Technique: Grande Rond De Jambe

[Guest RhythmicDancer]

I'm having trouble with my Grande Rond De Jambe. Does anybody know of any exercises that may help with this troublesome piece of technique?

[Alexandra]

Hi! Welcome to Ballet Alert! We have different forums for different purposes, and technique matters are more likely to get a response if they're in the Special Groups forums, so I'm moving your post to the Adult Ballet students forum there.

[Mel Johnson]

Before answering, it might be helpful to know: do you mean à terre or en l'air? Basically, during the period of time the leg is extended, the hips have to be kept as even as possible and not "roll over" as the leg passes from quatriéme devant, to à la seconde, to quatrieme derrière or vice versa, and the basic exercise for controlling this tendency (which is entirely natural) to "hike" the hip is just more grands ronds de jambe, done slowly and carefully, with great attention to placement and alignment, until it becomes second nature.

[Victoria Leigh]

Also, in en dehors grand rond de jambe, when you begin to move from à la seconde to arabesque you need to move slightly forward and upward on the supporting leg in order to allow the working leg to maintain the rotation and move back without lifting the hip. For grand rond de jambe en dedans the hip must begin the rotation from back to side by starting the turn in the hip socket the moment you begin the move so that the leg arrives in à la seconde already turned out. Think of bringing the inner side of the leg forward as it moves from arabesque.