Back to First Principles (continued)
Movement
Defined by Jean-Georges Noverre in 1760, there are seven movements in classical ballet:
1. Plier – to bend/fold
2. Étendre – to stretch
3. Relever – to raise
4. Glisser – to slide
5. Sauter – to jump
6. Élancer – to dart
7. Tourner – to turn.
I shall address these seven in future articles. However there are other actions that could equally well have been considered under the heading of movement, that I have placed in other sections of this article viz turn-out, which is not a position but a movement, balance, transfer of weight and coordination.
The concepts of opposition and complement are important to classical style. They aid weight transference and stylistic subtleties. In épaulement the head turns or inclines towards the shoulder that is angled forward from the hips. It is oppositional when the shoulder and arm opposite to the front leg are emphasised and complementary when the same shoulder and arm as leg are emphasised. Common faults in épaulement include twisting the hips which should be firmly to the front and leaving the eyes towards the front instead of moving them in the direction of the nose. Joan Lawson in Teaching Young Dancers writes, 'Always focus the eyes correctly to give direction and line to the movement.' Line is a dancer's most important asset and eye line is the most important of all.
Supposedly simple movements like walking and running that are used in every stage production, are frequently poorly presented and not in classical style. These movements too need to be practised regularly from an early age.
Balance
Correct stance is the foundation of balance. Proprioceptors especially on the soles of the feet, but also from the muscles recording contractions, plus the balancing organs of the inner ear and visual stimuli from the eyes tell the brain how the body is positioned in space. Without visual information many people lose their sense of balance, but if they focus on a fixed point balance is restored. Similarly, when spinning causes giddiness, by focusing eyes on a fixed point they recover quickly. Using these facts, dancers perform diagonal turns or pirouettes without giddiness or loss of balance by focussing the eyes on the same fixed point on each turn.
If the line of balance is correctly centred, it falls in front of the ear, through the centre of the hip joint of the supporting leg and its knee, to a point mid-way between the heel and the big and little toe joints. The law of counter-balance states, “Use the counter-balance of arm and/or leg to keep the body upright when first attempting to balance on one leg...'
Coordination
'The interdependence of posture, balance and highly coordinated movement is developed to perfection in ballet training' (Celia Sparger, Anatomy and Ballet). It is important that the use of the arms in Port de Bras is coordinated with the leg movements from earliest formal training. Similarly, there should be coordination of head and eye movements with the port de bras. The classical rules of port de bras are that arms never go behind the shoulders unless in a down-turned or up-turned hand position and remain on their own side of the body unless choreography dictates otherwise. Much work needs to done on port de bras and I shall consider it more fully in future articles.
Transfer of Weight
Shifts of weight change the body’s centre of gravity and must be well practised, starting with little movements in tendu, adage, allegro and then turning movements. Eventually there will be pointe work for females, bigger jumps and turns for males and pas de deux movements, where partners must coordinate their transfers of weight. Right from the start establishing correct alignments and postural control when changing from two legs to one or from one leg to the other need to be practised with perfect coordination.
Vaganova's wise words summarise this article, '...a correctly set body is the foundation of every step'.
Mary Goodhew
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here to return to the Making of a dancer index page.
First published in
Dancing Times, May 2007, reproduced with the kind permission of all involved.
