Ballet Workout 1

June 3rd, 2014

Ballet Workout 1

Level: Moderate
Time: 5 to unlimited minutes

Source: Pinterest.com (Original Source Unknown)

Warnings: If you haven't taken any ballet then do not push yourself on the grande battements (do not try to kick higher than is comfortable or you may cause yourself injury)

The music that I used during this workout was 'Beethoven: Violin Concerto In D, Op. 61 - 3. Rondo' 

     I followed this workout pretty closely but I did make a few modifications as I had limited space to exercise in. For the Grand Battement's I started in 5th position: 

1. I did two front battements
2. pivoted to face my "barre" 
3. followed by two side battements (on the same leg that I started with) 
4. ending with that leg in the back of my 5th position
5. pivoted once more to face the opposite side of where I started 
6. finished with two back battements 
7. repeating with the other foot.

This workout says to do 20 on each leg but since I was doing patterns of 6 battements (2 front, 2 side, 2 back) I simply did 4 reps of that on each side for a total of 24 grand battements on each leg. 

Tutorials:
Note - none of the material below belongs to me

If you do not know the positions of ballet this video by the Royal Opera House shows the positions and how to correctly transition from one position to the next: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1fSa3ESmA1s

This next video is a tutorial on plies. She does a very good job of explaining and demonstrating both a demi and a grande plie so go check it out! http://youtu.be/GyV5Dr7p19c?t=2m6s

Next is another Royal Opera House video. This video is from the series Insight, a ballet glossary, which is very helpful for those who don't know the different ballet steps. Here is a demonstration of grand battements:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BVM8AP3luyI&index=18&list=PL7E40E6E2DAB561B5

(Grand battements can be at whatever height is best for you, do not push yourself past your limit or you may injure yourself)

Finally the releve's look like this (another video from the Royal Opera House): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dim7AaoQrC8&list=PL7E40E6E2DAB561B5&index=14

However since it is going to be in parallel it should actually look more like the picture in this article, which has good tips if you have never done barre work before: http://www.fitsugar.com/Tips-Barre-Exercise-Classes-24951417

If you have any questions or comments feel free to leave me a message down below! I hope you liked this workout, let me know if you try it out!

Keep dancing my friends,
Elena