Technical Tuesday Circular Port de Bras

Technical Tuesday Circular Port de Bras

When a dancer first learns circular port de bras, it can be confusing. Where does the movement start and where does it stop? A circle is continuous, after all, so a definite beginning and ending point must be established.

Imagine the face of a giant clock, and the dancer is standing in the middle.  Twelve o’clock is directly in front of the student, and six o’clock is directly behind. The circular port de bras begins with the dancer standing upright and the first movement involves rotating the torso outward (away from the barre) then descending at about the 2 o’clock position.  The movement continues like this: the next point is straight down (looking at the knees, or 12 o’clock), then angling upward toward the barre (10 o’clock), then directly side (9 o’clock), then angled back (8 o’clock), then straight back (6 o’clock), side back (4 o’clock) and finally returning to the exact point of beginning into a straight, well aligned posture.

So for any circular port de bras, imagine standing in the middle of a huge clock face.

From the Big Blue Book of Ballet Secrets:

Secret #6x:  

“ In a circular port de bras, imagine the face of a giant clock.”

                Link of the Day:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OP0w6Bfx4KE

Quote of the Day:

““Everything has a way of coming full circle. It takes patience and perseverance to see a dream through...to close that circle. Because some dreams, like some circles, can be much bigger than others.”
― Karen Dale Trask

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