Hai! I wish you’re doing okay today and welcome to my class where I tell experience not book ! 😉
Wohoo, this day we’re going to talk about Developpes. Oh wait, Before we got there, I think it’s better if we learn a bit the term of Adage first (Uh, look at that, I sounded like a professor haha. Lame *fiuhh* ). Well, anyway, Terminologically adage is pronounced adazh which means slow, slowly, leisurely and with grace.
In Ballet term adage means exercises or movements performed slowly with ease, grace and fluidity, highlighting the dancer’s line and balance. Term of Adage is also a description of slow exercises series performed in Center, after Pirrouette section and before Allegro section. Usually adage exercises contained of Developpes , Fouette of adage, Grands or Demi Grands Ronds de Jambe, and Penchee (aha you hear Developpes now! 😉 )
Okay here we go, in simple way Developpes means to unfold. Developpes in ballet term means an unfolding action of the leg. Basically, we have Developpes devant (unfolding leg to front side of the body), Developpes derriere (unfolding leg to the back of the body), Developpes a la seconde (unfolding leg to the side of the body) and Developpes passe ( front or back leg is unfolded opposite the start position). Meanwhile according to the direction we have Developpes ecarte (unfolding leg towards downstage or upstage corner) . Other than those basic developpes names you should ask a ballet master since I ain’t one 🙂 .
That’s all about terminology we need (which still i got from Dictionary of Classical Ballet by Rhonda Ryman).
Practically this is how I do a developpes a la seconde. (note: the picture is not me nor mine ):
-  Place my leg in 3rd or 5th position (this is normal practice start position, but when we do a dancing piece I bet we can start from any position 😉 ).
- Drag my working leg to a petite retire position through ball (that way I can feel my plantar and dorsal muscles in my supporting leg is “grabbing” the floor securely, and my working leg will show an articulated footwork, which will looked delicate and fluid 🙂 ) ,
- After that I should continue drag my leg to a retire position exactly through my tibia bone(that way I can feel my leg is fully lengthened upward ). As I do this I must retain my upper body and my center in order to stay balanced ( it is quite challenging to maintain your center and your balance if you don’t get training for abdominal and back muscles).
- Now that the leg is folded in retire position,this is the time to execute a developpes (unfolding action of the leg) . As we unfold the leg, we might need to be aware of our pelvis and our knee placement. The pelvis of supporting leg shouldn’t be dropped and tucked down as we maintain the turn out, meanwhile the pelvis of working leg shouldn’t be raised as we unfold the leg to the position of Attitude a la seconde ( It’s quite challenging to keep the pelvis square) . Also, The working knee should stay firm at the same quality of turn out.
- Finally a completion of developpes movement 😀 . Keep it nice, slow yet balanced, ease and fluid, and gracefully done like listening to an adagio music or should i say adazh😉
Okayyyyy hopefully we all can do such a lovely developpes and gorgeous adage 😀
See you later! 🙂