Little jump; how's this one called?

[Jetrouve]

Recently I learned a new jump. Although I've been dancing for over 20 years, I'd never done it before, so I guess it's not common in Vaganova, maybe in RAD or Cecchetti?

 

It goes like this:

You start in fifth, jump of both legs, make a tiny retire, not higher than coup de pied, with your front leg and land on both legs, in fifth, with the leg that was first front, now back.

This goes very quickly and we normally do 8 en arriere, and then 8 en avant, after a series of changements etc.

 

Hope you understand me, as I'm a bit rusty about ballet-terms...

 

What is it called?

[Victoria Leigh]

I would call that a passé sauté, or, a sauté passé. It can be done with the passé at cou de pied level, or at retiré level.

[Jetrouve]

Ah, thank you miss Leigh!

 

I've done the jumps at retiré level before, but those were bigger, slow jumps, I thought these might be called different.

 

Do you happen to know if these small ones are also common in Vaganova?

[Victoria Leigh]

I do not know, Jetrouve, but our Vaganova expert, vrsfanatic, will be back sometime today or tonight.

[vrsfanatic]

Yes, these jumps are done in Vaganova however I would not say they are common. They are a jump one must learn.

[dancing_dentist]

Hello Jetrouve,

in RAD, it's called the "petit retire saute passe".

The working leg (that is the leg that changes position after the jump, either from front to back or back to front), should be lifted quickly and sharply when going upwards, and the pointed foot may be held in front or at the side of the cou-de-pied. The working leg must then quickly join the other leg into 5th position at the landing, so both legs come down at the same time. It's kind of like a "releve passe" action, but done in jumping.

The working leg can also be lifted around knee height, and then it's called the "retire saute passe".

[Garyecht]

I’ve done this jump often, always as a last combination in class. Took me quite a while to learn to do it, though it is an extremely simple concept. I found it much easier to do them backwards than forwards, for reasons I can’t explain. As a last combination (and a not so interesting one at that, at least in my mind) I just tried to get through it and rarely worked on it outside of class.

 

I think the benefit of the jump is that you must really use your foot to get into coupe, something that you can be a little lazy about in ordinary changements.

 

The teacher who used this jump called them coupe sautés or perhaps it was sauté coupes, I can’t remember for sure as it has been a couple of years since I took that class.