Hello!<BR>Ok here's my question. I was wondering if you new any methods that make it easier to rond de jambe your leg en l'aire? I find it very hard to think about rotating my hip and keeping my leg high all at the same time. So if anybody can help me that would be awesome!!!<BR>Thanks a bunch!

Courtney - here is a thread that you might want to read that we had on this subject:<P><A HREF=../../../ubb/Forum7/HTML/000419.html><B>ROND DE JAMB EN L'AIRE</B></a><P>In rond de jambe en l'aire - the hip is not rotated at all - the leg only rotates from the knee downward. As you will see in the thread I just gave you, the leg doesn't go above 90 degrees at any time - except in the very last one, which takes on the character of a developpé.<P>So, you shouldn't be rotating your hip and your leg doesn't need - and shouldn't be - too high.<P>

Basheva: I find it pretty hard to keep the knee still when my rond de jambe is low. We have an exercise when we are supposed to do the lowest rond de jame en l'air that can be and my knee is always all over the place. Any advice?

Basheva, doesn't courtney mean a 'grand rond de jambe' instead of a rond de jambe en l'air? Because in grand rond de jambe it is indeed very important to move (rotate) your hip the right way. And if you do so, that'll help you keeping your leg high!<P>So, i think she isn't talking about a rond de jambe en l'air. <P>Could you also give tyhe good advise you always give about grand rond de jambe?<P>PS Courtney, a rond de jambe en l'air is when you extend your leg a la seconde, and then rotate the *knee*, not the hip

Well, Anastasia - you could be right - it did occur to me that Courtney was talking about a grand rond de jambe, but I could only go by what she had written.<P>In a grand rond de jambe, for sure, the hip is kept down, turned out, the body forward, and the leg lifts smoothly around. The more turned out the leg and turned out the hip, the easier it is to do. The challenge is not only in the placement of the hip and body, but to keep the leg at the same height all the way around. The object of this entire exercise is the smoothness of the movement.<P>The problem arises a little less than halfway around. As the leg moves from the front to the side, there is one point at which it seems to hit a tough spot, like a bump in the road. However, if the hip is really down, and the body forward, the body must be forward, the leg will continue smoothly around.<P>I use to do this with my students. I would have them stand at the barre, and hold their placement - body foward, hip down, and I would take their leg (didn't matter the height) and bring the leg to the side, and we could "feel" the bump in the road, and how smoothly the leg would go past that bump, if they held their placement correctly.<P>Then we would do it again, sitting back in the hip, and they could then feel that the leg literally stopped at that bump place. That bump place is usually right before second position of the leg. It is different for each person of course.<P>As for rond de jamb en l'aire - the only rotation takes place below the knee. And I think you are right Annie, it is harder when the leg is lower. I like to think of the leg below the knee being like the pendulum of a clock - it moves, the clock (the thigh) does not.<P>

I'm going to jump in here in my professional capacity as a physical therapist and as someone who has studied dance from the age of 5 years.<P>The knee joint is, essentially, a "hinge" joint. It is able to flex and extend. There is a small rotational component between the femur (thigh bone) and the tibia (big bone in lower leg) associated ONLY with terminal extension of the knee (the last 5 degrees). There is also a gliding movement that occurs between the tibia and femur during flexion and extension. Any other movement is abnormal and produces stress on the ligaments of the knee and can lead to injury. <P>In rond de jambe en l'air, although the hip maintains it's external rotation throughout, there is a SMALL rotational movement of the HIP (i.e. the head of the femur in the acetabulum) that actually causes what LOOKS like a rotation of the knee. The PELVIS remains stable. A very small movement at the hip joint produces a much larger movement of the distal portion of the lower extremity. This is not unlike a pendulum, where a very small movement at the top causes a much bigger arc at the bottom. Ideally, it is a movement that occurs between the difference of being turned out 90 degrees at the hip and being turned out a few degrees more as the heel comes through the en avant positon whether the rond de jambe is being performed en dehors or en dedans. The challenge of maintaining the turnout is, of course, different each way.

As I understand your post, Karen, you are of course right. I think what we have here is an instance of what is reality (what you are saying) and what the ballet teacher is saying.<P>I think there is that difference, because if the ballet teacher says to her young and/or beginner students, yes, there is some rotation going to occur in the hip in rond de jambe en l'aire, and yes the knee has its limitations too, then the student will not make any effort to strive to maintain the control that the teacher is looking for.<P>What do you think?<P>It's like some of the things we discussed in the thread: Wiggle Room - where a couple of items were addressed where the ballet wants one thing and reality says another.<P><p>[This message has been edited by Basheva (edited May 31, 2001).]

I can't get into the medical, anatomical, and kinesiological intricacies. I just want to say that I agree with Cortney. Rombe de jamb en lair is the hardest exercise at the barre. I hate them.<BR>

Pan - LOL - I think that many people would agree with you.<P>Silly me - I always liked them.

But Basheva, you like everything!

Hey!<BR>Thanks everybody for your help! And sorry to cinfuse everybody I meant grande Rond de jambe! Anyways I just wanted to day thanks! it helped!<BR>Courtney

Katheryn - you are right....you noticed that did you?

Yup, I did! It is part of what makes you so compelling.