A Routine That Starts... Plié. Tendu. Rond de jambe.

 There is something very comforting (for me at least) to know a consistent order with which to approach a physical regimen. As adults we mostly understand the benefits of "warming up" for any physical activity, whether it is stretching before a jog in the neighborhood, limbering up before the first tee off on a golf course, or even just a light squat before running up and down subway stairs or hopping on a bicycle!

I had been dancing for years, before I questioned "why" my ballet classes always seemed to follow a certain order of exercises. Then as I navigated injury and recovery over a thirty-year dancing career, my body always responded well to returning to its warm up routine of a basic ballet barre and a few center exercises. This is not to say it is the only way to "warm up", and I followed an extensive regimen of conditioning and physical therapy. However, when I was ready to DANCE, my starting point was often the ballet classes I started with as a child, and finding how much I appreciated following a basic series of exercises that I literally did thousands of times in my career. The patterns of the steps have changed constantly, but the starting order: Plié. Tendu. Dégagé. Rond de jambe... easily gets me focused on dancing in my body!

My last day, of six months, teaching in INDIA in 2019!

Rough translations of this starting order might be something like: Bend. Stretch. Leave the floor. Circling of the leg. In ballet these terms do primarily address what our legs and feet are doing, but the oppositional use of our torsos, arms and head elevates these exercises into why dancing isn't just about footwork, but about being able to move our bodies in and through space! Ballet addresses "balance" in many different definitions, left and right, front and back, up and down, fluidity and strength, rise and fall, and so on...

Being guided to learn how the basics train our bodies for better control and attention to detail, can give us greater freedom and enjoyment in learning to dance BALLET, as well as many other forms of dance through the tools we learn in ballet.

In 2023 I was teaching for Eliot Smith Presents in Newcastle, England, not far from the first ballet school I trained at in England. (Video courtesy of Eliot Smith)

As I have taken to doing on this blog, I have a couple of examples of phrases from different dances in which you can easily identify Plié. Tendu. Rond de jambe. And let us add petit battement for variety!

Clip from "Etudes" by Harald Lander, performed by Paris Opera Ballet and filmed in 1981.

Clip from "Company B" by Paul Taylor, performed by Paul Taylor Dance Company in the Dance in America special "The Wrecker's Ball" from 1996.

As always, you are welcome to join me for Adult Beginner Ballet on Tuesdays at 6:00pm here in NYC at Taylor Dance West, 307 West 38th Street, 9th floor. Thank you for dropping by!