Sissonne

[balletbutterfly]

I am 14 years old and doing a reasonable amount of ballet training. I have good elevation and really enjoy grande allegro. Sissones(spelling?) are my favourite, although I've been having some trouble with them lately. My questions are: do you travel as far in sissone en arierre as when you go forwards? Are you aiming to hit the splits in our jumps, even to the side? And lastly, any tips on holding the leg up on sissone 'open'? I am managing them now but I rell want to make them unbeleivable, explosive, memorable jumps . I apologise if I have said/done anything incorrectly in posting this and I thank you in advance for an answers you have to offer.

[Victoria Leigh]

Welcome to Ballet Talk for Dancers, and the Young Dancers Forum, balletbutterfly.

 

Sissonnes (I added the second 'n' in your title) are élancé movements, so, with the exception of sissonne sample, they are expected to travel, or "dart". Technically, the distance traveled should be the same, however, I don't think it usually works quite that way. Traveling en arrière in this jump is definitely more difficult than traveling en avant.

 

As for splits, I have not known sissonnes to be about that at all, except perhaps in Russian Character Dance where they are done by the male dancer. Sissonnes are used in both petit and grand allegro, and the size of the jump, as well as the height of the gesture leg, is determined by the music and the choreography. Many sissonnes are quite small!

 

Holding the leg up on the landing of a sissonne ouvert is a matter of strength, as well as placement and control over the supporting leg, with good resistance in the plié. That takes time, and, as in all sissonnes, you must be very careful not to land with the supporting knee rolling inward.

[balletbutterfly]

Oh I see thanks Ms. Leigh- I think I now have a much better understanding of the step. To avoid the rolling, would you just stay turned out as you land( I know that you should anyway, but is that what you should be thinking about?) Might this also help with a rolling of the ankle upon landing? Also, would it be acceptable to deepen the plie slightly upon landing to help you keep our balance and keep the "up leg" up? Sorry for all the questions, but I like to really understand what I am doing.

[Victoria Leigh]

Balletbutterfly, the ankles roll in when the knees roll in, so it is a matter of controlling the rotation from the hips and not allowing the feet to turn out beyond that rotational ability because that causes the knees and ankles to roll in. The other thing you have to do on landing is be sure that you are resisting upward while bending your knee in plié. If you deepen it too much it will roll in even worse. You must plié, but you have to have the body resisting up and not caving in to the plié. A deeper plié is probably not going to help much of anything.

[balletbutterfly]

So, you land down but are still held, still feeling that "pull-up feeling" to put it simply? Thanks Ms Leigh, I think that's the end of my questions for now! So happy that I have finally joined ballet talk!

 

I'm editing because I don't think the previous was clear enough- by pull up I mean held, resisteance sort of feeling

Edited June 11, 2013 by balletbutterfly

[Victoria Leigh]

Just remember that a plié does not mean that you go "down"! Your knee bends, you don't.