Blog 35 Jumps

Maybe a bit of a stupid confession, but I really thought pliés were meant for creating lenient muscles. To stretch and become more flexible. 

During lessons, though, I heard Lyda say quite regularly that many of the exercises we were doing were actual preparations for a wide range of jumps. So that’s not the point. I could have known.

But only after 1 ½ year has it become clear to me that a demi plié is a starting point for a jump. 

Well, let me look up what Agrippina Vaganova teaches about the elementals of jumping in ballet.

In a correct demi plié, the heels are not lifted from the floor. The main factor of the imparting force at the moment of leaving the floor is the heel. That is why it is essential to pay special attention to the correctness of the demi plié. 

The legs must be forcefully extended in the knees, arches, and toes at the moment of the jump. And after the jump, the feet must touch the floor first with the toe, then softly with the heel, and then lowered into demi plié.

When in jump, Lyda told us to “stay” in the air, hovering, so to speak. I learned that the word balloon is used to describe this.  Hovering in the air, you stay in a pose or position. 

For the development of the jump ending on both feet, the changement de pieds is the appropriate exercise. Every lesson we practice this elementary exercise. We stand in the 5th position, right foot front, in demi plié, push off from the floor, jump up, extending the toes and arching the feet. Then coming down, we change the feet; the left foot will be in the front.

The bigger the jump, the deeper de demi plié. And the arms must remain relaxed, from the shoulder to the hands, slightly curved.

I love the jumps. They ask every inch of you to remain composed yet energetic and are quite exhausting. I feel content after this explosion of force and would want to do this more often.

But that is my general remark on a lot of the exercises we perform. I would like to do them more often, in higher numbers. 

I was a member of two gyms, and the more spacious gym was the gym I departed from. Paying for two gyms and ballet amounts to quite a sum of money, so I had to make choices. I chose to keep the gym where I had the best lessons, and that was the smaller one. And of course, ballet is number one of my choices. 

But now I miss the spacious one, for that was the place where I could exercise my ballet moves and jumps. And that gym was open every day of the week. So now, I feel a bit incomplete. I can’t do my exercises the way I want on Saturdays and Sundays.

I know that I have to exercise more.