How to Structure a Ballet Class

Video Transcript

"The structure of a ballet class, as with any dance class you would want to begin with a slow warm up to get the blood flowing and the body moving. You would then proceed to the barre for exercises such as plie, tendu, degage, ronde de jambe, grand battemant, even a barre stretch. Then the dances would move to the center floor and begin with an adagio or slow fluid movement combination. Moving on to turns such as pirouettes, petite allegro, small jumping positions, and then across the floor with grand allegro. Every ballet class should finish with a reverence for the teacher and the students, on a job well done. When beginning ballet class at the barre, it's important to note that a dancer should never be grabbing onto the barre. You won't have a barre in the center of the floor to help you balance, so be careful to not use it as a clutch. Fingertips should rest slightly on the barre, no thumbs, and the arm - barre arm should be slightly forward of the body. Making sure that you're standing tall on both legs, exercises such as plie, tendu to stretch the legs and feet, degage again working the strength of the legs and the feet. Ronde de jambe opening the hip and getting the working leg moving. And don't forget, grand battemant, large kicks of the leg opening those hips even further are exercises you would see and do at the barre of a ballet class. One of the first things that we might want to do as a dancer in our center work is balancing exercises. Eleves, rising up to test your balance in the center of the floor. Plie releve passe, trying to see how good the balance is on one foot. Pirouettes, turns, port de bras arm movements of the body and adagio, our slow fluid movements which is the most dancy part of the class. As well as our petite allegro, working through our feet doing small jumps and really getting our blood flowing."