Hi everyone. I just got home from my first ballet class of the week. It's a 90 minute class, from 5:30-7:00. We started with the normal barre routines. There was an 11 year old girl from a higher level in my class tonight, it was nice to have someone who was a little more graceful and fluid than the younger girls to compare my movements to. After barre, class started to pick up. We worked on chaines and tour jetes. I've been dying to learn tour jetes since I saw them last year, so it was a good night. Of course, I was far from perfect, but that's what practice is for, right?
I was too nervous to check the Nutcracker castlist before class, so on the way out I stopped to read the list. I am a soldier! A soldier is a pretty small part, played mostly by girls around 12-13 that haven't started pointe. I'm pretty excited, I always feel the more ballet, the better! I really hope this encourages late starters to begin ballet, I started just last year and already have a Nutcracker role.
We just started learning tour jetes in my ballet class on tuesday. I am having a really hard time getting my legs to follow my brain! Any tips for improving tour jetes? Also if you now of any websites or videos that might help that would be great! Thanks so much!
ReplyDeleteAwesome, tour jetes are pretty fun! Definitely one of my favorites! I'm not too good at giving advice, but here are some little tips:
Delete-Break them up if you need to. We started by going across the floor doing sashay grand battement, sashay, grand battement, over and over to get the feeling of a sashay and big kick. If you don't quite know what I mean, we basically practiced the first two parts of the tour jete, but never really jumped.
-Use your plie, and kick your leg up! Don't be afraid to use some power!
-We do our arms in high 5th during the jump and 1st arabesque directly after (when we land), so to get used to that I would just mark the arms over and over to the music so when I actually got to the jump I didn't have to think about them too much.
-Land in a plie to protect your knees.
-Straighten your legs in the air.
Like almost everything in ballet, it'll be hard when you first start but you'll get the hang of it! Hope that helps!
Videos help me the most:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=fvwp&NR=1&v=WQ-_5RCc6q8 This one isn't very good, but it shows the basics and it's very slow.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ywkuaIPsVBA This one's incredible, I've probably seen it 50 times.
Thanks for the advice! And that second video IS amazing!
ReplyDeleteI'm glad it helped! And it really is, right? That video is why I was so excited to learn tour jetes
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