Happy Friday! Because I’m not coordinated enough to talk about Tendu on a Tuesday. Vocab list first, then naming conventions, then technique talk and common errors. LET’S GO.
Quick lil vocab list (these are crude translations used for ballet!):
battement = “beat”
tendu = “stretch”
dégagé = “disengage”
glissé = “glide”
jeté = “throw”
grand battement = “big beat”
Collectively, the movements of the working leg away from and (in many cases) back to the supporting leg are called ‘battements‘. The extended battements highlighted here, with no knee bend, are essentially the same basic movement reaching different heights (i.e. different sized angles between the working and supporting thigh). Since their basic technique is also essentially the same, if you want to achieve a “good” grand battement (D), you can start by working on a good tendu (A).
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Across all school of ballet, movements A and D have common naming.
A. Tendu (to stretch) is an extension of the working leg away from the supporting leg, where the tip of the toe remains on the floor in the most open position. The leg is straight with the knee fully extended, ankle pointed (pantarflexed), and toes stretched long and pointed.
D. On the opposite end, grand battement (big beat) (also called grand battement jeté) is a large toss of the working leg typically above 90°. The working leg is fully stretched as described above.
B, C. In the mid range (i.e. between tendu and grand battement) the naming begins to differ, and various schools will use (battement) dégagé, glissé, and jeté (disengage, glide, or throw, respectively) to describe battements in this range.
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Do the different names have different heights?
Most simply: ‘battement glissé‘ is the French term, ‘battement dégagé‘ is the R.A.D. (English) and Cecchetti (Italian) term, and ‘battement tendu jeté‘ is the Vaganova (Russian) term. The height can be specified by the instructor.
In R.A.D. and Cecchetti, however, a height distinction is often made:
- dégagé/glissé refer to a movement that reaches a height of 1-2 inches off the floor
- jeté refers to a leg toss at around 45°
This is the distinction I make between dégagé and jeté in my classes as well!
In my classes, you will hear me use dégagé (low) and jeté (45°) because I am most accustomed to R.A.D. and Cechetti ballet!
n.b. In some schools, ‘dégagé’ is used to describe an extended battement on OR off the floor, where the working leg does NOT subsequently return to a closed position.
For example:
- a tendu out and back in would be referred to as ‘tendu’
- a tendu out to an open lunge to prepare for a pirouette would be referred to as ‘dégagé’
- recall that ‘dégagé’ means to ‘disengage’ i.e. to leave a closed position
In any case, these distinctions are less important than the technique for our purposes. As a general rule, in my classes, which are most influenced by R.A.D. and Cecchetti ballet:
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(A) tendu = stays on the floor
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(B) dégagé = 2″ off the floor
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(C) jeté = ~45°
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(D) grand battement = ~90°+
Battement tendu, battement degagé, battement jeté, grand battement.
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So what is the correct technique?
1.
Before you start: stand on both feet! It seems obvious, but the number one mistake is releasing the working leg too early or too much. PRESS DOWN INTO THE FLOOR WITH BOTH FEET!
Rather than thinking of lifting your foot up to move it, think of all the space your foot might occupy as a sphere, so that your leg radiates out from an imaginary central point in the bowl of your pelvis. The energy radiates OUT from this point at any height.
2.
While still pressing firmly down through your legs, begin to slide your working foot out so that the angle between your inner thighs gradually increases.
3.
To maintain your base of support fully over your supporting leg, you will have to start to peel your working heel off the floor. Then your midfoot. Then the ball of your foot. Finally pointing the toes so that only the tip of your toe is touching the floor in the final tendu position. DON’T SKIP THIS RANGE OF MOTION IN YOUR FOOT! IT’S JUICY AND GOOD! Imagine you’re squishing your foot through superglue or molasses on the floor.
4.
Reverse these steps to close. First your toes flatten. The ball of your foot comes down. The midfoot comes down. The heel comes down and pulls in. Scrape back through your sticky substance, and keep your leg extended out from that central point.
Notice that your knee never bends – your leg moves as one discrete unit, and only the joint angles on either end change (at the hip to open and at the ankle to lift your heel while keeping your toes planted).
There’s your tendu.
So far so good? Take a bit of time to unpack tendu technique and make it make sense for you!!
Here are the rest:
- For dégagé: the movement is more forceful, ending with a ‘flick’ of the toe off the floor. The STRONG push through the midfoot lifts your leg, not any discernible extra effort at the hip.
- For jeté: like dégagé. For added lift, imagine the force curving down and out, from your bum, down your leg, and sweeping up against the floor, instead of trying to lift with your quads.
- For grand battement: like jeté. Again imagine the force spiraling out from the centre, down, brushing against the floor, and arcing out. The supporting leg stays engaged and lifted under the bum, the weight stays over the supporting foot, the torso doesn’t move (ABS ENGAGED!).
Hopefully you’re starting to see that to get to dégagé, YOU MUST GO THROUGH TENDU! To get to grand battement, YOU MUST GO THROUGH DÉGAGÉ AND TENDU!
Shortcuts just…??? Never heard of ’em.
And finally some general considerations:
- Note that you are trying not to let the hips move in space! (They will shift a little bit with your weight because physics, BUT they’ll shift a heck of a lot less with proper technique!!)
- Torso also doesn’t move! Keep lifting yourself UP under your bum and upward through your waist and along the back of your neck! ALWAYS!
- Remember that even though all my images show battements to the side, they can also be performed to the front and back!!!
Aaand that’s about as much as I can expound on tendu and related battements. MAJOR props if you’ve made it this far. You’re approaching expert level and therefore need to be challenged. QUIZ BELOW!
Thanks for reading. 🙂
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Common errors:
Can you identify what needs fixing in these (greatly exaggerated!) examples? Answers under the cut!
Example A.
Example B.
Example C.
Example D.
ANSWERS:
A. KNEE ✓, ANKLE/FOOT ❌
Knee is relatively straight, but there is no pressure down through the leg into the floor! As a result, the foot does not articulate against the floor (doesn’t squish through sticky stuff), and is instead ‘placed’ in the final open position and then ‘placed’ back into the closed position.
B. KNEE ❌, ANKLE/FOOT ❌
Again, no pressure down through the leg. All the joints are floppy – the knee bends, the ankle softens, and the foot is neither pointed (pas de cheval style) nor articulating through the floor as it should in tendu. Foot doesn’t press through the floor on the way back either.
C. KNEE ❌, ANKLE/FOOT✓
Foot is articulating correctly against the floor, but the knee softens slightly just before the movement, and right as the leg closes as well, instead of remaining fully extended with energy radiating down and out from the centre point.
D. KNEE ✓, ANKLE ✓, FOOT ❌
Knee is extended, ankle is plantarflexed, but toes don’t achieve the full pointed position! Toes should be long and fully stretched along the same ‘ray’ formed by the rest of the leg line in the open position, with just the tip of the toe touching!
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Many references here to Gail Grant, who is a boss for creating her Technical Manual and Dictionary of Classical Ballet as a resource.