#ballet terms

[empress-of-hugs]

Can someone tell me if there is a name for that sequence they're doing or like, how to describe it if not? I really love how this looks, but without the right words, it becomes impossible to describe?

[lovelyballetandmore]

Ballet Terms Dictionary - BalletHub

The internet's most comprehensive ballet terms dictionary with over 200 ballet vocabulary words.

Ballet Terms Dictionary

[melmothblog]

Hi!:) I was wondering if you could talk a little about the titles "prima ballerina" and "prima ballerina assoluta"? What weight do they really carry in the world of ballet? Prima ballerina is one of those terms I heard a lot before I knew anything of ballet but now I don't see used much by actual dancers or dance enthusiasts. Though of course my experience could be that of an outlier. You always have interesting and thoughtful things to say, I'd love it if you could explain to me! Thanks!

Thank you :) I hope you’ll find this answer helpful.

Well, for starters, the tile of “ballerina” is, technically, reserved only for the principal dancers. Soloists, coryphees and corps dancers are not included. The term is used colloquially to refer to all female classical dancers, but if you want to get technical, it doesn’t encompass anyone below the rank of principal.

Prima Ballerina. “Prima” means “first” in Latin. So the title translates as “first dancer” / “leading dancer”. The title originated in Russian Imperial Theatre and is still in use in Russia. The English equivalent of “prima” is “principal”, while the french is “étoile”.

Prima Ballerina Assoluta. The title is only bestowed upon the greatest ballerinas of their generation. It’s a very rare honour. The title literally means “absolute first ballerina” in Italian. The title has been around since the early 1800s, but wasn’t formally recorded until 1894. It’s not really a rank, as such, but rather an honorary title.

The first recorded use of the title as a company rank was in 1894, when French ballet master Marius Petipa bestowed it on Italian ballerina Pierina Legnani. He considered her to be the supreme leading ballerina in all of Europe. The second ballerina to be given the title was Legnani’s contemporary Mathilde Kschessinska. Petipa, however, did not agree that she should hold such a title; although an extraordinary ballerina, he felt that she obtained the title primarily via her connections with the Imperial Russian court. The only Soviet ballerinas to hold the title were Galina Ulanova and Maya Plisetskaya and Natalia Makarova

In the Soviet times, the title of prima ballerina carried a lot of weight in Russia. Especially, if the ballerina in question was dancing with the Mariinsky or the Bolshoi. I left Russia a very long time ago, so I can’t speak to the modern attitude towards primas, but I think the reverence is, at least in part, still there. On the other hand, I have a feeling that a lot of people don’t take the title as seriously as they used to because in the last two decades or so, it is known to had been bought (Volochkova) or bestowed undeservedly (I won’t name names but a lot of fingers have been pointed at both the Bolshoi and the Mariinsky primas recently). I can understand the frustration. Modern primas have a hard time living up to the likes of Maya Plisetskaya, Natalia Bessmertnova, Ekaterina Maximova and so on.

d i s c l a i m e r

[ballerina-leap]

A handy-dandy visual dictionary of ballet terms!

Great for any fic writers ;)

[melmothblog]

You said that in ballet there are "emplois". What kind of emploi are there ? I thought it was something like "lyrical roles" (Swan Lake, Raymonda, Giselle) and then roles like Quitri, Carmen… I know it's not really a thing nowadays, but even then, I've seen that Maya Plissetskaya danced Odette/Odile and Carmen and Don Q. What would her emploi be then ?

The number, the type and importance of emplois in ballet is arbitrary - the answer largely depends on the person giving it - and ballet emplois aren’t as clear-cut as they are in drama. I feel that more significance is given to the concept of emploi in Russia than in other counties. Here’s what Maria Kochetkova says on the subject:

“Our Russian understanding of emploi has exhausted itself. The ballerina of the XXI century dances both the classical and the modern choreography, en pointe and barefoot, “Don Quixote” and “Swan Lake”, Forsythe and Balanchine. I was very lucky to have worked with people who value me for my artistry and do not care about my height.”

The last line refers to the fact that Maria’s short stature would have restricted her artistically had she stayed in Russia. She would likely have found herself pigeonholed as an ingénue.

So Emploi, at least the way it is understood in Russian companies, can potentially be very restrictive; there is a danger of the dancer being typecast. Ivan Vasiliev cited this as one of the reasons for his departure from the Bolshoi in 2011:

“You see, it’s very hard to change something at the Bolshoi. If I establish myself in a heroic emploi, having danced in “Spartacus”, “Don Quixote” and “Flames of Paris”, I will have trouble breaking out of this mould. And I don’t want to spend my whole life dancing “Spartacus”. [The emploi system at the Bolshoi is oppressing], unlike at the European theatres, where they aren’t obsessed with the concept. There, if the dancer is an individual - if they are convincing and talented - they can try anything. Experimenting is very important for an artist. It allows one to move forward and develop, otherwise you stagnate.”

Both Kochetkova and Vasiliev make very valid points. However, I can counter both. Maria never actually danced in Russia, so we don’t know how things would’ve played out for her. A dancer as short as she is (152cm) could have issues at any company (same goes for very tall dancers). I daresay, it was Maria’s talent that allowed her to succeed, in spite of her height, not her choice of a foreign company over a Russian one. In Vasiliev’s case, I fully blame the Bolshoi’s management at the time for doing everything in their power to run the company into the ground. Restricting dancers and their repertoire is one of the popular tactics employed against dancers by the management. Vasiliev is far from the only victim.

Some dancers are fans of the emploi. For example: Nikolai Tsiskaridze and Maya Plisetskaya. Though granted, both are from the Soviet and post-Soviet generations. Younger (freedom-loving) dancers are more likely to see emploi as a roadblock. Interestingly, for Plisetskaya and Tsiskaridze, the emploi appeared to be self-imposed: despite countless requests, both dancers refused certain roles which they felt went against their “type” (for Plisetskaya it was Giselle; for Tsiskaridze it was Basil in “Don Q”).

While I completely understand a dancer’s thirst for experimentation and aversion to any restriction in terms of repertoire, I think emploi can be a sort of “safety net” in some cases. There are dancers who shouldn’t go anywhere near Balanchien, for example. Or “Swan Lake”. Or “Don Q”. Some dancers are incredibly versatile and can dance pretty much anything, but those are few and far between. Even the most gifted ones have and, in some cases, set their limits (case in point: Tsiskaridze). The real problem arises when this limit is forcibly and wrongly enforced by the company’s management, either out of ignorance or spite.

Emplois in Ballet (according to melmoth)

“Emploi” is French for “role”. In the theatre, the term refers to a type of role which fits an actor’s / dancer’s physical appearance, temperament, personality and other characteristics. Like much else, I initially learned about the emploi from Tsiskaridze, and the way he spoke about it made me think that the term refers more to a dancer’s style of performance rather than their repertoire. I still feel that this is true.

Where danseurs are concerned, there are, roughly speaking, two emplois: “lyrical” and “heroic”. Tsiskaridze is purely “lyrical", whereas Vladimir Vasiliev is the personification of a “heroic” danseur. Denis Rodkin kind of straddles both styles. The female emplois are much less clear-cut. I’d struggle to pigeonhole any ballerina into any one of these categories…

Here are some female emplois I’ve come across. Please note that this list is by no means conclusive or exhaustive. It’s mostly based on my own, personal observations:

Lyrical/Romantic

Soubrette - I’ve written about soubrettes here

Ingénue - an endearingly innocent and wholesome girl

Grotesque - actually refers more to men in “drag”; think Simone in “La fille mal gardee” or Carabosse in the Bolshoi’s “Sleeping Beauty”

As always, if anyone has any other info to contribute to this discussion, please feel free to jump in.

d i s c l a i m e r

[melmothblog]

Ask Responses: MISC

If Maya Plisetskaya was not a soubrette ballerina, what type of ballerina was she? What’s a soubrette ballerina and what are the different types of ballerina?

I don’t think Plisetskaya can be pigeonholed. She was unlike anyone else and completely ahead of her time. 

I don’t hear the term soubrette used very often. In fact, I don’t think the typecasting or emploi are really given much thought anymore, though some people, like Tsiskaridze, are very strict about emploi and believe that, by and large, a dancer should only perform the roles they are suited for. The dancer’s height, mannerisms and style all play a role when it comes to determining their emploi. This is why he never danced Basilio, though many people believed that he’d fit the role perfectly. Nikolai, however, was a lyrical dancer through and through, whereas Basilio requires explosive energy. 

Soubrettes are usually short, energetic, naughty and full of life. This is a comedic emploi. I think the term originated in Commedia dell'arte, more specifically from the character of servetta (a serving maid willing to assist her mistress in all sorts of affairs and naughtiness).

I remember some people have asked about dancer's toes in pointe shoes. Recently there's been a picture on instagram floating around from the Australian Ballet Ankle Study that shows how they stand on pointe, have you seen it?

Thank you, I knew about this but had completely forgotten to post it. La Trobe University has been doing some interesting research in partnership with the Australian Ballet. Unfortunately, I can’t seem to find the image you’re referring to but La Trobe’s research is interesting and I’d recommend checking them out. Also, let’s not forget that it was the physio team at the Australian Ballet who brought David Hallberg back from the brink of oblivion. Those guys are miracle workers and La Trobe trains a lot of them.

When I saw how tall Kondaurova is, I was shocked! I knew she was tall but I didn’t think quite so much. Isn’t Alyona of a similar height but didn’t get offered a job by Mariinsky for it?

Apparently (according to the message below), Kondaurova is 177cm (5ft8in). Alena is closer to 180cm (6ft), so her height would be more of an issue for Mariinsky, as it’s a smaller company and there are few men who could successfully partner her.

Kondaurova has stated she’s 177cm on her Instagram, FYI.

I love how Kondaurova’s height of all things has become such a contested subject on this blog.

d i s c l a i m e r

[strazcenter]

Pardon My French

A brief list of classical ballet terms with their English translations to give a little insight into the art form. #fromtheblog

The French codified ballet under King Louis XIV by defining the five basic positions of the feet and setting a catalog of positions related to the “turn-out” of the legs in the hip sockets (i.e., the legs rotate out of the hips instead of facing forward). Placement, a.k.a. alignment, and lift, a.k.a. pull-up, became fundamentals that traveled with ballet when it spread to Italy, Russia, Denmark…

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[mttbrandgender]

I have to master a fouetté by tomorrow and honestly I can barely grande jete