grande battements at the end of class?

[pleiades]

Most of the classes I take include grande battements in the center right before the reverence. I was wondering how the tradition got started

[Mel Johnson]

Lost somewhere in the deep mysteries of time. The earliest classes for which I've found some transcriptions, those of Salvatore Vigano, (1769-1821) end with grands battements, so it's been going on for awhile.

[Victoria Leigh]

I have done that in some classes, however do not see it very often any more. I do it every once in a great while, but usually find there is not time. Sometimes there is not even time for a Reverence! I do, however, sometimes do it at the end of pointe classes, staying on pointe!

[Garyecht]

In Sandra Noll Hammond’s book Ballet: beyond the basics, she says that the earliest description of the format for a ballet lesson comes from an 1820 book written by Carlo Blasis. As is customary today, plies were first. But second came grand battements, though at that time they only went to hip level. And just to show how wimpy we have become “students were required to perform 16 grand battements to the front, first with the right leg and then with the left. The same number were repeated in each direction, alternating legs after each 16 battements, for a total of 128!”

 

Those were the “good” old days.

[Mel Johnson]

There are classes from Noverre, and parts of classes by Vigano still floating about, but they are in what Louis Horst used to call "Pre-Classic Form". Margaret Craske was still giving grands battements as the second element of barre when she was teaching at the Old Met. Just the way the Ol' Maestro used to (Cecchetti, that is).

[Victoria Leigh]

I took a class once with Craske. Yes, ONCE. That was quite more than enough! The reason that got changed was because it made no sense whatsoever, and someone along the line must have figured out that it also built huge quad muscles to do that many of them!

[Mel Johnson]

I lasted three months with Miss Craske. She gave a wickedly precise class and she had the eye of an eagle. She could be subtly devastating, or just dottily charming: "Yes, children, put some fire into it, but not like those horrid Russians!" (The Bolshoi was in town)

[Gina Ness]

Some of my teachers gave grande battements (usually all in second going backwards and then coming forward) right at the end of class. I always viewed the exercise as a strength element when I was somewhat fatigued after grande allegro combinations. I think it is certainly a valid and useful exercise at the end of class. I also have a difficult time fitting everything in, so I totally understand not being able to fit grande battements in at the end! I enjoyed reading the previous posts about the history of grande battements during class. I am thinking of Madame Ludmilla Schollar's famous (or infamous!) 7-minute barre before her variation class when I was a student at SFB in the late 60's. I seem to recall grande battements pretty early on in THAT barre! (I loved her classes!)

[Marga]

I studied with several teachers who had been students of Margaret Craske (hearing many "Craske'isms" along the way) throughout the 60s, and, yes, 128 grande battements were always done as the second barre exercise (not alternating legs, but 64 on one side, 64 on the other), and yes, after a number of years, one's quads were markedly larger than normal. Oh, how I ached for long, straight-muscled legs! I had no idea why my legs became bulked up instead of svelte, as ballet promised. I don't think the teachers knew, either, even though they were top-notch. Thank goodness this barbaric exercise moved into a much more logical place at the end of barre, and that the number of reps got reduced! (It followed 4 grand pliés in each position, too, as I recall).

[Xena]

64 Grande battements, oh my goodness!

What else did you have to do in class, that would never be done today?

[Victoria Leigh]

Marga just said it! About 12 too many grand pliés on each side! (I do not do grand plié in 4th at all, and two of each of the others is quite enough, thank you very much! )

[Xena]

Ohhh, I know she mentioned the grande battements and pliés. I was just curious (nosey) as to what else may have noticeably changed in classes over the last few decades if anything.

[Jaana Heino]

Interesting thread.

 

To add to the confusion; I've never done grande battements in the end of the class (the come last of the barre, though, naturally, and usually in fours, not in 64's). However, two teachers I've been taken a class from have had the habit of giving changements (32, 64, or whatever) in the end of both technique and pointe classes. Is this just their habit or is it done elsewhere too?

[Mel Johnson]

Changements and various entrechats are pretty traditional, too. In some systems the barre used to end with petits battements, and in others, rond de jambe en l'air, and in others, a barre adage.

[pleiades]

Yes, we have on rare occasion substituted changements for the grande battements