Combination of ballet steps

[martin]

(Sorry for my english, I hope, I can describe what I am searching for. Thank you for your help.)

 

I am an adult beginner and I have an urge to learn little combination of ballet steps. In class we dance some small steps at the end, but now we have holidays and I really want to learn more combinations and want to learn faster. I really want to get more into dancing.

 

Are there any books or DVDs with common combination of steps or figures?

 

Thank you for any advice.

Martin

[Redbookish]

Martin, I'm not sure which steps you mean: were they jumping steps? Petit allegro (small jumps)? You could look on YouTube for beginner ballet sequences, or go to the American Ballet Theatre online ballet dictionary:

 

http://www.abt.org/education/dictionary/

 

It shows individual steps, which are then combined into sequences.

[Claude_Catastrophique]

You might also check Gretchen Ward Warrens book on classical ballet technique. Lot's of good pictures and everything is broken down step by step. This book helped me to understand many steps in details and I remember that I practiced steps in slow-motion at home with this book when I was a student.

[martin]

Redbookish I clicked through Youtube and found some nice combinations, like waltz-steps or adagio, like this https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fo3ujC-fLz4 It's OK, but I am tired klicking through youtube-videos. I know the single steps, but now I need combination, transitions, very small cherography.

 

Claude_Catastrophique I have this book, it's great, but there are no combinations.

 

Isn't ballet like a language? I know the words, but now I want to build sentences. I mean dancing, choreography, but on a very very very beginner level, like in learning playing guitar there are 3-Chord-Songs, something like this.

[Guest Pas de Quoi]

Hello: You might enjoy the DVDs done by Finis Jhung. You can preview them on his website and I believe you can also sign up for online streaming of his DVDs. He gives complete instruction about how to do the steps, and yes, there are combinations. He starts with one step, adds another, adds another, etc. until you have a complete combination.

 

My computer won't post links here, but if you just put "Finis Jhung" in your search bar, you'll get to his site.

[Clara 76]

martin, you may be putting the cart before the horse. You are correct that there is a "vocabulary" of steps, and just like learning a new language, it takes time. There are subtle intonations and voice inflections that are one of the last things a new language-speaker learns. Simple words are taught first, along with simple phrases, but in order to really speak fluently, one must live in the country for awhile to get all of the linking words and slang.

 

Every combination (conversation) has steps (words) organized in a manner to paint a picture of the music (get the point across). In conversation, one can get the point across in a basic manner: "Me need bathroom", but the subtleties of language require linking words that are commonly used to complete sentences.

 

In Classical Ballet, there are linking steps: Tombé, pas de bourée, chasse, glissade, temps lié, failli, and a few more. Learning those linking steps which are like commonly used words will help you to pick up combinations faster.

[martin]

Pas de Quoi Yes, I have some of them. I just found out that each DVD just has little step combinations (maybe one or two). It is great, he is a great teacher.

[martin]

@Clara 76 > "you may be putting the cart before the horse" Yes, I know I do not want to rush and learn exactly, but I want to feel more of the rhythm, the dance, the motion.

[dansair]

Nice links!

 

Last week we tried a simple Valse, my side step on the first beat looked like I had a big puddle in my pantaloons.

There are many Valse variations, do they have names? There's one specific variation I've been looking a video for, to no avail. There's a turn involved.
I'm not sure about the terms here, but I guess it is a combination of (1) plied first arabesque, (2) chaine turn, (3) plied third arabesque.

My turnout is so bad, that whenever "me need bathroom", I say: "I need to plie".

[Guest Pas de Quoi]

dansair: Are you asking about pas de valse, pas balancé, or a step simply done to a 3/4 time signature?

[dansair]

I found this thread: http://dancers.invisionzone.com/index.php?showtopic=13183

 

I think the OP there is asking the same thing as I'm now. The first two posts there sum it up.

Two measures down-up-up, down-up-up, where measure1/beat1 is arabesque 1st and measure2/beat1 is arabesque 3rd, meaning that the turn in the beginning of the second meadure is a half turn, not full. Something along those lines.

[Guest Pas de Quoi]

I am not understanding where the arabesque is, and how one can do a chainee turn in the middle of a traveling waltz step - pas balancé entournant perhaps.

 

Are you referring to first and third arabesque ARMS perhaps????? Also, I know of no pas de valse that moves from side to side, as you state above. Pas de valse travels forward and back, according to my information.

 

Pas de valse is a traveling step and a true arabesque is a stationary pose, unless you are speaking of a jump with the back leg extended and that would be called a sauté in arabesque by some, but that would no longer be a pas de valse.

[dansair]

Pas de Quoi:

 

first measure:
beat 1: 1st arabesque in plie
beat 2: you go demi-pointe, move left leg in front of the right leg
beat 3: make half turn, end position something like releve in 1st

second measure is the same but backwards, starting with 3rd arabesque. So it takes two measures (six steps) to make a full turn. Rinse and repeat.

[Guest Pas de Quoi]

I see - you are not actually performing an arabesque or a chainee turn, as stated above. You are performing a pas de valse traveling forward with arms in first arabesque and then turning half way around to travel backwards with the pas de valse step, this time with the arms in 3rd arabesque.

 

The confusion is that there is a pose called "first arabesque" and another called "third arabesque" and you are not doing either of these things. According to my information, all versions of pas de valse that are intended to travel forward begin with the working leg reaching out in front of the dancer. I have not seen or read about any form of pas de valse that begins with the leg extending to the back ("beat 1: 1st arabesque in plie").

 

Some dancers choose to brush the foot on the floor before stepping forward onto it, on demi pointe, and some choose to simply perform the step forward without the brush but in either case, the first movement is always a step forward, along the line of travel.

 

This is quite a common form of pas de valse.

[dansair]

The confusion is that there is a pose called "first arabesque" and another called "third arabesque" and you are not doing either of these things. According to my information, all versions of pas de valse that are intended to travel forward begin with the working leg reaching out in front of the dancer. I have not seen or read about any form of pas de valse that begins with the leg extending to the back ("beat 1: 1st arabesque in plie").

So are you saying that there's no form of pas de valse that starts with arabesque? Let's say the dancer stands in 1st position, and on upbeat, right leg is reaching out and you land in 1st arabesque on first beat?