Ballets: Sleeping Beauty

[silvy]

I am not sure if I am posting this in the right forum.

 

I have the following array of questions regarding that step in that variation:

 

1) how would you EXACTLY take the chasse, i.e., "point" to the floor (as in Giselle's 1st act variation - never placing the metatarsal on the floor), or just placing the whole foot on the floor (i.e, a "normal" chasse)

 

2) Would you take the developpe from pique or from releve?

 

3) Where would you look on the developpe: i.e. to the raised arm, or to the other arm (which is a la seconde)?

 

Silvy

[Guest dancinsweetie]

Hi Silvy! I just finished learning the variation in my pointe/variations class. I am sorry that I only need to ask the same questions and I am not able to help. Does anyone know?

[Hans]

According to the way I've always seen it performed:

 

1. Normal chassé

 

2. The developpé comes from a piqué turn en dehors (tour dégagé en dehors), so it should be a piqué.

 

3. I've seen this done both ways; I think English dancers tend to look toward the raised arm, while Russian dancers look to the low one (toward the audience). Hope this helps!

[silvy]

Ok - thanks Hans!!!

 

I have always done it as you said in 1 and 2, plus looking to the raised arm. However, yesterday I was suggested to "stay more in the plie on cou de pied devant before the developpe", so I had concluded that the person who suggested it to me was thinking of a releve!!! Which confused me a great deal as I had always done a pique en dehors followed by a developpe.

 

Silvy

[Victoria Leigh]

The action into the piqué developpé is actually a tombé coupé tombé piqué developpé. I agree that the line can be either écarté devant or derrière, and have seen it done both ways. I learned it with the devant position. (The use of tombé coupé may be nitpicking a bit, however, technically, there is really no chassé there.)

[Hans]

Nitpicking is one of my favorite things to do (when it comes to ballet, anyway). That's good to know.

[vrsfanatic]

Having a sleepless night, but it is giving me time to catch up on many things I have missed. I am a bit confused. Are we all discussing the same choreography here? Or is the discussion specifying the step prior to the developpe ecarte (front or back)? As I know it there is a Vaganova chasse prior to the tombe coupe tour en dehors finishing in developpe ecarte (back). Just checking!

[Victoria Leigh]

vrs, I think possibly just a terminology difference here? Let me try to describe what I meant....the écarté leg lowers onto a tombé (at the same time you are rolling through the supporrting foot), the supporting foot comes up under it as you lift into the air a bit in a 5th, landing on the back leg, the front leg tombés again, and you piqué onto the next developpé écarté. So, it's a tombé/coupé/tombé piqué en dehors. There is really no place where the leg can actually slide, or chassé out of that developpé, so, I think it is a tombé action. Does this make sense?

[vrsfanatic]

Thanks so much Ms Leigh, it is indeed a terminology difference. We are doing the same steps, just calling them different things. Vaganova chasse does not slide/glide in the same fashion as other programs.

[Hans]

So I did say it properly after all...because I meant a Vaganova chassé...must remember to add that to my list of things to specify, along with arm positions, body directions, and arabesques

[vrsfanatic]

Hans the vocabulary is different for most systems of ballet. I am constantly learning too and I have been teaching now for almost 30 years. I actually have come to enjoy learning the different words and ways of doing things. It is like being in a group of people in which only you speak the same foreign language as on other and you find yourself not realizing when you are translating from one language to the other! Or after living overseas, you arrive back in your native country and even the sound of English is foreign much less speaking it yourself!

[Hans]

I've definitely had that experience I agree, I usually enjoy learning all the different terms, but last night I was exhausted and had a headache, and I just felt completely brainless! But now I know to be more specific in the future.

[silvy]

Could someone please clarify the difference between a Vaganova chasse and the other chasse?? I am not totally sure

 

Thanks so much

 

Silvy

[Hans]

A Vaganova chassé is a lot like a sissonne tombée; the front foot does not slide along the floor. Later today, I can give you the Gail Grant and Vaganova definitions.

[vrsfanatic]

silvy, I know of two chasses. Vaganova chasse begins in 5th position demi plie, jump up in 5th, lands on the back leg with the working toes extending the working leg forward, deepening the demi plie, gliding over pointed toes as the weight is transfered to the working leg demi plie, stretching the supporting leg (which is now the working leg), jump upward to 5th and begin again. The movement is done in all directions, front, to the side and to the back and with epaulment.

 

The chasse I learned as a student in the US is of unknown origin (well at least to me). I see it more often than the Vaganova chasse in the US!

 

Begin in fifth positon demi plie, glide the front foot foward in demi plie on both legs to a small fourth, jump up in the air assembling the legs in 5th and land with the legs in 5th position demi plie. Repeat! This is also done in all directions and with epaulment.

 

If there are others I would love to learn more!