Glissade

[Mireille]

I have been shown two different ways of landing a glissade, one being that one foot lands before the other joins into the fifth position, and the other way being that both feet have to land in fifth at the same time; which one is correct?

[Guest megarina]

I was taught, and teach it, that one foot lands first followed by the other.

[Victoria Leigh]

Mireille, I moved your question here to Adult Ballet Students. The Teacher's forum is only for teachers.

 

Glissade is a gliding step and it goes from one foot to the other foot before closing into demi plié 5th.

[Myfairlady]

I was taught both ways too, but I only teach it as going from one foot to the other before closing into 5th. I cannot tell you why I was taught to also close both feet as an alternative way. I have no idea what methodology that particular school used. Here is where I was studying when I learned this: http://www.danceartsstudio.com/

Also, I was taught 2 ways to do sissone that is similar--one kind lands on one foot before the other closes into 5th, and the other kind lands on both feet at the same time. I sort of assume that the second kind is a more masculine way to do it, so I don't teach it to my girls.

[Victoria Leigh]

Strange. I have never heard of either of these steps being taught landing on two legs at the same time. A sissonne is a jump from two feet to one, and a glissade is a glide from one foot to the other.

[Claude_Catastrophique]

Landing on both feet would be very similar to an assemblé, isn't it? (minus the gliding)

[Chinafish]

One of my teachers asked us to do glissades "as if the second leg lands before the first leg".

 

She said it's because she thinks we're leaving the second leg for too long before it closed. When it was combined with other steps it was difficult to keep up the momentum if the second leg closes too late.

 

What does everyone think?

[Mel Johnson]

The glissade precipitée is a glissade that almost looks like an assemblé, and a sissonne fermée which lands on two feet is sometimes seen in Bournonville, especially when he was trying to make a dance look "old-fashioned". It's seen some in "Konservatoriet", which evoked his own student days in Paris.

 

And a class may be asked to do a step incorrectly in a certain way by a teacher in order to correct a fault. In the stated case, the teacher was trying to show the class why NOT to do the glissade with the following foot landing first. It's an effective device when the class is able to figure out why the step is sequenced as it is.

[Myfairlady]

Oh, I just remembered that the teacher had told us that if someone were to take a picture of us in the middle of the glissade that both feet would be in the air and pointed, just like if you would take a picture in the middle of a saute from second position. Then the feet would close together. But I have never had any other school teach me that way, so I have never taught it that way either. But interestingly enough, someone else mentioned that some students have problems with letting the second leg linger too long before closing--I have never had that problem, even though I close them one at a time now.

 

It certainly did make glissades and sissones more difficult--we ALWAYS had to close both our feet together when we did those steps. It takes a lot more energy to do them that way.

[Hamorah]

When I first teach glissade, very slowly, I teach degage to the side on fondu, transfer weight with a little arched movement and slide the second leg in order to close it into plie. However, as it speeds up with time, then although I still insist on the second leg closing afterwards, I do stress that there is a split second when both legs are pointed together in 2nd before transferring the weight into fondu. Of course as it gets more and more advanced it almost becomes a jump, but I don't like the toes to leave the floor too much and I always emphasize that BOTH legs need to stretch in 2nd. If the weight isn't transferred enough, often the second leg doesn't point.