Stuck on Double Saut De Basque

[Chronus24]

Granted, while anything that combines jumping and turning in the air is my achilles' heel (except double assamble), I'm having a particularly difficult time with double saut de basque. I'm getting stuck in the air while facing front-ish, than having to land and fudge the rest of the revolution (though it's not exactly "fudging"it since it's quite obviously not working). For the life of my I cannot figure out how to generate more angular momentum without either looking VERY spastic or risk ending up horizontal and landing on my face. I've tried messing around with the brush to a la second, tried throwing my trailing arm in to first during the jump, and tried the whole "turn with your back" thing, but still get stuck facing the mirror at the height of the jump and then landing awkwardly...I have a feeling I'm doing something wrong when bringing the other leg into passe', but I've yet to figure out what exactly, even if that is the case.

 

Any suggestions?

[Mel Johnson]

First, get over the initial terrors just by going around the proper number of times. In my case, I was first asked to do a double saut de basque by a choreographer asking if I could do them. I said, "I dunno, I've never tried."

 

"Well, just do a saut de basque and go around twice instead of once."

 

I did.

 

When I went through a period where they went "sour", I found that I was allowing my shoulders to "trail" the turn, and once I squared off, and turned as a unit, I was home free!

[Rory]

My teacher used to get a chair out and make us step up onto it really fast to simulate the momentum you need for the double saut de basque. Also, it is better if you try to brush your leg straight to devant when going into the jump instead of trying to ronde de jambe your leg.

 

It sometimes helps to go back to single saut de basques in order to get the feeling back for doubles.

[Mel Johnson]

Very insightful of your teacher! I'll have to think of that next time I give them to people who haven't done them before.

 

Just recently, Andrian Fadeev landed a double saut de basque with the knees tucked up short (not enough OOMPH!), and seemed to try to screw himself into the stage. As I understand it, he hurt himself rather badly.

[Rory]

I was at the performance where Fadeev injured himself. He was coming out of one of those double revoltades to the front in the beginning of his coda when it looked like he slipped on the stage coming out of it.

 

He had slipped on the stage at almost exactly the same spot when partnering Kitri (Victoria Tereshkina) in Act I.

Edited January 28, 2009 by Rory

[Mel Johnson]

Those things have very much the same kind of takeoff power as double saut de basques. I wonder when they crept into Don Q? They weren't doing them 40 years ago, nor 20 years ago. I guess they must be a relatively recent interpolation. And heaven forbid us all a slick spot on a stage!

[Hans]

Don Quixote seems to be used as an excuse for just about anything these days. However, I saw Fadeyev do a double rivoltade in Giselle, and it was very beautiful, so I don't really have a problem with it.

 

By the way, was the slippery spot downstage left, by any chance? Viktoria Tereshkina slipped and nearly fell there when the Mariinsky performed 'Le Corsaire' at the Kennedy Center a few years ago.

[Chronus24]

Could you better explain the chair method of preparation? I'm liable to guess that a height issue is at least a part of the problem since any jump with a turn I tend to not jump as high for (my double tours are about as half as high as my soubresaut...yes, that's horribly misspelled...)

 

I fixed your spelling. --Hans

Edited January 29, 2009 by Hans

[MJ]

Don Quixote seems to be used as an excuse for just about anything these days. However, I saw Fadeyev do a double rivoltade in Giselle, and it was very beautiful, so I don't really have a problem with it.

 

By the way, was the slippery spot downstage left, by any chance? Viktoria Tereshkina slipped and nearly fell there when the Mariinsky performed 'Le Corsaire' at the Kennedy Center a few years ago.

 

Landed on my knee due to a slippery spot, I felt the floor suspension give . I'm OK, just bruised. Slippery spots tends to move around, as do the dancers who use skin lotion change places to stretch.

 

Cheers,

[Rory]

Don Quixote seems to be used as an excuse for just about anything these days. However, I saw Fadeyev do a double rivoltade in Giselle, and it was very beautiful, so I don't really have a problem with it.

 

By the way, was the slippery spot downstage left, by any chance? Viktoria Tereshkina slipped and nearly fell there when the Mariinsky performed 'Le Corsaire' at the Kennedy Center a few years ago.

 

The spot where he slipped was downstage left, what a coincidence.

 

Could you better explain the chair method of preparation? I'm liable to guess that a height issue is at least a part of the problem since any jump with a turn I tend to not jump as high for (my double tours are about as half as high as my soubresaut...yes, that's horribly misspelled...)

 

The trick of the chair method is to simulate the feeling you have when going up to perform the double saut de basque. You want to feel a lot of upward momentum, so try to step up onto the chair with one foot (and the subsequently the other) as fast as you can from the ground.

[Mel Johnson]

I think I'll go back to one of my favorite non-ballet people, Norwegian skier Torger Tokle, who invented the briefly-famous line, "How can I YOOMP when I got no place to STOOD?" Tokle was an amazingly strong young man, who, marooned in the US when the Nazis took over his homeland, joined the US Army 10th Mountain Division as a Ski Scout. He astonished his comrades-in-arms by, from a standing start, jumping from the ground to the tailgate of a truck while wearing the regulation WWII 60-pound field pack. I don't recommend that anyone try that, especially me!

[Philip]

I was at the performance where Fadeev injured himself. He was coming out of one of those double revoltades to the front in the beginning of his coda when it looked like he slipped on the stage coming out of it.

 

He had slipped on the stage at almost exactly the same spot when partnering Kitri (Victoria Tereshkina) in Act I.

 

 

I was at that and the previous night's show at Kennedy Center as well (Somova did Kitri instead of Vishneva. Man was I Peed that they changed the casting. Though Somova is a freak of nature phsycally, and still can do the technique, I don't think she has not yet gained the maturity a great "assoluta' like Vishneva has).

 

First of all, I think Fadeyev injured himself earlier in the third act, and then did himself in on the double saut de basque en dedans, and then hobbled off stage. The revolatades earlier could have been his Waterloo. Fortunately, it happened in the abbreviated version of the wedding scene that they carry with them on the road. (Its a half hour longer on the Maryinsky stage in St. Petersburg.) Dunno. though, the company looked great. They looked tired. I spent some time with some of ex-students of a local Russian colleague (here in No VA) who I teach with, who are now in Marinsky. They are exhausted and over worked. The girls do not have eating disorders, but are way too thin. I think the same for the males. I think this is why some of the first act `a la seconde one handed pressage were shaky. They usually look much better, like they did last year when the did the Bayadere tour (when they were still the Kirov).

 

BTW: did you notice that one of the Dryad Variations was actually one of the fairy variations from Prolgue of Sleeping Beauty?! That really threw me! LOL!

[Philip]

Any suggestions?

 

Well, have you tried facing the direction of the jump as you prepare the saute basque? In the Vaganova method, instead of executing pas couru or chasse' tombe' into the preparation through an ecarte' allonge', try the Vaganova method: battement en avant into the jump, pull the working leg immediately into passe' retire;' or cou de pied conditional high, as you close your arms into first or third (aka: fifth en haut), and rotate 2 full tour, landing in the last 1/8th of the 2nd tour. Make sure your hips pull underneath you so the body is vertically aligned (on a slight angle to the floor) simultaneously with the leg to passe' and the the arms to first. This needs to occur in the first 1/4 tour, or you'll likely crash n' burn, and is why en avant preparation can be a challenge for those not initially trained as such.

 

This method is different than most of the other schools where the leading leg battememt to 2nd/ecarte'. See if this helps. It worked wonders for saut de basque en dehors when I retrained into Vaganova (eons ago!). Soon I was doing saut de Basque en dedans as well.

 

I think a Vaganova method rule of thumb could be stated "always face the direction of a jump with the indended direction of the body." Obviously,this is not true for jumps de cote' or en arriere.

 

Let us know your progress regardless.

 

Philip.

[vrsfanatic]

I know this is the Men's Forum however, Philip your information on the Vaganova saut de basque is quite different from what I have studied in the pedagogy program in Vaganova Academy, have read either in Kostrovitskaya and Tarasov and have studied with many noted teachers of the Vaganova program. Kostrovitskaya and Tarasov, noted pedagogs/authors of methodology books on Vaganova/Russian training state the battement is to the side. Many things are done differently for men however Tarasov's book is specifically for the training of the male dancer. The approach of pas chasse is through the line of second, therefore one does not face the direction one will thrust the working leg into the air. With the approach as pas couru, the 3rd step is facing where one does travel, however the battement is in the line of second position.

 

Your information causes much questioning. Please provide methodological references.

 

And...

Saut de basque en dedans?

Edited February 3, 2009 by vrsfanatic

[Mel Johnson]

As this is a question of technical precision, and speaks to a very specific methodology in ballet technique, I think we can grant Global Moderator vrsfanatic a dispensation here, after all, RHIP.

 

Saut de basque en dedans? me too!!! I think I know what's meant, but it's not a designation with which I'm familiar.