Fred Posted January 22, 2005 Report Share Posted January 22, 2005 I know in RAD and Russian we call it a pa de chat, which method uses the term sau de chat (sp) ? Freddie Quote Link to comment
Mel Johnson Posted January 22, 2005 Report Share Posted January 22, 2005 Saut de chat is a term of the French school. Quote Link to comment
Fred Posted January 22, 2005 Author Report Share Posted January 22, 2005 Thank you for the reply. Freddie Quote Link to comment
Dance_Scholar_London Posted January 22, 2005 Report Share Posted January 22, 2005 pas = step saut = jump chat = cat ... in case the translations help to clarify. Quote Link to comment
dancepig Posted January 23, 2005 Report Share Posted January 23, 2005 In our school, they are two different steps, the pas de chat is the "cat step" where you bring the foot up the leg from behind and as you jump up the foot moves down the front of the leg and then lands in the beginning position, the sous (sp?) de chat is the same type of "cat step", but it moves in the opposite direction. Quote Link to comment
Dance_Scholar_London Posted January 23, 2005 Report Share Posted January 23, 2005 Do you mean backwards? Quote Link to comment
dancepig Posted January 23, 2005 Report Share Posted January 23, 2005 no, the pas de chat goes sideways, always in one direction, the sous de chat goes sideways in one direction (i.e. right), then the next sous de chat goes in the other direction(i.e. left). Quote Link to comment
Mel Johnson Posted January 23, 2005 Report Share Posted January 23, 2005 In the French School a saut de chat looks a lot like a pas de chat, but it ends in retiré rather than fifth position. It is as often a step by itself as it is a linking step, for example, to a grand jeté. Quote Link to comment
Administrators Victoria Leigh Posted January 23, 2005 Administrators Report Share Posted January 23, 2005 However, it seems like saut de chat is being VERY commonly used to denote a grand jeté développé. It is not correct, but kind of hard to fight, as everyone is calling it by that name. (Including me. I "caved" on that one, however, will never cave on the use of "tour jeté" for a grand jeté en tournant entrelacé. Nor will I ever give up in trying to get people not to use the term "coupé" for a position! ) Quote Link to comment
Mel Johnson Posted January 24, 2005 Report Share Posted January 24, 2005 Behold the power of the published word! An earlier edition of Janet Sinclair and Leo Kersley's Dictionary of Ballet Terms showed a male dancer (Leon Danielian) doing one of these in his variation in David Lichine's wonderful funny old ballet, "Helen of Troy". The text described the variation as starting with two balancés and a saut de chat. Now, I don't know whether that picture and text aren't in the current edition because the ballet has dropped from the repertoire, or somebody got to Ms. Sinclair and said, "Janet, honey, that ain't no saut de chat." Or both. Quote Link to comment
Fred Posted January 24, 2005 Author Report Share Posted January 24, 2005 Royal Acadamy of Dancing STEOP BY STEP Ballet Class Pas de Chat ( page 94) This means 'step of the cat' and is so called because of its light, catlike quelity. Ballet for Beginners Marie-Laure Medova The Saut dr Chat * ( page 74 ) Saut de Chat means 'cat jump' It is a jump thay usually is donr several times in a row, while moving to the side. * NOTE : In the Russian and Italian schools this step is known as the pas de chat ( cat step ) - Translator If you would compare the steps in both the books with eachother you will see it is exactly the same. Freddie Quote Link to comment
Mel Johnson Posted January 24, 2005 Report Share Posted January 24, 2005 Close, but no cigar. Quote Link to comment
balletowoman Posted January 25, 2005 Report Share Posted January 25, 2005 Just to complicate matters (and that's probably where the mistake in the Janet Sinclair's book), in France, up until you are taught the difference between the 2, they are used interchangeably. So, young kids know what a saut de chat is... Until they discover the 'real' term for that one is pas de chat (and saut de chat is much more difficult). Quote Link to comment
Guest abstractlines Posted May 12, 2005 Report Share Posted May 12, 2005 Ohhhhhh....the coupe' (computer is not formatted to do accent marks) thing KILLS me. Cou de pied vs Coupe' will be the death of me. I teach ballet at a jazz comp. studio and the director keeps cutting back the duration of ballet class and has taught them all incorrect terms. Last year, I drilled them on correct terms and their translations. This year ballet was cut WAY back and they have lost their technique and forgotten everything. Also, he also has them doing chaines in second each step...I was taught that you step to 5th or 4th as chaines travel forwards. Arg! Quote Link to comment
lampwick Posted May 13, 2005 Report Share Posted May 13, 2005 I'm totally confused. Do some people call pas de chat saut de chat if they're done several in a row? I've only heard saut de chat as a short version of grand jeté développé. Lots of pas de chat is just lots of pas de chat. I went to an RAD school in my teens and never heard saut de chat. We always called it pas de chat. I've had teachers with backgrounds all over the map, and have never heard saut de chat to mean "many pas de chat done sequentially" Quote Link to comment
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