Finish your glissades

The Royal Academy of Dance exams are next week and it will be my first time submitting students into exams. Since January, I have been scrutinizing every step of every exercise, making sure all of the students are on the same page.  We have discussed the dynamics of every single step, the timing and phrasing of each exercise, the control of the body while executing the movement, the performance quality, the list can go on and on. I can assure you that my students can recite everything I just listed, they are probably tired of hearing me say it.

The number one step that has made me cringe over and over is the glissade. Pick any student in my class to execute a glissade and they will do it quite lovely. Now, put some petit allegro music and tell them to go across the floor doing glissades and assemblés or glissades and jetés. Not sure you’ll see the same results yet. Emphasis on yet…

They lack the plié at the end of the step. The closing looks like they’re kicking out the front leg and merging it with the next step. There is no finish in 5th position, they step through to the next step and sometimes that step isn’t even turned out. Allegro music turns on and technique flies out the window.

Students have told me that there is no way to straighten both legs in 2nd position without jumping. They’ve told me that they searched on Youtube for videos of glissades and they saw people teaching it with a jump so why can’t we do the same?! Obviously they are deflecting the fact that they are not closing in 5th position. With all the complaints lately, I decided to pull out all of my books and see what every ballet system had to say about the glissade.

The Royal Academy of Dance has a dictionary of classical ballet terminology and for glissades it says:

• a dance step which consists of gliding or sliding along the floor. A connecting step travelling in any direction and performed terre à terre. …the supporting leg pushes away from the floor and is released so that both legs are momentarily fully stretched; transfer of weight continues, lowering through the leading foot into a fondu, and the freed foot from it degagé in 2nd is drawn firmly into 5th position demi plie.

The Technical Manual and Dictionary of Classical Ballet by Gail Grant:

• Glide. A travelling step executed by gliding the working foot from the 5th position in the required direction, the other foot closing to it. Glissade is a terre à terre step and is used to link other steps. …working foot glides along the floor to a strong point a few inches from the floor… both feet strongly pointed for a moment; then the weight is shifted to the working foot with a fondu… other foot slides into 5th position in demi plié. Glissades… all begin and end with a demi plié.

Classical Ballet Technique by Gretchen Ward Warren:

• Glissades (from glisser, “to glide”) are terre à terre steps in which the toes barely leave the floor. They are performed in all directions and are most commonly used as the preparatory step leading into jumps. … executed in one smooth, continuous motion. The legs are thrown outward on the upbeat, with the accent “in” (on the count) on the closing to 4th or 5th position. A soft, pliable demi plié at the beginning and at the end of a glissade is essential to the correct look of this step. At no time must it ever look brittle or be executed “in pieces”, without flow.

The Classic Ballet. Basic Technique and Terminology by Kirsten, Stuart and Dyer:

• This is a gliding movement with the accent in demi plié in 5th position, usually preceding jumps and leaps. (* according to Cecchetti). Posture and muscular control: At moment of transition from one leg to the other, both legs are stretched to maximum from thighs to pointed toes, just off the ground. When executing demi plie in 5th position there must be a slight counter-pull upward; both heels on the ground.

Augusto Bournonville, History and Style by Elna Matamoros Ocaña (translated from Spanish to English) says:

• Glissades are jumpy and with a clear accent on the opening, they tend to be quick and energetic.

But when I do a quick search online for Bournonville glissades it says:  A small jump which is mainly used to power a big one, or to connect another step. Starting from fifth position, the dancer does a demi-plié and springs slightly upwards. Front leg glides along the floor towards second position, the whole body traveling towards this extended leg, while the back leg glides onto fifth position, so the dancer is again in demi-plié, ready for the subsequent step. So one book tells me it is jumpy but then this article states it is a slight spring.

Technically most of them, if not all, are describing a travelling terre à terre movement that starts and finishes in a demi plié and that both legs are fully stretched in 2nd position. Merriam Webster describes terre à terre as performed on or close to the ground. Performed with little elevation. Performing with feet close to the ground.

Knowing my students, if I tell them they can execute the movement close to the ground, not necessarily on it, they will jump and the terre à terre dynamic will get lost. Thinking that they did a Youtube search, I thought that if I could find a good video of a glissade, they could see for themselves that what I ask for is possible. (side note – I have demonstrated it but they need proof that another human being can do it.) I set out to looking for a correct glissade and through a lot of jumpy glissades, this was what I found:

Here is a nice video of a teacher and student executing a Balanchine glissade, emphasis on what I want, the closed 5th position in demi plié.

http://www.dance-teacher.com/2014/03/deborah-wingert-teaches-glissade-assemble-in-the-balanchine-style/

My impression is that I need to give them more exercises where they do a glissade followed by a soubresaut, changement or an entre chat step. This way they can feel stuck on the floor without the demi plié that is needed to finish the glissade. If they practice it enough correctly, it should be ingrained by the time they need to do it before an assemblé or jeté. What are your thoughts?