Vocabulary review: Failli

If you’re looking at this word and trying to remember what on earth it is, don’t worry. You know it. It’s pronounced “Fye-ee.” We usually do it conjoined with an assamble. Here’s a video (she starts with a sousus, then plies into it):

Here’s what I’ve discovered about failli: Many people confuse Sissone with Failli. Think about this: Failli means “Falling through.” the failli part of the video above is the part where the leg in the air comes through and crosses. Failli can be done without a jump as well! It can be done out of a releve, it can be done out of a pirouette, it can be done out of an arabesque. Usually we just say “cross” or “cross over.” But that’s technically the Failli part.

So when you see someone doing the thing above in the video, that’s technically “Sissone Failli Assamble.”

So there you go. You learned something new!

Keeping Track

Did you know that the number-one way people lose weight is to write down what they eat? And that the number-one way to exercise every day is to write down what you do every day?

So guess what. I’ve created a Microsoft Excel workbook that’s super easy to fill in, and it totals up everything important for you!

It’s totally free! I created it for myself, but decided to make it available. I’ve had various different health journals before, and have managed to make a log that has all the things I’ve decided are most important for myself.

Anyway I hope it helps you!

Download Body-track

~Miss Haley

Vocabulary Review: Sissone

Every time I teach sissone, I start by saying, “Does anyone know what sissone means?… and if you say “scissor,” I will make you do push-ups.”

The french word “Cisuaex” (pronounced see-zoh) means “scissor.” the word Sissone doesn’t actually mean anything, it’s the name of the man who invented the step.

The step goes like this: you start with two feet on the ground, plie, jump up in the air, and land on one foot. Then you either leave the foot up in the air (overt meaning open), or you close it (ferme, meaning closed). See the video below for a demonstration.

The first thing they do is two sissone fermes, then one sissone overt, pas de bouree. Then they do sissone simple and finish with some assambles.

The important thing to remember about sissone is it’s a jump, not a leap. Remember this post about the differences between jumps and leaps? if not go back and read it again. Keep it in mind as you jump up in sissone before you land. Every student I’ve ever had who has had problems with sissone, their problem was that they were leaping (going from one foot to the other) instead of jumping.

Assamblé

There is a lot of debate about assamblé. I’ve seen it taught as a jump and a leap. Personally I think it depends on the choreography, the style of the teacher, and how much space you have left on the dance floor. I usually travel a little on my assamblés, but I try to get as high up in the air as I can (because I love feeling like I’m flying!)
I’m going to show you two different assamblés. The first in the video below is by a dancer in Paris. Start at 4:40.

I am going to refer to this assamblé as an assamblé jete. assamblé means “assemble” and jeté means “thrown.” His assamblé is focused on throwing himself across the room. I would count this assamblé as a leap.
But now look at the video below. These little assamblés are going straight up in the air, and aren’t traveling much. (see time). these assamblés are jumps, not leaps. (bad video quality, I know).

Now you see why I didn’t include assamblé in my list yesterday!

Do you know the story of Giselle?

Miss Haley re-tells the story of Giselle.

Here are some pictures of the Mad Scene (click to enlarge)

Leaps vs Jumps

Knowing whether or not a step is a leap or a jump helps you know where to put your energy. Do you go up in the air, or travel across the floor? Where is your focus? and how does changing that energy affect the combination/choreography?

A leap is any step that moves through the air and goes from one foot to the other and travels. Your focus is movement across the floor.

Grand jeté: you brush one foot up into the air, and leap onto it.

petit jeté: you’re brushing one leg and landing on it (though in coupe).

Glissade: you brush one foot, leap onto it, and then close the other one.

 

whereas Jumps are a little different. They usually don’t travel (or they travel only a little) and the focus is getting up in the air.

Sissones jump up into the air and land on one foot.

sauté jumps up and lands, and doesn’t travel at all.

Temps levé jumps up and down on one foot only.

Assamblé under jumps up off of one foot and lands on two feet.

 

But there’s one that doesn’t fit.. Assamblé.

Watch for tomorrow’s post to find out why!

Vocabulary Review: Dégagé

Dégagé is a very important step, because not only is it a good warm-up for the feet, and a strengthener for pointe, but it’s a preparation step for later steps in the center, like glissade, sauté and temps levé, and jetés.

The word degage means “disengaged.” The American and Italian school tend to call the step this because we’re focused on disengaging from the floor. However the French school tends to call it battement glissé, which means “glide.” They want this step to focus on the gliding graceful aspects of the step. The Russians school often calls it battement jeté, which means “thrown.” They look at the sharper components, and want the throwing out and pulling back in.

It’s important to know all these different versions so that a) if you ever go to a different class and the teacher says one of them, you know what they’re talking about, and b) good dégagés combine all three of these different components. Disengaging, throwing, and gliding. See if you can get all three of those adjectives into your dégagés!