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Question about "Sleeping Beauty"


Monroe

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Hello!

Please excuse my english - it is not my native language.

I don't know anything about ballet, but the other day I stumbled across some videos on youtube and somehow I got hooked.

Especially this performance by Baryshnikov of the prince's variation in Sleeping Beauty.

 

(I hope it is okay to post the video here...)

 

Now I want to know what the steps are called and in which order he makes them... I googled a list of ballet steps and I think I recognize some, but I want to be sure.

Could someone perhaps please help me? I'm rather curious about this performance.

I also hope this was the right place/forum to post this question.

 

 

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Hi Monroe I do know this variation so well that even with no sound on I can hear the music for the piece!!

However making a list of all the steps danced in it would be quite a task and would need some time!!

Just out of interest is there any reason why you want to know the NAMES  of the steps in this particular piece? 

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I'm toying with the idea of writing a novel and one of the secondary characters could be a ballet dancer. This performance might be discussed in the novel and I want to have a better understanding of this piece.

Was "names" the wrong term? I mean "jete" and "pirouette" and such... as I said before - english is not my native language and I'm also unsure about the correct wording concering ballet.

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I like this variation :) the general idea of the steps is (not including the walks and runs and pauses)

pas de bourrée, glissade, cabriole x3

Soutenu, double tours en l'air, soutenu, double tours en l'air, soutenu, double tours, entrechat six, soutenu, double tours, entrechat six.

temps levée in arabesque, balancé en tournant, jeté entrelacé x 2

coupé jeté x 7 

chaînée turns, grand jeté x2

barrel turns x2

Chaînées, soutenu, kneel

 

 

 

 

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No there was nothing wrong with you saying names of the steps completely understood what you meant etc .....but hadn't realised you were not going to be interested in dancing yourself ( though not this variation!) it seemed slightly odd to just want to know the names of the steps for their own sake without wanting to dance yourself etc but now you have explained the book scenario of course it makes perfect sense to want to know the names to give authenticity to your character etc!! I think A - ballerina has named them for you ....though haven't double checked for accuracy ha ha!! 

Sometimes different schools/ systems of ballet have slightly varying names for some steps bit for your purposes wouldn't matter.

Good luck with the book anyway.

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7 hours ago, LinMM said:

No there was nothing wrong with you saying names of the steps completely understood what you meant etc .....but hadn't realised you were not going to be interested in dancing yourself ( though not this variation!) it seemed slightly odd to just want to know the names of the steps for their own sake without wanting to dance yourself etc but now you have explained the book scenario of course it makes perfect sense to want to know the names to give authenticity to your character etc!! I think A - ballerina has named them for you ....though haven't double checked for accuracy ha ha!! 

Sometimes different schools/ systems of ballet have slightly varying names for some steps bit for your purposes wouldn't matter.

Good luck with the book anyway.


 and only the true balletomanes would  complain  if  someone described  choreography  using  the 'wrong'  school / style / awarding body 's language 

 

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ArucariaBallerina has given you the sequence of the steps in the choreography (well done! gold star!!! :) ) - what strikes me about the combination (or we might call it a solo or a divertissement) is the quality and character of Baryshnikov's dancing. Look at how he seems to "hang" in the air at the start of each big jump (grande allegro step) - those cabrioles at the start are spectacular: he just seems to float with no effort.

 

This is something that Russian male ballet dancers are renowned for. So, as a reader (and my job is basically reading!) I'd be far more interested in someone trying to conjure up the qualities of the dancing than the names of the steps. What is it that Baryshnikov's makes you feel, and how do you communicate that to your readers? That's what I'm interested in - a creative writer helping me to feel - the atmosphere, the music, the effect of the extraordinary skill and grace of the dancer.

 

Arucaria has given you the sequence of steps: if you wanted to see the steps individually, this American Ballet Theatre (ABT) video dictionary is really helpful:  http://www.abt.org/education/dictionary/ It's a really useful resource.

 

If you want a book (maybe THE book) on steps & choreography, it's hard to go past Gretchen Ward Warren's book. It's beautifully illustrated with photos and drawings - photos of some very famous American dancers.

 

https://www.amazon.com/Classical-Ballet-Technique-Gretchen-Warren/dp/0813009456

 

The useful thing about it is that it gives the alternate names from the Russian, Italian, and French systems of naming choreography and steps (there are slight differences, but no-one really worries about that).

 

Also, Gail Grant's book is very good:

https://www.bookdepository.com/Technical-Manual-Dictionary-Classical-Ballet-Gail-Grant/9780486218434

 

Good luck with your writing! Let us know how it goes.

 

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Having looked at video again I think I call the jete entrelace step ....grand jete en tournant...and the coupe jete ...coupe jete en tournant but otherwise all the same.

From Monroe's proposed book perspective ....I suppose it depends on the context and who the character is. ...one dancer to another dancer or to a coach/ teacher may be discussing steps! But if the character is describing a performance he/she has seen then of course conjuring up and describing the quality of the dancing is more important though could be saying something like "omg what fantastic cabrioles he did " or "those chainees were unbelievably fast" among other things of course!! 

Edited by LinMM
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You're all too kind!!! Thank you all so very much. I guess it will be from one dancer to another. I'm currently plotting the novel, but haven't made every decision yet. The novel will be in German, but I will keep you informed nevertheless.  (I also asked a few question in a german forum and they nearly laughed me out of the room... that's why I 'm so grateful for your help!)

Dare I ask another question?

For example... in a gym... how much wheight can a male ballet dancer lift on average? 100 kg? More? Less?

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34 minutes ago, Monroe said:

You're all too kind!!! Thank you all so very much. I guess it will be from one dancer to another. I'm currently plotting the novel, but haven't made every decision yet. The novel will be in German, but I will keep you informed nevertheless.  (I also asked a few question in a german forum and they nearly laughed me out of the room... that's why I 'm so grateful for your help!)

Dare I ask another question?

For example... in a gym... how much wheight can a male ballet dancer lift on average? 100 kg? More? Less?


he needs to be able to dance while lifting ad average sized  adult female 

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Wow 100kg!! I weigh 72kg ( 11 stone plus) at the moment and I wouldn't dream of expecting anyone to lift me up....well not in any graceful dancer sense at any rate!! I definitely wouldn't be offered pas de deux work in the group I perform with!! 

 

I would reckon that most professional female dancers weigh considerably less than 72 kg more around the 50 kg something Mark! 

Im sure a dancer could go to the gym and train to lift weights of 100kg plus but on the stage wouldn't need to lift as much as this!!

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  • 1 year later...

Update! My novel will be published!!! I found a (small) german publisher and hopefully the book will hit the shelves in time for the Leipzig Book Fair 2019.

 

I wanted to take the time and thank you all again for your kindness and your help. I will mention this forum in the acknowledgments.

Right now I couldn't be happier.

   
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On 01/10/2017 at 17:55, LinMM said:

Wow 100kg!! I weigh 72kg ( 11 stone plus) at the moment and I wouldn't dream of expecting anyone to lift me up....well not in any graceful dancer sense at any rate!! I definitely wouldn't be offered pas de deux work in the group I perform with!! 

 

I would reckon that most professional female dancers weigh considerably less than 72 kg more around the 50 kg something Mark! 

Im sure a dancer could go to the gym and train to lift weights of 100kg plus but on the stage wouldn't need to lift as much as this!!

 

Actually plenty of the female dancers weigh more than 50 kg though probably not much more than 60 (don't forget muscle is heavier than fat so even lean dancers might be quite heavy if they are reasonably tall). My DSs first partner was 5.6 and weighed 60 kilos...

 

Though my DS would say it's not the weight that matters as much as the dancer- some 'help' the lifts by springing up themselves, while others (he says, and you can see it) are like lifting a bag of spuds. You only have to compare with the experience (those of us who are parents and grandparents rather than male dancers!) of lifting up small children - some seem to almost fly into your arms whereas other are dead weights - and it's not related to size.

 

As for the gym weights question - for squats and deadlifts- the goal is to lifting own body weight (for my DS who is 6.1 this is 72kg), for bench press or shoulder press the goal is to lift approx partners weight (55-60 kilos). So probably not 100kg unless you are super keen!!!

 

 

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Apologies for the off-topic comment, but I always wonder about the Arabian Dance in the RB Nutcracker.  I'm told the over-the-head lift by the main male dancer is a relatively "easy" one, but the RB is in the habit of casting quite well-built women in this dance.  Tierney Heap, Melissa Hamilton and the recently-departed Laura McCulloch are tall and obviously dancer-slim but not visually in the very-slim category by comparison with other dancers; even the super-slender Itziar Mendizabal and Olivia Cowley are quite tall, so with their height and muscle mass they can't be the easiest to bear effortlessly above one's head.  Yet the choreography of the variation clearly seems to demand the long-limbedness which all of the above dancers possess, and a petite dancer wouldn't look right at all.

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Congratulations @Monroe.

 

On 01/10/2017 at 17:55, LinMM said:

Wow 100kg!! I weigh 72kg ( 11 stone plus) at the moment and I wouldn't dream of expecting anyone to lift me up....well not in any graceful dancer sense at any rate!! I definitely wouldn't be offered pas de deux work in the group I perform with!! 

 

Actually, 72kg is perfectly doable (at least for the lower lifts where I’m taking the lady’s weight on chest or shoulder) especially with a partner who will jump into the lift (and won’t squeal the whole time, as at least lady did at the last partnering class we had). 

 

The bigger problem is the ladies being strong enough to do the lift - she’s actually doing an awful lot of the work, and it must be worse on those overhead lifts. The position has to be held solidly if he’s going to be able to hold and balance her up there. Haven’t got as far as those lifts yet!

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Monroe, congratulations on getting your book published. I agreed that it's more effective to focus on the feelings that the dancing provokes. Too much jargon can be off putting to people not familiar with ballet. Despite that, if you want to get to know the terminology there is a dictionary of ballet terms at http://www.abt.org/education/dictionary/index.html  which was used as a source for an article on our blog.

 

Good luck with your writing!

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Well I just wanted to say thank you for posting this variation - it is amazing!   What I love about Baryshnikov is how he achieves perfection with seemingly no effort whatsoever!  As someone wrote above - he just floats in the air!  About the terminology used in non English speaking countries, I think you'll find they stay the same, just the counting and connecting words are in the country's own language.  Well done for wanting to get it right - it always annoys me when authors use totally impossible combinations of steps, just to try and make it appear authentic, presumably believing that the reader won't know the difference.

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On 19/12/2018 at 13:16, CeliB said:

 

Actually plenty of the female dancers weigh more than 50 kg though probably not much more than 60 (don't forget muscle is heavier than fat so even lean dancers might be quite heavy if they are reasonably tall). My DSs first partner was 5.6 and weighed 60 kilos...

 

Though my DS would say it's not the weight that matters as much as the dancer- some 'help' the lifts by springing up themselves, while others (he says, and you can see it) are like lifting a bag of spuds. You only have to compare with the experience (those of us who are parents and grandparents rather than male dancers!) of lifting up small children - some seem to almost fly into your arms whereas other are dead weights - and it's not related to size.

 

As for the gym weights question - for squats and deadlifts- the goal is to lifting own body weight (for my DS who is 6.1 this is 72kg), for bench press or shoulder press the goal is to lift approx partners weight (55-60 kilos). So probably not 100kg unless you are super keen!!!

 

 

 

If you carry a baby or toddler in a sling (the fabric sort that holds them close to your body, not the backpacksort) you can often tell when they’ve fallen asleep (even if they’re on your back) as they feel heavier. And babies before they can walk definitely feel heavier than the same child a few months older (and bigger) once they’ve learned to walk - they hold themselves very differently. I think it must be all about the muscle tone.

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27 minutes ago, Confuddled said:

 

If you carry a baby or toddler in a sling (the fabric sort that holds them close to your body, not the backpacksort) you can often tell when they’ve fallen asleep (even if they’re on your back) as they feel heavier. And babies before they can walk definitely feel heavier than the same child a few months older (and bigger) once they’ve learned to walk - they hold themselves very differently. I think it must be all about the muscle tone.

 

Nothing to do with humans but my Chipdog seems to double his weight when I want to go out without him and he won't go back in the house!

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