Monday, May 11, 2015

Mighty Monday Soutenu


Mighty Monday Soutenu

The soutenu is a wonderful, all-purpose turn. It is frequently done as a half-soutenu that is used to change sides at the barre, but it is also often performed in the center to either change sides or directions, or it is added to choreography as a pretty or interesting movement.

Sometimes confused with détourné, which means “turned aside” and is a step that pivots (like a fouetté) before it turns; a soutenu begins with the feet closed (usually in fifth ) and the term means “sustained”. Thinking of sustaining is important to prevent a soutenu from becoming a bourrée turn that has many small steps instead a single sustained movement.

A soutenu turns in one movement, whether it is a half turn or a full turn. At no time are the feet allowed to skitter about. There is no skittering in a soutenu because that’s when it transitions into a bourrée turn.

From the Big Blue Book of Ballet Secrets:

Secret #14q:  
Soutenu means sustained.

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