brise question

[jllaney]

A question for Mel and any one else that wants to weigh in.

Is it it acceptable while doing brises in a sequence to the side to slide the front foot out to gain momentum for the beat or should you close and open from a solid fifth position? I tend to favor the later of the two but I've noticed most people tend to "step" into the brise when you have more than one in a combination. Does the choreography dictate? And is there a fifference between the way a male traditionally performs this step as opposed to a woman?

Thanks

[Mel Johnson]

You're on firmer ground, technically. The other way, I call the "hiccupping brisé". Let's take brisé back to its roots to see what it actually is.

 

You may have noticed that "brisé" means "broken". So what's so broken about it? It's a "broken" glissade. The beat breaks up the travel of the glissade. Originally, it was a glissade dessous done from fourth to fourth, croisé. It could also be done to the side and the back! We still see the one to the back, occasionally, but the one to the side is usually called "assemblé dessus battu". In some systems, the term "glissade battu" is philosophically similar.

 

If you were doing a combination that went: glissade (pause), glissade (pause), glissade-glissade-glissade..., you wouldn't take an extra step on those paused glissades to get you to the next step, would you? See - hiccupping glissades!