Beats

Batterie. Entrechats. Beats.

A rose by any other name...

Uncrossing and crossing the legs, as in entrechats quatre or entrechats six, can be spectacular to watch and, like much of ballet, very frustrating to learn. There are a few different ways to perform (and teach) beats, but they all encompass uncrossing and crossing the legs. Some schools favor opening the legs wide, others prefer keeping the opening small and emphasizing the crossing more. I teach beats by emphasizing the first battu, the first crossing of the legs. My changements (called "Jerry's changements" by one of my students, although I take no credit for them; the great Stanley Williams taught me how to do them and I simply pass on his teachings) are not simply jumping up and landing with the other foot front. I want the legs to change instantly. The instant your toes leave the floor, you have changed the position of your legs. You do not wait, you do not open the legs and wait till you land to put them back into fifth; you change instantly. This first battu, this first crossing, takes care of two movements, each movement of the legs being counted as one movement. From fifth, out is "Un", in is "Deux"; one, two, with each "In" going to a strong, crossed, fifth position.

Fifth position is often referred to as a position of the feet, when in reality it is a position of the legs. You must feel fifth postion in your thighs, very high up, not in your ankles. Since turnout is rotation of the leg in the hip socket, proper turnout will allow you to have a very high (in the legs) fifth position. Since beats go from fifth to fifth most of the time, you have to cross the legs very high, just as you should stand in fifth.

The problem with a lot of jumps is not starting whatever you are doing soon enough. If I asked you to jump up and do entrechats six on the way down, you'd say "Jerry, now you're talkin' crazy!" And yet, that is what a lot of dancers do; they wait to start their aerial work. You must begin the instant your toes leave the floor; it gives you more time. Some dancers think, for entrechats six for instance, that you have to jump really high to do them. In the Danish school, you are expected to move your legs so rapidly that you don't have to jump high in order to perform a six; if you jump really high, they expect you to do more beats, such as huit or even dix. Entrechats six was originally a woman's step, performed very rapidly and in a very exciting way, close to the floor. To do this, you have to change the legs quickly, and practicing by doing changements Stanley's way will help.

One of my students said another teacher was telling her she had to open her legs more- she was confused as to which was right. Both this other teacher and I are saying the same thing, just in different ways. Yes, you must open the legs first- how else can you cross them if you don't un-cross them first? What you must do after you open them is cross them, REALLY cross them, back into fifth, then repeat until you've done your quatre or six or douze (twelve uncrossings and crossings, which Nijinsky could do). If you don't cross your beats, they not only don't look very good, they aren't correct. Most dancers have got the opening part down, but they don't cross their legs in the air enough. Emphasizing the first crossing will help that and that's what Stanley's changements do.

Now, after we get that first changement down, we move to entrechats quatre. If you've done the first change instantly, then all you do is open the legs and land in fifth with your other foot front. It will actually feel as if you haven't done anything, as one of my students said when she really got it. It should feel more like "Change-land" instead of "Out-in-out-in". You've still opened the legs, but you've conceptualized the step differently, making it seem easier, which is what proper technique should feel like; easier, not harder. When you do a step right, it actually is easier. Proper technique is a more efficient way of performing a step, using less muscular energy due to coordination of body mechanics.

Wow, is that a mouthful!

Going further, entrechats six should feel like "Change-change-land", not "Out-in-out-in-out-in". In fact, the way you practice sixes is by doing quatres as fast as you can, and then landing with the other foot front. Don't think six is an entirely different beast; many dancers who have good entrechats quatres do this and their sixes are more rubbing the heels together than real beats.

So, you must cross your legs in your beats. Yes, you open them, but then you must cross them, REALLY CROSS THEM, just like your fifth position, and you must start this the instant you leave the floor.

See you in class.