Arabesque

[Victoria Leigh]

Young Dancers, please visit the page I have linked below, and look at the two photos in the middle of the four photos. Click on one at a time to bring it up as the larger photo. Study these two supposed arabesques, and tell me what you see. One is an arabesque, IMO, and the other is not. Why? Yes, this is a test! ;)

 

http://www.yagp.org/eng/gallery.asp?setnum...=1&galname=2003

[Guest ChattaBox3456]

Is it because her hip is way up in the first picture? So that makes the SECOND picture correct?

 

-Caitie:confused:

[Victoria Leigh]

That's part of it, Caitie. But there is more. I will wait for other responses.

[Guest Medora]

Her hip is up, her leg looks turned in after the knee, I don't think her leg is all the way behind her, her foot lookes sickled, she looks sort of back on her leg, not all the way over her pointe shoe. It's a flash and trash, ugly arabesque, yuck!

[Guest Dancergal92]

It looks as if the second arabesque is more correct that the first one, because of her hip being raised. The first arabesque looks as if it is a develope a la seconde with her upper body turned to the side.

[Guest delightfuldancer16]

I think the second photo is an arabesque because the other photo her leg is not turned out and her arms are not in the correst position.

[Petite_Arabesque]

It's...."alabesque"--half arabesque, halfway towards a la second. Also, her arm is intersecting her leg, which cuts the line. It's really not a nice arabesque at all; the second one is beautiful though.

 

~*~Carmen~*~

[Victoria Leigh]

Thank you, Petite_Arabesque, that is what I was looking for. "Alabesque". It's not an arabesque at all. PLUS, the supporting leg is not turned out, and basically there is just NO LINE. That was the other thing I was hoping to hear. NO LINE. Everything about it is wrong. It's about extension and that's all. Extension without placement, rotation, and LINE is totally useless!

[skip]

i'm not supposed to reply here, but to start a new topic on the 16-22 sounds a little funny to me.

 

i was also looking at the pictures. too late to give my answers of what was wrong, because ms. leigh already answered that question. but i was skipping to the last set of pictures and then the last picture. it could be me, or just how the picture was taken, but arabesque also seems a little odd to me. i'm a right or is it just the way i looked at the picture????? :confused:

 

i agree with your opinions about the 'arabesque' that you meant with your question. it looks like she just put a leg down on the ground, one in the air and two arms up somewhere. it doesn't look really controlled. it's nice to have a leg high up, but i think it's prettier when the line is nice and the leg is just a little lower where you can control your line.

 

~SKIP~

[Guest tigger_fan_ann]

i agree with skip though. I looked at the picture she was referring too and it was an alabesque alright. Only, it wasn't as ugly and as bad as the one Ms. leigh was referring to. But it still looks bad though.

[Victoria Leigh]

The photo you are discussing now, which is the last one in the 3rd set of photos, also has no line. While it is somewhat better placed than the one in the red tutu, there is still no rotation in the supporting leg and the line of the back line is ruined by the overly open hip. It actually causes the leg to over-rotate and we get a very bad line of the foot.

[skip]

i enjoyed watching all the other pictures on this site and came into this one:

 

http://www.yagp.org/eng/gallery.asp?setnum...me=2002&phnum=3

 

i can't see how that girl keeps on her pointe. is this picture taken in the middle of a fast movement or was it really a balance???

 

~SKIP~

[BlackbirdBallerina]

I wish I'd had time to answer this thread before Ms. Leigh posted the answers, but the thought that occured to me when I saw the first arabesque that we looked at was Kickboxing, or karate or something. If you look at it from the right angle it looks like one of those turned in a la seconds they do... with pointe sheos on!!! Ha ha, rather amusing to think about. i guess pointes would make that kick more effective. ;)

[Victoria Leigh]

Well, actually she is not "on her pointe", she is way too far beyond it! And yes, that was a moment, an action shot, not posed for camera. A most unfortunate one, for sure

 

(Speaking of the shot linked by Skip, from 2002.)

[Guest Old Fashioned]

Yikes. I cringed when I saw the first photo. The second one is just beautiful, with aesthetically pleasing technique and omigosh- a nice extension, too!