The Student: 3 B's to Advance Ballet

I want to make sure to my readers, that with this post, I don’t over simplify dance technique, timing and hard work when it comes to the level of fluidity that professional dancers have achieved.  That being said, I do feel there are three tactical areas (all starting with the letter B) for any dancer looking to take their dancing to the next level that they should always keep in mind while in class to help make their dance steps more advanced.  It’s not the easiest to incorporate these at first, but I encourage students after providing them an exercise to deliberately think about where the three B’s can be implemented in the exercise and perform them when executing the steps.  Even without an instructor prompting this question, you can also just think about it yourself as you are absorbing the exercise during the verbal instructions or demonstration.  If you are in the center or going across the floor, it is more advantageous to be in a second group or one of the last to go across the floor in order to really think about all the ways you can add in one or more of the three B’s:

Dancer/ Model: Elliana F.

1)  Balance Balancing as much of your moves as possible is the first step in gaining more advanced technique with your dance steps.  The first place to employ this is at the barre by taking your hand off it every once in awhile to make sure you really are on the correct weight for the dance step, or that you are able to rise to a relévé position without the assistance of holding onto the barre and then testing your balance after several adjustments while already in relévé or en pointe.  Another place to utilize balance is in adagio and across the floor work.  When given some choreographic sequence, when there is timing with the music and counts given by the instructor and step opportunity, such as a piqué arabesque or at the end of a promenade or penché or any développé, include a balance on relévé and/ or extend a balance.  Balance, as related here, also extends to tackling multiple turn pirouettes.  If you are used to singles and do them cleanly, start doing doubles.  If you execute double turns with proper technique, start working on triples, whether on flat and en pointé.  Also work on being able to balance at the end of your multiple turns to extend the moment of the finish and make it even cleaner.

2)    Battu

Battu, or “beating” your jumps is another area to incorporate as much as possible during class time.  If you are relatively new to battu allegro, and it stills feels like you’re flailing or mimic a fish out of water, remember that battu occurs with the beating of the upper thighs together (criss-cross) while in the air of the jump.  Two mistakes I see new battu students making: 1) They try to beat their ankles instead because that’s where the movement has the most visual impact, but you want to focus on feeling the upper thighs do the beating action and 2) Students are not putting in enough effort to jump high enough to accommodate the full battu movement in their jumps.  To gain a better feel for the movement of battu, the best method I ever used was to practice on a mini-trampoline to get the extra height to a jump.  I would not recommend a larger, backyard trampoline though just because the suppleness of the mesh is usually more powerful and it’s easy to land incorrectly when you are not familiar with movements and inadvertently cause an injury.  Another method, is to do a battu movement in ‘slow motion’ while propping yourself up on the barre or over a counter or heavy piece of furniture of a usable height.  Although it’s more widely used with male jumps, battu can be incorporated into grande allegro as well. In your next class, try a single beat jeté en tournant entrelacé/ tour jété.

3)    Battement

Utilizing battements on your jumps and ‘saut de’ jumps is another area where you can show some advanced level dancing.

For example, a slight battement to saute arabesque on the supporting leg or a slight battement to both legs in á la seconde on a saut de basque are excellent ways to set yourself apart from other dancers who are not putting in the same energy level for these movements and add flair to your performance.  Another impressive advance use of battement in grande allegro is also with the jeté en tournant entrelacé/ tour jeté, where you do a final slight battement to the front leg just before landing.  At the barre, the utilization of battement extends beyond that of grande battements.  We should all know as basic technique that on énveloppés or fondues, the knee should not drop on the retraction.  But it is also a sign of an advanced dancer who takes it one step further and actually lifts the leg slightly higher as they retract from the turned out knee.

Using any of these methods should be done so with consideration and respect for the instructor’s choreography and timing.  While I am confident that under most circumstances, your teachers will appreciate the play with the levels and pushing yourself to make an exercise as advanced as possible, you do want to be cognizant of not getting so wrapped up in advancing the exercises that you warp them from what the instructor wants and is trying to work on during the lesson.  With holding balances, make sure you are not off on your timing and musicality for the rest of the choreography.  Utilizing the three B’s in an audition is also somewhat risky.  Be sure you take the “temperature of the audition” before altering steps and timing.  Sometimes it is entirely appropriate to demonstrate your abilities in a more advanced manner, but other times, auditioners want to see just the basics and clean technique without anything extra to muddy up the process of comparison and selection.