French For Dancers: Grand Rond de Jambe
French For Dancers
Demystifying dance terminology and steps for dancers and dance-lovers!
Issue 34: Grand Rond de Jambe
Bonjour! Welcome to French For Dancers
Spring is always my busiest dance season, between high school performances, studio dance rehearsals & competitions, and recital time. Add in my full-time job, and French For Dancers needed to take a little sabbatical this spring! But I am de retour (returned) once more - thank you for your patience!
As a thank you for your understanding, please check out an offer for lovely ballet skirts (see À La Carte section below)!
Parlez-Vous Ballet?
(Do you speak Ballet?)
GRAND ROND DE JAMBE
(grond-ron-duh-jomb)
Casting our minds way back to issue #7 of this newsletter, we learned that Rond de Jambe means a circle of the leg:
· Rond means round or circle
· De means of
· Jambe means leg
Grand means “big,” so a grand rond de jambe is a big circle of the leg. This circle is taken off the ground (en l’air) and is sometimes called a grand rond de jambe en l’air. This is not to be confused with rond de jambe en l’air, which we will look at next week! And, of course, these terms are sometimes used interchangeably, depending on the teacher, studio, and methodology.
For our purposes here, I will use grand rond de jambe to mean the full circle of the leg performed off the ground, and rond de jambe en l’air to mean the smaller circle traced with the toes near the retiré/passé position.
As in regular rond de jambe, the working leg either traces a circle from front to back (outside, or en dehors), or back to front (inside, or en dedans).
Make sure to begin in a turned-out position, so that the legs and glutes are already engaged, then brush the leg forward or backward into a clean starting position.
The leg should maintain – or occasionally increase – its height as it travels around the circle, but not let it drop.
For a regular 90-degree grand rond de jambe, the back should remain vertical, with some allowance in the lower back for the arabesque position.
In the Vaganova style, advanced dancers carry the leg much higher in grand rond de jambe, with the addition of a cambré back or forward to accommodate the height of the leg and the line of the body.
Savoir-Faire
(Know-How)
Student Tip:
To keep the leg at an even height, imagine that it’s being carried on a platter, or one of those rotating trays that cake decorators use (or a Lazy Susan). Take each part of the rond de jambe slowly, stopping to check that each “pose” is correct along the way (4th front, 2nd, arabesque).
To avoid the “scallop” or “bounce” of the leg dipping up and down as it travels around, practice with the leg at a lower height until you have a smooth grand rond de jambe in both directions. Then raise the leg a little as you master each height. This will help build strength and give you a chance to feel the correct control and turnout of the movement.
Teacher Tip:
One of the hardest parts of a grand rond de jambe is maintaining proper turnout throughout. The transition through 2nd position to or from the back is often where the turnout gets lost and the hips suddenly drop/raise, regardless of whether the leg is moving en dehors or en dedans. Sometimes, students abruptly rotate the leg in the hip socket, switching from 2nd to arabesque, rather than completing the circular movement of the leg.
In en dehors, students should feel that they are opening and lifting the turnout through second as the leg rotates. Lengthen the working leg as it begins taking the rond de jambe to the front and around. Just past 2nd (à la seconde) the leg should lift a little to allow for the second half of the movement, through a slight écarté (opening into a diagonal) of the leg and then into arabesque.
In en dedans, the process is reversed, making sure that the transition from back to side starts to happen before the leg reaches an exact 2nd, lengthening the leg out and making sure that the inner thigh is rotating out to maintain turnout.
À La Carte
(From the Menu)
Recommendations, reflections, and/or useful links
I love wearing pretty ballet skirts to class, but it can be hard to find dancewear, especially skirts, made for adults who might want to cover a little more than an inch of thigh!
A few years ago, I came across DianneDancewear (https://www.etsy.com/shop/DianneDancewear) in a ballet forum and decided to give them a try. I can’t speak highly enough of these pieces! Not only do they come in two adult sizes, regular and a generously sized XL, the measurements are given for each skirt, so you know what you’re getting. There are also a few children’s styles, as well as a longer rehearsal-length skirt for adults.
I’m now the proud owner of several of their skirts and I love them all! Beautifully made, they are so fun to wear for class or rehearsal! I am not getting paid for this endorsement, but Chelsea at DianneDancewear offered a 20% off code for readers of this newsletter:
FRENCHFORDANCERS20
Please check them out! Again, I’m not getting anything for this, just passing on a nice offer for some lovely skirts! And if you get one, send me a photo!
Merci!
(Thank you!)
Thank you for reading this newsletter! If you have friends who might enjoy this, please share the link with them!
- Peggy