new terminology/barre exercise

[pleiades]

last night in a class i'd never taken before, the teacher -- during rond'jambe called for two "Balanchine rond'jambes"

 

Never heard the terminology -- seemed to be quick small circles.

 

Is this a common exercise? Common name?

 

Thanks

[Victoria Leigh]

It's common to those who worked with Mr. Balanchine, pleiades Basically, I think they are just minimized rond de jambes à terre, meaning much smaller circle and performed quicker than the usual exercise.

[Mel Johnson]

They are sort of a ¾ rond de jambe. In en dehors, they cut the circle to the front, sending the foot out to the diagonal between quatrieme devant and seconde. In the en dedans version, they cut the circle to the rear. I recall when they were introduced, ca. 1963.

[Victoria Leigh]

And is there a purpose to these rond de jambes? I mean, we know what the purpose is for regular rond de jambes, but do you know what was intended by Mr. B for these?

[Mel Johnson]

I really believe that it was just to make them faster to do. They didn't totally do away with the "standard" rond de jambe. At least not while Muriel Stuart was alive.

[Victoria Leigh]

The problem with them, at least as I see it, is that it no longer works the purpose of the rond de jambe. As long as it is combined with traditional ones, fine, but if that was the only way they did them it would not be a good thing at all, IMO of course.

[Mel Johnson]

That's why Miss Stuart kept insisting on the traditional. She was the only person I ever saw give Balanchine a piece of her mind in public, and he backed down!

[Victoria Leigh]

I have a strange feeling that things have changed somewhat drastically since Ms. Stuart was teaching.

[pleiades]

the way we did them in class was combined with traditional rond de jambe, double time rond de jambe and then the Balanchine at the same tempo as the double time. I was having a dickens of a time grasping the difference (given the quick tempo) between the double time and the Balanchine.

 

Thanks so much for the explanation.

[Hans]

When I was at SAB, we did ronds de jambe very fast, with the emphasis on the "side" motion (basically cutting out bits of the back and front) as well as traditional rond de jambe, which usually came first at the barre; the smaller, faster, ronds de jambe were often performed as a separate exercise. This is different from the Vaganova description of quick ronds de jambe, which are as Mel describes, according to Basic Principles. I have no idea which one Balanchine intended; that's just how we were told to do them when I was there.

 

Editing to add that individual teachers had all kinds of variations on this, some stating that these ronds de jambe were to be done entirely in front of the supporting leg, some that they went a little bit in front and a little behind, &c.

[Guest abcfordance]

When I learned these, as an adult, the emphasis stressed to us was to allow the head of the working femur to release in the hip socket. The balanchine ronds de jambe were mixed in with regular ronds of different tempos and the reason given for the limited range of movement (about 2 oclock to 4 oclock) was allowing a stirring motion in the hip to relax it. Nothing else about the movement was relaxed and I could almost buy that reasoning if the leg never went to the back, which I have done in other techniques - just a small circular movement to the side and slightly in front, with the foot going from a full point to the ball of the foot throughout.

 

Just thought I'd share what people think it does ....

[lampwick]

Willie Burmann always gives these in class combined with traditional ronde de jambes. Many other teachers do as well. I've never done them without combining with traditional ronde de jambes.

 

They are wonderful for lubricating and warming the hip socket. I get much more turnout after doing these. If I give myself barre before rehearsal, it's one of the first things I would do. Lots of them, very fast. I truncate both the front and back positions and focus more on rotating in the hip socket than focusing on where the foot actually is.