This task will ask you to focus on how different authors describe a battement tendu.
You will also have to demonstrate in practice the ballet concepts that you have engaged with during this semester.
Activity 8.1
For this activity you are going to describe with your own words a battement tendu.
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Activity 8.2
Now read how Paskevska describes a battement tendu from the 5th position to the front and compare her description with yours by answering the questions below.
"[...] we know that the leg will end in an extension to the front of the body with the toes touching the floor. From the initial fifth position, the thigh begins to open outward and forward, and the toes gradually point until the instep is fully engaged. In order to remain placed over the supporting leg, a weight shift onto that leg is necessary. Further analyses leads [sic] us to question [...] how the movement is facilitated by the rest of the body. Initially, we nurture these connections by keeping an elongated spine and an aligned pelvis. By engaging the spine and maintaining an upright pelvis, we ensure that the trapezius and the iliopsoas are optimally position to do their work.
[...] As with the legs, the arms require an engagement of the musculature without coercive tension. The arms, in addition to their expressive uses, act as stabilizers. They can also be distracters if they are not connected to the center. The muscles of the arms are designed to control the shape of the arms (with some exceptions, like the biceps, for example). The upper torso muscles control their raising and lowering (abduction and adduction). When this distinction is recognized, the arms can move without undue tension. [...] in shaping the arms to the correct classical position by rotating the humerus inward and the lower arm outward the role of the arm in maintaining the shape can be isolated from the task of holding them up.
[...] The location of the center initially helps dancers to achieve connectedness"
(Paskevska, 2005, pp. 27-29)
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Activity 8.3
In this activity you will test your knowledge of a battement tenduen croix.
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Activity 8.4
In this activity you will watch a video on the training of the tendu in a class of professional dancers.