Why is vocabulary important? I mean, if you know how to do the step, why does it matter what it’s called, what it means, and what all the variations of the word means? Just do the step, right?
Not really. Yes I can brush my foot out of fifth position and put it back in without knowing it’s called a degage, but if I don’t understand the vocabulary, I lose quality of movement.
That being said, I’m putting together a series of blog posts where I take you through all the basic ballet steps (barre and centre) and explain what they mean, and how that should affect your dancing them.
Here is the list (and I’ll hyperlink each one as they go live!)

• Plie
• Cambre
• tendu
• degage
• pas de cheval
• passe
• en cloche/ballencoire
• rond de jambe
• fondu
• developpe
• frappe
• grand battement
• adagio
• saute/temps leve
• sissone
• Jumps and Leaps
• failli
• glissade
• assamble
• jete
• pas de chat
• grand jete
• pas de bouree
• pique

That’s a lot, right? But don’t worry, it’ll be awesome! I think this will be very helpful for everyone, and I’m excited to get started on this project! There will be a combination of text, pictures, and videos.
So warm up and stretch out, and let’s get started!