confused about degages and tendus!

[Guest ballet_sugar_pointe]

I know this sounds really stupid but what is the difference between tendus and degages?

I know what tendus are, and i thought that degages were similar but the foot is lifted off the floor.

But lately my teacher has been saying "degage to second" but it seems more like a tendu to me.

[SeaMonkey]

a degage is like a tendu, but lifted an inch off the floor. Is it possible that your teacher is marking the combination as she says it?

[Mel Johnson]

Or, it could be that she's using it in a participial form, "disengaged" from a closed position, which would be "engagé". Degagé is not always a noun.

[vrsfanatic]

The movements tendu and degage are defined differently depending upon the method of ballet you are studying. Check with your teacher to see how it is defined.

 

 

The verb degager means to disengage or to clear, but the adjective, degage, means free, easy, unconstrained. The term degage in Vaganova is a transfering of weight from one leg to the other, while in other methods of study it might be what in Vaganova is a battement tendu jete, the thrusting of the leg from a closed position to the height of 25 or 45 degrees and back to the closed position.

[Mel Johnson]

And in the old French school, it could even be pas degagé, any opening of the leg from a closed to an open position, usually with a strong out accent, and without a transfer of weight.

[janninepointe]

We do degages as in tendu then put your foot down flat. I think all this vocabulary is so confusing when a degage is a jete and bouree is called courru and glissage a jete ferme...hmmm