2 3 Saturday Statute Bourrées | Ballet Webb

Saturday, May 30, 2015

Saturday Statute Bourrées


Saturday Statute Bourrées

A bourrée is a unique step. When a series of bourrées are beautifully executed across a stage, it is awe-inspiring, because it gives the illusion that the dancer is actually floating. This is heightened in a ballet like Giselle, where dry ice mist is involved.

How do we achieve such magic? By perfecting our bourrées. And the most important thing about bourrées is this: the knees must be relaxed at all times. The knees are never permitted to lock. Relaxed knees produce a smooth, gliding action since they act as shock absorbers for the dancer as she floats across the floor.

This only happens in bourrées. Nowhere else in ballet technique is a step performed with relaxed knees. The dancer is either in a plié, going through a plié, or the legs are straight. That’s it. Except in those lovely, skim-the-surface, surreal, bourrées.

From the Big Blue Book of Ballet Secrets:

Ballet Statute #33:  
“The knees are relaxed during bourrées.”

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