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French Ballet Terms (Pre-Elementary)


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i am putting this here in the hope it will attract the attention of estelle or other reliable and knowledgeable French-speaking posters.

i am under time pressure to put together the theory component of a couple of levels of our ballet examination syllabus. students are expected to be able to translate the names of syllabus steps which are new to them, at each examination level.

i would like to ask anyone who has an informed opinion to comment on the following, if there is anything thjere which you think should be translated differently - or pronounced differently.

i may not necessarily change what is here, for a number of reasons having to do with locally accepted pronunciation, and/or the meaning of the word in the context of the ballet step - but i am very keen to know if anything is wrong here, and would appreciate that being drwan to my attention. this stuff will probably get sent to the printers tomorrow or the next day - so please dive in and comment.

thank you! :)

PRE-ELEMENTARY

add to battement:

serre ‘se-ray’ closely or tightly packed

Students have now learnt battement tendu, grand battement, battement glisse, battement sur le cou de pied, petit battement, battement fondu, battement retire, battement degage, battment frappe, battement en cloche, battement pique & battement serre.

renverse ‘ron-vair-say’ reverse

chaine ‘she-nay’ chained

entrechat ‘on-tru-shaa’ interwoven

temps de cuisse ‘ton d kweese’ step of the thigh

The following should be expressible in English, as individual words and as phrases:

degage & temps lie

‘day-gu-zjay & ton lee-ay’

disengaged & linked movements

releve en ecarte & assemble en tournant

‘ru-lu-vay on ay-kar-tay & uss-om-blay on tour-non’

rise (wide open) & assemble, turning

grand jete en avant

‘gron zje-TAY on uv-ON’

big throw forward

sauté fouette raccourci a la seconde

pronunciation: ‘sow-tay fwe-tay ru-kor-see u lu se-KOND’

translation: jumped whipped shortening to the second

Jota ‘HOT-u’ is a Spanish dance in 6/8 rhythm

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seems to me there is more scope for errors in this level than in the other one - so any critiques will be welcomed. :mad:

i would have expected 'serre' to mean zigzag, or jagged - but one of my collaborators had already put in "closely or tightly packed" - and she probably looked up a dictionary, so i'm probably wrong. any thoughts on that one?

the INTERMEDIATE level is coming later...

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