Wacky Wednesday Bourrées
Ahhh those lovely bourrées – they make the dancer appear to
be floating across the stage. It is a
great special effect, developed long before the days of movies and
Photoshop. One secret to beautiful
bourrées is one I’ve blogged about before:
the knees must be relaxed so the legs can act as shock absorbers. It is one of the only times in ballet that
the knees are allowed to be in this state.
These relaxed knees prevents “bumpy” bourrées.
The other secret is this:
It is the back leg that
provides the push (impetus). The front
leg is not allowed to get ahead of itself, or ahead of the back leg. The thighs remain crossed in a good fifth
position and the traveling motion is driven by the back leg.
The French term “bourrée” means a running step, or literally,
a step. But running step is a good way
to think about bourrées.
From the Big Blue Book of Ballet Secrets:
Secret #13k:
“Traveling bourrées are propelled by the back leg.”
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