Classical Ballet Technique

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Dancing dreams of you, in a tutu, pink tights and gorgeous satin pointe shoes… follow that dream. Learning classical ballet technique requires building on the fundamentals tardily – and the demands of detail train your brain as well as your muscles. Many young ballet students clamor to know “when may I get into pointe shoes?” The answer is, you get started training for pointe work from your primary beginner lesson in the dance studio.

From day one in your classical technique class, each demi plie and tendu you do determines how well you will be competent to carry through your ballet moves when you put on pointe shoes.

Every time you do a battement tendu you train your foot muscles to be strong for going en pointe.

Every time you demi plie with your feet well placed on the floor, your ankles relaxed, your turnout held, and your posture correct, you train your core muscles to hold you on remainder in toe shoes.

If you may remainder in cou de pied or retire releve with a clean arm position and a relaxed neck and shoulders, you will finally do pirouettes in pointe shoes well.

If you are sentiment raring with regards to progressing to pointe classes, get prepared now. Learn in regards to your foot type and the type of pointe shoe you will need when the day comes to buy ‘real’ ballet shoes.

Learn how to develop the intrinsic, or tiny muscles that are in your feet, with special exercises to finetune your footwork.

Understand why this is necessary – with weak feet, your lower leg muscles will strain and cramp to make up for that factor.

Classical Ballet Technique

With this brilliantly imagined and beautifully achieved work, Gretchen Warren has formulated the fisrt comprehensive, photgraphicaly illustrated reference and instructing guie on classical ballet technique. In more than 2,600 photographs, Johan Renvall, Cynthia Harvey, Susan Jaffe, and an array o other dancers from such companies as the American Ballet Theatre and the Joffrey Ballet demonstrate in sequence each motion in the classical repertoire, from the most basic to the most advanced.

The book’s design matches each photograph with captions that details suitable instructing proficiencies and describe the proper instructing proficiencies and describe the proper execution of each step. A glossary defines mutual dance terms, and a pronunciation guide provides phonetic transcriptions of French ballet terms.

From Library JournalAn primary addition to the reference libraries of teachers and students of ballet. Warren, soloist with the Pennsylvania Ballet for 11 years and now associate professor of dance at the University of South Florida, explains the rectify execution of each step in the ballet vocabulary. Dancers from the American Ballet Theatre and the Joffrey Ballet appear in over 2600 photographs and illustrate the movement. Part 1 of the book covers basic conceptions of training, physical characteristics of the idealisti dancer, and suggestions for conducting a successful class. Part 2 is consecrated to sequential photographs of more involved steps and definitions of terminology. Warren includes stylistic variations–Soviet, Italian, French, etc. This book is unexampled in it is detail and clarity. For anybody with a severe interest in ballet. Highly recommended.
- Joan Stahl, Enoch Pratt Free Lib., Baltimore
Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review”An essential addition to the reference libraries of teachers and students of ballet…for anybody with a severe interest.” — Library Journal

Simply unequalled—nothing else is even close. — balletbooks.com

About the AuthorGretchen Ward Warren is professor of dance at the University of South Florida and author of The ARt of Teaching Ballet (UPF, 1996). She was a soloist with the Pennsylvania Ballet for eleven years and ballet mistress of American Ballet Theatre II for five.

Most helpful customer reviews

48 of 48 people found the following review helpful.
This book is exactly what we need!
By A
I am a beginning adult Ballet student who has been studying Ballet for only a month, but I already found this book very useful. It’s got a sequence of pictures of real ballet dancers (not drawings) illustrating each step very clearly and precisely. The other good thing is it’s got these pictures that show the “wrong” technique too for comparison. This is exactly what we students need. I took some ballroom dancing and there are a couple of standard technique books written on the subject, but they are all verbal discriptions so it is very hard to visualize the pictures. I wish there were a book just like this one for all the other dances. Anyway, this book is a MUST have for all serious, semi-serious ballet or dance students.

18 of 18 people found the following review helpful.
More Than The Basics!
By J. M WILINSKY
Among ballet dancers, this book is considered one of the best references for the professional dancer. It is not really for young beginners. For example, It may give the comparisons between French, Italian, Danish, and Russian versions of a particular step. I like to refer to this in some cases even more than dvd references, since it is often more complete. This book appears to cover center steps more thoroughly than barre steps. For better sources of barre exercises see my other reviews, especially “The Classic Ballet:…” by Lincoln Kirstein.

16 of 16 people found the following review helpful.
Excellent Reference Book
By A
This book is an indispensable reference book for any seriousstudent or instructor of ballet. Its many photographs of professionalsexecuting each step (up to 6 to 8 photographs showing each stage of a step) is extremely thorough. I have both taken and taught ballet for years and I have never seen another book as complete as this one. It provides both inspiration and clarification regarding the numerous ballet basics and steps, while including differences in steps from the different schools of ballet.While this is the more affordable version of the hardcover edition, I would recommend the hardcover edition if you can afford it. This is surely a book that will be looked at numerous times and will remain in your personal library (or dance school, public school, or public library) for many years.

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