Question:

Ballet teaching techniques for Chaînés

by Guest1512 | 13 years, 7 month(s) ago

Hello, I have been dancing ballet for 20 years I have a BFA in ballet, I am dancing professionally, and I teach ballet.  I have been trained in Vaganova, Balanchine, with a little mixture of Bournonville and Cecchetti.  Suddenly a simple question that went against the way I teach Chaînés got me a bit confused.  Chaînés are taught in various ways, and I am confused as to which way is the most accepted way.  In my classical ballet technique book it says that Chaînés are short for Tours Chaînés or chaînés déboulés.  It notes that you can do Chaînés with the second step in 1st position or Chaînés with the second step in 6th position. (Soviet syllabus)  But I am 100% certain that I have been taught to turn with my feet in 1st position.  Then I just have to throw in that I have also seen TONS of teachers especially in jazz classes teach you to go from 1st to 2nd position with the arms opening and closing.  ARE all of these ways acceptable?  Or is one more acceptable than another?  I just want to teach my girls the correct or at least the most accepted way to do their Chaînés.
Thanks

Tags: Ballet, Chaînés, Teaching, techniques

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Mitchel

The traditional and commonly practiced form of chainees is to keep the legs and heels held tightly together, so that the dancer can mantain her initial position. The whole concept behind this strategy is that the dancers are turning, not really stepping. You are spinning in a straight line or circle and keeping the legs tight below you.

While if you open the arms to second and back, it is not a balletic way to do the turns.In classical ballets, the arms stay in fifth en avant, and even cross over to keep the position tight. This strategy increases the speed of the turns. If you use the arms, that would drag the speed and throw the dancer off particularly in point shoes

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