CriticalDance Forum

<P>i don't suppose by any chance you can remember that 'fiendishly difficult' glissade combination you mentioned in another thread, can you, basheva? <P>don't worry - if you can't, i'll make this thread disappear - i just thought it might be fun!<p>[This message has been edited by grace (edited September 29, 2000).]

Well, let's see Grace - (actually I was hoping to erase it from my memory banks !!LOL) It was distressingly simple - wasn't really a glissade - more like a stetched tendu - glissade - anyway here goes:<P>Takes place in the center right after barre work is complete. Stand in 5th position - croise, right foot front. Point right foot tendu front, and without putting any weight on that tendu - stretch it out to the front (fondu on standing leg) as far as it can go - and then stretch some more without distorting hip angle - then pushing off back foot and transfer the weight to the pointed front foot (straight leg) and bring up the back foot to 5th position - you are still in croise. Now immediately (from 5th) pirouette lifing the front foot and turn en dehors, ending in front 5th position. (Yes the pirouette is 5th to 5th - demonic heh?) <P>Now - you are still in fifth, having finished the pirouette - tendu right foot a la second - stretch it out as far as you can reach - and then reach some more - no weight on it -the standing left leg is in fondu - and quickly transfer the weight, close in 5th, left foot in front, facing 'en face' (straight front), quickly pirouette lifting right foot (which is in the back) en dehors, closing right foot in the back. You are now ready to begin with the left foot and go to the left. <P>When you have done a set to the right and a set to the left - reverse the entire thing - yes going backwards -doing all the pirouettes en dedans. <P>ALL THE WEIGHT TRANSFERS TO THE TENDU FOOT ARE MADE ONTO A STRAIGHT LEG. THE TENDU FOOT NEVER BENDS.<P>All pirouettes are 5th to 5th - with no obvious preparation. The hands in all positions opened thru 5th devant - to second. In the pirouettes the hands were held 5th devant. On her really demonic days Miss Ellicott had us cross our arms across our chests (to make sure we were not using our arms for impetus) - and all the stretches were done without fondu. The counts are quite slow - I can't think how to tell you them by typing. Just a slow tendu music will do, I suppose. <P>Once when someone asked her how many sets she wanted - she said "Till you get it right" In that case I should still be there - doing them !!! Basheva<P><p>[This message has been edited by grace (edited October 07, 2000).]

thanks, basheva. sorry it tok me a while to feel like taxing my brain by decoding a written exercise - but i admit i expected it to be more fiendishly COMPLEX than this - i can see now, you mean 'quite simple, really..but fiendish in DIFFICULTY'! <P>so really it's like a temps lié exercise, in the sense of making a diagonal, then a sideways path, both sides - then reverse the lot.<P>i take it you REALLY mean no pliés, at any time? as in, not before or after the 'glissade', and not before (or after?) the pirouettes?<P>i actually LIKE pirouettes from 5th to 5th, but i know i'm in the minority, that way!<P>the reverse feels like a nightmare, just thinking about it!<P>do you actually think it has value when done without the pliés? i can understand omitting the pliés on the 'glissades', but it doesn't make so much sense to me on the pirouettes...<P>btw, have you noticed in that animation (up above), his feet appear to have bandages on them whenever he's in the middle of the glissade - and his leotard neckline changes shape!

Decoding a written exercise is only slightly more difficult than in trying to type it !! LOL Yes, there are plies' before and after the pirouettes. Sorry 'bout that.<P>As for the extended. really reaching out, glissade - there is a plie' in the standing leg - but the transfer is onto a straight leg. The reaching toe never leaves the floor - but of course doesn't grind into it either. The weight is held on the standing (plie') leg as long as possible - while the other leg/toe reaches out as far as physically possible - and then the transfer is made onto a straight leg.<P>Yes, the direction is croise devant, then a la second, croise devant, a la second - and then reverse.<P>Some of the simplest exercises are terribly difficult. This particular teacher insisted on 5th to 5th pirouettes and since one had to go immediately on to the next reaching glissade - the finish from the pirouette had to be perfect. She was adamant about never using the arms for any sort of propulsion for the pirouette. She said arms were an adornment - not a motor. (Her caveat was if we get above 6 rotations she would relent) HA HA HA <p>[This message has been edited by Basheva (edited October 07, 2000).]

oh! now this is sounding far more manageable! thank heavens! <P>re the description of the glissade, you might be interested to know that in benesh notation the standard way to write a glissade is with a 'skimming' action - to denote that in the 'standard' glissade, the feet skim the floor (as opposed to a jump, or whatever else you might choreographically want to do with a glissade: all these things CAN be written in the notation, but there is a standardised form of common steps, too, in order to make for speed and instant recogntion off the page...)<P>btw, i saw a discussion the other day about how to teach 'glissades'....<P>there seems to be a divide between those who see glissade first as a glide (literal translation), and those who see it as a jump. of course it can be both, especially in choreography, but just talking here about the classroom setting...<P>i have one friend who tells the children to jump over an imaginary mat on the floor. i know another teacher who teaches it first (to little ones) in parallel, to get the action of one foot very quickly following on after the other. i was taught as you describe above, basheva (without the long extension, of course) with the toe leading the way, skimming the floor lightly. there are times now when i teach the échappé look, as an exercise, to try to get the students to really stretch both feet and legs fully en l'air.<P>anyone got other thoughts?

Grace, The animated dancer is fantastic !<P>If it is your work , Well done !

To beginners I teacher it as you do, Grace - as a skim. But I also tell them that later it can have different characteristics. That it can have different colorations and rhythms. It can be a connecting step (like the word "and") or be a step by itself - is what I tell them. It is also a preparatory step - a precipitating step for something else. I also inform them almost from the beginning that it can not only go de cote', de cote', and change (or not) feet, but forward, backward and turning. That way they know this is an important step - although in and of itself it doesn't look that important. <P>I used to have a teacher that would give incredible petite allegros at blazing speed and insist that everything be beaten - including glissades - talk about fiendish. And halfway thru , he would then say - "and reverse of course". <P>Being perverse, as most dancers are, I came to love it. <p>[This message has been edited by Basheva (edited October 07, 2000).]

have to confess i have never heard of or seen a beaten glissade!<P>tip-toes, these are for YOU - and no, i didn't make them, but i know who did, and it would be a cinch when you recognise the source material....maybe you're not old enough!?! :<P> <P><BR> <P> <BR><p>[This message has been edited by grace (edited October 08, 2000).]

Wow Grace - those graphics are great!!! A beaten glissade is not to be taken lightly - something better not known and spread around - JUST KIDDING

basheva, do you recognise the ports de bras?<P>re the graphics: aren't they just so thoroughly fun? i love his style - the grand jeté/entrelacé fellow - not to mention the fact that he dons his costume just before landing!

I certainly do recognize that port de bras - dear old Ceccheti !! There were about three other sets of port de bras exercises that we did religiously. And, after leaving my Ceccheti teacher, I continued to do them religiously. And, to this day - I do them. I especially liked the elimination of the "flip" of the hands as they lowered from en haut, through seconde, to un bas. I can still hear my teacher say "don't flip - let the little finger lead you down". <P>I find doing a tour jete' easier than contemplating the technical ability necessary to put it in a post - Grace - and a lot more fun too. Ever see Plisetskaya do tour jete'? (ok - we call grand jete' entrelace' entournant - tour jete') I have her on tape doing them in slow motion - she does them into a full split - bless her heart. My Russian teacher demanded them with a beat - bless her heart, too. LOL

for anyone else, non-'Cecchetti' - who might want to know (not meaning to be too clique-y here!), the 1st pictured girl is doing the Cecchetti 4th ports de bras, and the second pictured girl is doing the 3rd Cecchetti ports de bras. my favourite was the 2nd ports de bras, but i haven't seen that one animated - yet!

Grace, you are a bright ray of sunshine after 500 mls of rain in 4 days.<P>Joan Lawson "Beginning Ballet from the classroom to the stage". I didn't give that book a thought - too 'bogged' down with the essential texts.<P>Maybe for the next modules I should place a What do you suggest? thread as far as books <BR>you think I should read.<P>Thank you again for the animations -

Grace, if the little man can don a costume before landing from a jump, what's the big deal with doing beats in a glissade?

funny, maggie!<P>tip-toes: is the glissade-man from joan lawson's book? i believe you if you say so, because i didn't know where he was from. all these animations have been borrowed from dick andros' site, and dick's webmaster produced them from kay ambrose's books on ballet (now out of print - but i grew up adoring them). (there is a cecchetti influence in her approach, which is only obvious in her choice of some exercises (e.g.ports de bras) to depict.)