
(Note: It really helps me learn and remember things when I write it out and/or teach it to someone else. So I may be doing that some on this blog.)
Anyway, here is how what I just described looks like in motion.
After that comes full rond de jambes, starting with tendus from front, side back, close followed by the rond de jambes front. Then it goes backwards. After those exercises, fondus. I haven't liked them so much in the past, but in this video I enjoy those a lot more. A tendu is when you are in one of the positions (usually first or fifth), then you push the foot out in front of you (pushing with the heel) until the foot can't move out flat anymore and it keeps going while the foot eventually fully points, while the toes (at least the outer toes) are still on the ground.
Since you're supposed to be turned out all the time, when doing a tendu, ideally the top of the foot and the knee are pointed all the way out, i.e., if you're doing a tendu with the right foot, the top of the foot and kneecap should be facing the right wall due to outward hip rotation. And the tendu can be done a la seconde (second position), with the leg and foot to the side (top of foot and knee facing up or even behind), or it can be done in the back, with the top of the foot and knee ideally pointing towards that right wall (if right foot) or beyond.
A fondu is pretty much the same thing (although I'm sure there are a number of variations), but (in this particular class) it's like a tendu in the air. (Honestly, I could have avoided all of that and said it's basically sticking a pointed foot out in front of you. Or a flexed foot.) There are different ways to start it, but today: 1) plie, bring right flexed foot (knees always turned out!) up to lower calf muscle, 2) leg straightens out, foot points, both in the air. Repeat.
Both the tendu and the fondu can be done to the front, side, or back!
The other exercise I'm having fun with- I don't know what it's called. 1) First position. Plie. 2) Releve (rise up on the toes). Repeat, the on the 7th and 8th count, tendu to second, again, tendu to fourth, again, tendu to fifth, again, end with bringing feet in fifth on releve closer together, find your balance letting go of the barre, hold. (There's some sort of ending, but I just hold then lower down.) But the music is fairly fast, so it's bend down, bounce up, bend down, bounce up, and it just seems like a really "happy" movement to me. The first time I did it I really got into it and kinda felt like Pinkie Pie. (I never watch non-adult cartoons... until I discovered My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic!)
And finally, we end with one that I am pleased to say I have almost nailed: the pas de bourrée. (Click on the link to see what it's supposed to look like.) It means something like drunken walk or such. I can't even begin to describe it, but it's the most complex movement I think I've done so far, and like I said, I almost have it down! (Click here to see how we are ideally doing it/the way I nearly have down.) I think I'll end this post here- I have one more exciting thing to post.
The one thing I really have trouble with on that class is the battement tendu jete. This is what they look like done slow, but in this class, the music is fast, and we do a battement tendu jete on each count. This is supposed to be a center exercise, but due to how fast the movements are, I find it very hard to balance. So I hold onto my barre while doing it (and STILL have trouble, especially with getting any kind of articulation of the movement going!)
Year One Lesson 5 Barre: This is the second time I've done this class all the way through. I LOVE IT. The beginning starts off dull, routine. Both times, after about three exercises (both sides), I'm bored and about to switch to something else. And then, suddenly, the rest of the exercises are fun and/or challenging (yet not overly so).
I think my current favorite exercise is what Tamra says is preparation for a rond de jambe. I think one of the reasons I like it is because it incorporates the arms, and it all feels very fluid and "ballet-like" to me. It starts in first, no preparation. 1) Plie in first, hand at waist (uh, first? still learning arms). 2) Still in plie, tendu to the front, arm/hand extend straight out in front. 3) While rising from plie, rond de jamb (move in a circular motion) to second while hand moves out and around with the foot to second position. 4) Close foot back to first, arm stays where it was in 3, then when you go back to number one, swoop the arm down to first. So there's a lot of arm swooping with rounded, circular leg movements.
After doing that for a few counts, it reverses. 1) Plie in first. 2) Plie still with tendu to the back. 3) Straighten body with rond de jambe from the back to second. 4) Close to first. But with all of this, the arms are doing what they were doing with the first movements, so now instead of the arm following the leg, it's going in opposition, then rounding out to meet in second.
(Note: It really helps me learn and remember things when I write it out and/or teach it to someone else. So I may be doing that some on this blog.)
Anyway, here is how what I just described looks like in motion.
After that comes full rond de jambes, starting with tendus from front, side back, close followed by the rond de jambes front. Then it goes backwards. After those exercises, fondus. I haven't liked them so much in the past, but in this video I enjoy those a lot more. A tendu is when you are in one of the positions (usually first or fifth), then you push the foot out in front of you (pushing with the heel) until the foot can't move out flat anymore and it keeps going while the foot eventually fully points, while the toes (at least the outer toes) are still on the ground.
Since you're supposed to be turned out all the time, when doing a tendu, ideally the top of the foot and the knee are pointed all the way out, i.e., if you're doing a tendu with the right foot, the top of the foot and kneecap should be facing the right wall due to outward hip rotation. And the tendu can be done a la seconde (second position), with the leg and foot to the side (top of foot and knee facing up or even behind), or it can be done in the back, with the top of the foot and knee ideally pointing towards that right wall (if right foot) or beyond.
A fondu is pretty much the same thing (although I'm sure there are a number of variations), but (in this particular class) it's like a tendu in the air. (Honestly, I could have avoided all of that and said it's basically sticking a pointed foot out in front of you. Or a flexed foot.) There are different ways to start it, but today: 1) plie, bring right flexed foot (knees always turned out!) up to lower calf muscle, 2) leg straightens out, foot points, both in the air. Repeat.
Both the tendu and the fondu can be done to the front, side, or back!
The other exercise I'm having fun with- I don't know what it's called. 1) First position. Plie. 2) Releve (rise up on the toes). Repeat, the on the 7th and 8th count, tendu to second, again, tendu to fourth, again, tendu to fifth, again, end with bringing feet in fifth on releve closer together, find your balance letting go of the barre, hold. (There's some sort of ending, but I just hold then lower down.) But the music is fairly fast, so it's bend down, bounce up, bend down, bounce up, and it just seems like a really "happy" movement to me. The first time I did it I really got into it and kinda felt like Pinkie Pie. (I never watch non-adult cartoons... until I discovered My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic!)
And finally, we end with one that I am pleased to say I have almost nailed: the pas de bourrée. (Click on the link to see what it's supposed to look like.) It means something like drunken walk or such. I can't even begin to describe it, but it's the most complex movement I think I've done so far, and like I said, I almost have it down! (Click here to see how we are ideally doing it/the way I nearly have down.) I think I'll end this post here- I have one more exciting thing to post.
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