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Embarrassing Question :-)


Guest Jonfb

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:giveup: hi there! Wondering if you goodpeople could help. I have just spent the last hour :) trying to find the name for a step I saw at a ballet in England last night (of which I have to write a review for).

It is when the dancer leeps into the air and whilst at their highest point the put both legs out comeplete flat, in opposite directions, and then trurn to the floor. A bad description I know. It is not like a Jete, i.e. both feet face in opposite directions. It is as though they were "doing the splits" but they are in mid-air.

I'm sorry my knowledge is so crude but i can't seem to come across any site with a descritption or photo of this position. I think it's quite a common one tho. :unsure:

Anyone that could give me their view on what I'm describing (and pref a link to a photo or diagram, so I can confirm), would be a real lifesaver...

Thanks so much.

Your very very humble ballet dunce! :grinning:

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Hans has got me, I think the Candy Cane in Balanchine's Nutcracker does what I'm thinking of (maybe not though, now all I can remember is the hoop spins). I have to admit I associate it mostly with cheerleaders (spring straight up, hoik the legs out in 2nd to as close as a split as you can get, maybe touch your toes, then down). It's certainly nothing I've ever seen in a dictionary of ballet terms. I guess technically it's just a jump from 2 feet to 2 feet though...

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:thumbsup: I think "Old Fashioned" has it. yes, I think it's the Russian Split :clapping:, it's not a jete as my understanding of that is that whilst both legs are in the air horizontally, one foot points up and the other down - whereas what I saw, and what the russian split seems to be is, both feet pointing up.

So I was wrong all along then - this isn't a ballet move at all, or if it is, is "Russian Split" the terminology I should use to describe it in my article.

Thanks "Old fashioned" :flowers:

yours demandingly - but appreciatively....

Jon

:) www.falconcottage.co.uk :)

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I believe in cheerleading they are called toe touches. But don't trust me on it, I'm not, nor have I ever been a cheerleader. My band friends would probably kill me before I could sign up.

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Guest stacymckenna

In gymnastics:

The static jump (off both feet) is called a "straddle jump".

The traveling leap (off one foot) is called a "side leap", and it usually is landed facing where you took off (the leap involves two 1/4 turns).

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In Berkeley we call this a Grand Ecart -- ("ecart" means spread wide open)

It's a classical step as well as a character step. It's a spring from two feet, landing on two feet, like a changement where the legs go wide (unlike a sissonne, which lands on one foot).

Grands ecarts are done in both second and fourth, and with straight knees or in attitude.

Examples from choreography I'm familiar with crowd into my mind. In SFB's Chinese Tea, the male dancer does a series of grands ecartes in second and fourth, and usually some Italian changements throwh in for variety. And in our Trepak, the "Russians" do them too.

But in Ronn Guidi's Nutcracker (at OaklandBallet), the Snow Queen does them -- as high as she can, Janet Carole did them at 180 degrees; and in Sally Streets's "Waltz of the Flowers," the butterfly does them (not very high) alternating with soutenu turns. In The William Tell pas de deux, include in NYCB's Bournonville Divertissements, the ballerina (young Darci Kistler on my tape) has a fabulous passage of jumps including a releve echappe, a medium-height (45degree) ecarte, and entrechat (quatre or sixe, I can't remember); it's a marvellously airy, beautiful combination....

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Could some one enlighten me as to the correct terminology of this step:

It starts from 5th and is executed en face like a big glissade in which the legs reach a straddle split. It lands en fondu on the first extended leg with the second leg in retire. Occassionally to finish, the leg is extended to efface devant 90 degrees or 3rd arabesque. Is this a jete ouvert? I'm quite sure that it is a classical step because my Russian teacher teaches it as part of the Vaganova syllabus.

Rachel

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