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How to Play an Eleve
In a ballet class, the eleve is an extremely straightforward movement that involves lifting up onto the balls of the feet. That's all? Yes. If that's not difficult enough for your sensibilities, we are able to delve into it in a touch more detail. There's another exercise in ballet class which is just about the same except that it's done in a demi-plie or grand-plie, meaning the knees are bent to a varying degree. This one is referred to as a releve.
As you could guess, the intention of the eleve and the releve is to build the leg muscles as well as the ankles and feet. Beginning ballet classes are where you will see the most of these being performed, since mastering them is significant for the correct positioning of almost all of the other ballet exercises.
Often in a ballet class, the teacher will do a seperate exercise purely for eleves and releves. The pianist needs to play a selection of music that's in a moderate tempo and it needs to sound as if it's moving faster than it is. This is for psychological purposes, enabling the dancers to stay in the positions longer than they believed they could. It is a ballet position, especially for beginners, where the muscles start to burn fairly quickly.
The piano player can assist the dancers in maintaining their positions through the muscle burn and not break form by anticipating the downbeats in the musical selection, and by gently rushing the tempo toward the center of the phrase, slowing down again as it nears the end. This makes the phrases seem shorter to the listener.
It can also be helpful to match the shape of the melodic material to the motions of the dancer, which makes the exercise more fun. It's always good to have fun whenever there's an opening for it, even in something so strictly disciplined as a ballet class.
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As you could guess, the intention of the eleve and the releve is to build the leg muscles as well as the ankles and feet. Beginning ballet classes are where you will see the most of these being performed, since mastering them is significant for the correct positioning of almost all of the other ballet exercises.
Often in a ballet class, the teacher will do a seperate exercise purely for eleves and releves. The pianist needs to play a selection of music that's in a moderate tempo and it needs to sound as if it's moving faster than it is. This is for psychological purposes, enabling the dancers to stay in the positions longer than they believed they could. It is a ballet position, especially for beginners, where the muscles start to burn fairly quickly.
The piano player can assist the dancers in maintaining their positions through the muscle burn and not break form by anticipating the downbeats in the musical selection, and by gently rushing the tempo toward the center of the phrase, slowing down again as it nears the end. This makes the phrases seem shorter to the listener.
It can also be helpful to match the shape of the melodic material to the motions of the dancer, which makes the exercise more fun. It's always good to have fun whenever there's an opening for it, even in something so strictly disciplined as a ballet class.
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About the Author:
This post is presented by Gaylord Pannitron. To hear eleve music you may visit Ballet Class Music and hear free samples by composer/pianist/dancer Don Caron from his First Class Album series of music for ballet class.