Awful grande jete

[Mazenderan]

I was wondering if anyone could offer advice on how I could improve my grande jete?

 

I didn't really have a sense of how bad it looked until I caught sight of myself in the mirror.....yeuch My front leg isn't at 90 degrees, my back leg is bent, and my torso seems to be leaning forward. I look like Wile E Coyote in mid-run. I can get my leg to well above 90 degrees in grande battement en arriere and en avant, so why is my extension in this jump so wretched? My preparation isn't right either, my teacher says I have a tendency to put my head down and literally 'run' at it. All in all, the whole thing looks rather comedic than otherwise.

 

How do I begin to improve this?

[Victoria Leigh]

Whenever you are having major problems with a particular step or movement, take it back to the beginning. Go through the things that lead to the movement, including the preparation and lead in steps, the placement, the direction in space, where the body moves, and of course what the legs and arms and head do! Mark it, like do it small and slowly. Feel the movement without the jump. Then make a very small jump. When the small jump works, make it a little bit bigger, and then continue on from there. It's basically the same principal as going back to the preparation for a pirouette, then the position, then the position in relevé, and then make it turn a little bit, like a 1/4 turn. Then 1/2, etc.

[Mazenderan]

Thanks Miss Leigh. I think I do have to take it right back to the beginning as you say. There's too many things going wrong that have to be tackled. Probably easier to work on it as a small jump, too, as you say.

 

Thank-you

[Mel Johnson]

Also look at it this way: You have mastered a trademark Martha Graham leap. Now, on to grand jeté!

[Hollywood Ballet]

Also look at it this way: You have mastered a trademark Martha Graham leap. Now, on to grand jeté!

Ouch, and poor Martha...too moldy to defend herself.

[Mel Johnson]

Now, now, she even put it in her last work, "Maple Leaf Rag". She might have been old, but she still knew her showmanship. I took her use of that leap as humor.

 

The great quote from everybody from David Garrick to Edmund Gwenn was, "Dying is easy, now comedy, that's hard!"

[Hollywood Ballet]

"Maple Leaf Rag" is a very cool work. I hope I choreograph something half as good when I'm ninety-odd years old.

 

And Mazenderan, even if your grand jetes never get to "world class," there are still plenty of choreographers who will be happy to work with you, if you have other cool moves....and especially if you are a diligent, hard worker, take correction well, are a non-diva team player, develop your fluidity, musicality, and stylistic range, your ability to learn choreography quickly and to move very quickly (but also veeeery slowly, with great breath and suspension), your acting ability, palpable passion in performance, your ability to find the nuance in every movement phrase...in other words, keep working on the jetes, but don't neglect all these other things- you will surely prove yourself valuable to a good many choreographers thereby!

[Mazenderan]

Thanks Mr Johnson and Hollywood Ballet! I'm happy to say that we did grande jete today in class and that I have definitely moved away from Martha Graham territory and towards something that looks more....restrained. I broke the step down like Miss Leigh said and made it much smaller, concentrating on all the individual parts of the step. It's much smaller, but less maniacal.

[Garyecht]

I think Victoria’s advice is excellent and would add some further suggestions. First, I wouldn’t worry so much about the height of the front or back leg. What you want most of all is to develop the ability to shift your pelvis forward when you are off the ground. Doing so gives you that sense of flight. Personally, I think that is absolutely the most important aspect of a big jump like a grande jete. Otherwise your grande jete looks like a split in the air rather than a jump. How to learn that? Well, there you have me, but then I’m not a teacher.

 

One simple thing you might do to address the rear leg problem is practice simple glissades, especially having both legs straight while in the air. A simple jump that at lest will give you the feeling of having both legs straight for a moment anyway.

 

Head down is clearly bad. All I can say is don’t do that. It’s ballet class. Long neck is the rule. You are an aristocrat in ballet class.

 

The big thing however is to not think of a grande jete as a split done in the air but rather as a jump where you are seemingly in the air for a very long time.

[Hans]

Also look at it this way: You have mastered a trademark Martha Graham leap. Now, on to grand jeté!

You mean the "buffalo"? It is actually rather difficult (when done properly).

[Mel Johnson]

Yes, that's the one! After that, grand jeté will be a piece of cake!

[Mazenderan]

I have a query regarding grande jete, but didn't want to open a whole new thread for it.

 

In the ABT video dictionary, the dancer performing the grande jete seems to really lean backward quite a bit before he throws his leg up into the jump (it almost looks like he faces the camera more for a moment rather than being side on). Should one lean back before jumping?

[Clara 76]

I don't think leaning so much as centering your balance over the supporting/pushing-off leg. There are 2 impetus to movement there: the front leg doing the grand battement, and the back leg pushing off the floor.

[Laschwen]

 

 

I look like Wile E Coyote in mid-run

my teacher says I have a tendency to put my head down and literally 'run' at it. All in all, the whole thing looks rather comedic than otherwise.

 

 

 

 

I keep trying to picture the head down and running at it. I keep getting this picture in my head of Porky Pig revving up to run at something or other, but then Porky doesn't have the legs for a grand jete.

When my moves go comedic, I try to tell myself it was more like Lucille Ball or Gilda Radner dancing Ballet...badly, but on purpose. It doesn't really help, but now I am going to be having the cartoon references coming at me in the mirror.

At least Wyle E Coyote has suspending himself in mid air briefly down pat. It is those landings that you have to worry about.

The coolest grand Jete I ever saw was done in a university parking lot over an MG convertible by a guy I went to High School with. He had been the dumpy kid with the camera around his neck in High school. 3 years later in college he had become the embodiment of the FTD man. I swore he grew 3 inches taller after Graduation, but it was mostly dancer posture. If I was a guy, I would be trying to see that in the mirror.

[Mazenderan]

If you imagine that my body looks like this during the jump:

 

http://metrospokane.typepad.com/index/imag..._e_coyote_2.gif

 

But, when I'm building up to the jump, my head sort of does that thing the American footballers do when they have the ball and want to get right to the other side of the pitch:

 

http://www.freewebs.com/vintagefootballaut...fredcarideo.jpg

 

Basically, a lot of things go wrong all at once. As for looking comedic, I already have the red hair: so I suppose I should embrace the Lucille Ball approach! ;)

 

I don't think leaning so much as centering your balance over the supporting/pushing-off leg. There are 2 impetus to movement there: the front leg doing the grand battement, and the back leg pushing off the floor.

 

I think I got confused because I imagined that it would pretty much all be a forwards motion, whereas the man in the video seemed to lean really far back. Thanks