Chassé into 2nd after tours piqués

[Lidewij]

 

I remember reading a thread about this here but cannot find it now; that tours piqués go to the front instead of ending in tendu devant croisé and then stepping sideways.

After I read this I started doing it in class and since then my turns across the floor have been very nice and consistent.

 

Now today in class we had this combination: tour piqué, tour piqué, tire-bouchon, tour piqué, tour piqué, chassé to 2nd position, déboulé (sp? I don't know what the difference is with chainé turns, seems the same to me ), chassé through 4th to tendu derrière.

 

And now I'm having trouble with the chassé to 2nd, because that's in the "other" direction. I asked my teacher after class and she explained that the tours piqués should always end in tendu devant croisé, and that you should make sure not to open the arm too early.

So should I go back to trying to do my turns from croisé? I know I'll be very dizzy by the 4th count, the 'forward' thing was working so well for me!

 

A thing I also tried was changing my spot on/after the last tour piqué, perhaps that is what I should do? After this my teacher moved on quickly to the next combination, so I could only try it once.

 

 

 

And another small question about something entirely different: on grand jetés (so without développé) I used to shift my pelvis very much to get some height in both legs. I stopped doing that, but now I still feel the 'back' hip opening half-consciously to get the back leg a little higher. Is that allowed?

[Hans]

The full name is "tours chaînés déboulés" so you can say "chaînés" or "déboulés". For that combination, I probably would have ended up doing the chassé through 4th position rather than 2nd--do you think that would have worked, or did the teacher explicitly say it had to be 2nd?

 

For the grand jeté, yes, the hip will open (but not lift) a little, just enough to let you turn out the back leg for a nice line. It is similar to the opening that occurs for arabesque. Just make sure you don't go too far and end up in 2nd!

[Lidewij]

Thanks for your reply!

Yes, she explicitly asks for 2nd; I find that going through 4th feels much more natural...

[gav]

I'm on board with you and Hans. Maybe you can just do the very last turn only 3/4 of the way around so that you're set up to chassé to second?

[Victoria Leigh]

I think you will have to do as gav said and "cheat" the last turn, if she insists on second for the chassé. Personally, I would never do a diagonal with a chassé in second, but then I also do not end turns in croisé devant when they are moving forward onto a turned out leg which would put it in effacé devant. Starting from the pose of croisé devant is fine, if one understands that you have to turn a bit to step up to on the piqué so you are stepping forward and not sideways on a turned in leg. But after that pose, the rest of the turns should end facing where you are going.