Балет

[melsauer.livejournal.com]

I have yet another presentation to do! This time, however, I am going to be talking about ballet and also teaching it to the class. I have a few questions аbout the basic formations of phrases that deal with how to move one's body and ballet terms. I realize that ballet is a specialized construct and the terminology may be different than in English. That being said:

to do ballet: делать балет
Does this make sense? Or is the verb танцевать needed?

ballet shoes/ pointe shoes: ботинки балета/ботинки пуната.
I found the word пуант to mean pointe on a few Russian ballet websites, but I've also seen simply пунт.

to go en pointe: танец в пуантах
Same deal as before. Also, I've seen танцевать на коньчики пальцев as meaning to dance on the tips of your toes. Does this make more sense than на пуантах?

to make a circle with your arms: закруглять ваши руки ИЛИ образовать круг с руками.
Which one makes more sense?

to make a triangle with your legs: образовать треугольник с ногами.
Again, does this make sense?

When saying the opposite leg, does one use the adjective противоположный оr обратный as in the sentence raise your left leg, then raise your opposite arm?

raise your leg behind yourself: поднимать ногу позади себя? за собой?

in front of yourself: перед собой?

place your feet together/stand with your feet together: стоять с ногами вместе? или стоять с одной ногой вместе с другой ногой?

point your toes: указывать ваши пальцы ИЛИ показывать ваши пальцы

If I think of any more questions, I'll post. Thank you so much!

Comments

Ещё вопрос

[melsauer.livejournal.com]

rotate your leg so that your heel is facing the audience: вращаться вашу ногу, чтобы пятка стоит к аудитории

[freedomcry.livejournal.com]

повернуть ногу пяткой к публике

Or if you insist, повернуть ногу так, чтобы она оказалась пяткой к публике, but that's redundant.

Re: Ещё вопрос

[solaq.livejournal.com]

You can't say like that. I didn't understand what exactly you want to say, but mayby Повернуть ногу пяткой на зрителя??? Sorry, if I didn't help

Re: Ещё вопрос

[wolk-off.livejournal.com]

вращаться вашу ногу, чтобы пятка стоит к аудитории
approximately means
"rotate itself your leg so that heel is standing to the audience"
and makes no more sense in Russian than in English...

[freedomcry.livejournal.com]

- заниматься балетом

- балетные туфли (ботинки are boots)

- на пуантах; "on the tips of your toes" is "на цыпочках"

- сделать ноги треугольником

- противоположный is correct; обратный is not so much "opposite" as "reverse"

[solaq.livejournal.com]

not балетные туфли, but "пуанты".

[solaq.livejournal.com]

- округлить/закруглить руки
- поставить ноги треугольником (?)
- поднять ногу назад (?)
- перед собой - OK
- ноги вместе
- maybe показывать пальцы, but I'm not sure

[zhp.livejournal.com]

point your toes - тяните ногу

[oryx_and_crake]

to do ballet: танцевать в балете (or ставить балет if you mean "to produce, to stage"

ballet shoes/ pointe shoes: балетные туфельки

to go en pointe: танец на пуантах
танцевать на коньчики пальцев is wrong both grammatically and syntactically

to make a circle with your arms: округлить руки

to make a triangle with your legs: сделать ноги треугольником? I am not sure what you mean - if you publish a picture, we might be better able to help you

the opposite leg - we used разноименный

in front of yourself: перед собой

place your feet together/stand with your feet together: поставить ступни вместе

point your toes: тянуть носок

rotate your leg so that your heel is facing the audience: - повернуть ногу пяткой на зрителя (it does not sound good so I think there should be a special ballet term for that)

in terms of possible authenticity...

[margaritka.livejournal.com]

a lot of ballet taught is in french. i have
been told that a friend's sister learned *a
lot* of french during her time studying ballet
in a school in southern russia. however, never
having taken a class in russia myself, i cannot
verify this information.

this means that even in russia the terms for
dancing "en pointe" and for "turnout" may be
given in french.

Re: in terms of possible authenticity...

[oryx_and_crake]

yes, that's what I said, didn't I; на пуантах.
Turnout would most certainly be in French but I don't know the word for it.

Re: in terms of possible authenticity...

[margaritka.livejournal.com]

oh, i wasn't being critical :)

i was just making more of a general
comment about language use in a ballet
class and whether there would even be
"correct" russian terms for any ballet
poses/positions.

Re: in terms of possible authenticity...

[ceiteach.livejournal.com]

Turnout is выворотность.

[atranotte.livejournal.com]

to do ballet: танцевать балет

ballet shoes/ pointe shoes: пуанты

to go en pointe: танцевать на пуантах or танцевать на кончиках пальцев, depends on the whole sentence.

to make a circle with your arms - what do you mean? Arm positions?

to make a triangle with your legs: образовать треугольник с ногами.
Again, does this make sense?
No, it doesn't. Do you mean plie?

raise your leg behind yourself: поднимать ногу назад


in front of yourself: перед собой? Yes.

place your feet together/stand with your feet together: поставить ноги вместе

point your toes: тянуть носок/носки

[oryx_and_crake]

to do ballet could be also заниматься балетом, if we mean e.g. a student of a ballet school.

[atranotte.livejournal.com]

Yes, I agree :)

Clarification

[melsauer.livejournal.com]

Thanks for all the input.

For clarification: I sort of knew it would be difficult to transpose French/Russian terms for ballet, as pointed out by Margaritka, and I'm going to use the French for the moves (plie / плие, arabesque / арабеска, pirouette / пируэт etc.)

For the whole 'make a triangle with your legs' is a passe, but I'm trying to use simple terminology for those in my class who probably will not know the ballet terminology.

(as an aside: from my Russian-English dictionary -- I can hear the groans now -- is where I got the whole "rotate your legs in order to show the audience." I looked up the phrase 'face the audience' and received стоять к аудитории, which really didn't make sense in my mind at that moment, so apparently I wasn't thinking when I blindly wrote it down. . . :)

Just a few more quick questions:

I'm trying to explain good ballet posture to the class and came up with this: lower your shoulders, lift your head, and push out your chest опускайте плечи, поднимайте голову, и выставляйте грудь.
I'm sure there's a better way to say that

Also, when explaining how to do first position arms (where you make a circle with your arms like you're holding a giant beach ball): your hands arе lower than your elbows, and your elbows are lower than your shoulders: руки ниже локтей, и локти ниже плеч or I have руке ниже чем локти и локти ниже чем плечи.

Thanks again!

Re: Clarification

[melsauer.livejournal.com]

And when I say руке ниже чем локти I really mean руки. Sorry, my typing is atrocious

Re: Clarification

[ceiteach.livejournal.com]

руки is hands and arms together (including elbows) so you can't say руки ниже локтей. Кисти ниже локтей - is Ok in terms of sense and lexics and grammar but I'm not sure about stylistics. Локти ниже плеч is absolutely Ok.

When you come up with instructions, use perfective: опустите плечи, поднимите голову и выставите грудь. Again, I'm not sure about выставите, I don't like it. I always heard it as "грудь вперёд", without any verb. I think it'll be quite normal to say "опустите плечи, поднимите голову, грудь вперёд".

Плие, арабеска, пируэт are what is used here by dancers (and, yes, the above posts are just what you need to explain to your audience what these words mean).

[2-lya.livejournal.com]

The first arms position... I can understand this only because I danced ballet myself. I'm not sure it's good description for someone who never know about first position of arms.
What I would say is something like: make a circle with your arms, as you hold big imaginary ball and lift your arms without changing this position till your hand on the level of your diaphragm (you can use also - the edge of your ribs instead of diaphragm)
In Russian: округлите руки, как будто вы держите большой воображаемый мяч, и не меняя позиции рук, поднимите их перед собой, так чтобы кисти ваших рук оказались на уровне диафрагмы / границы ребер.

For "good posture": плечи расправлены и опущены, голова приподнята.
In English literally: shoulders are straighten and lower, head is lifted.

Oh, I also don't know if there is any difference in arms position in different ballet school. Maybe what you mean by "first" position is "preparatory" - when you don't lift your arms till the diaphragm level, but leave it down there.