Classical Ballet: Battement Dégagés

Ballet Technique: Battement Dégagés

Battement dégagés (Battement being "beat" and Dégagé being "disengage") are a very common exercise at barre. They are used to strengthen a dancers toes and point. This is a very helpful exercise and will be very beneficial to the dancer, strong toes means higher leaps and quieter landings. "Battement dégagé is the basic preparatory exercise for all petit allegro steps." (Warren 95) it is very fundamental, but all fundamentals are very necessary.

 A dégagé, at barre, will usually start in fifth or first position, pictured I am starting in fifth. What position you start in doesn't really matter, it is usually by preference of teacher or instructor. Remember when you are in your starting position to lock your knees and turn your hips out as well as tighten your core and keep your body straight. These are all necessities in ballet otherwise your body will be very awkward looking.

 The first thing to do at the start of a dégagé is to stretch one leg out or "brush the leg outward" (Warren 94), remaining turned out, into a demi-pointe. It is important to keep both legs straight and both hips at the same level. If you find you are sinking down into your support leg, straighten it out and lift from it so your body is pulled up. The leg in front of you should still be straight and your demi-pointe should be very stretched.

 And the final step, the actual dégagé. Dégagé means "disengage" and it's quite literal, when the idea of this is to disengage the floor. In order to disengage the floor however, you must pushed up with a fully pointed toe. You should not actually be lifting your foot off the ground, but instead push off the floor with your toes as you point. Do not let your foot go up too far, dégagés are much lower than most other battements. When you re-engage with the floor remember to softly touch the ground as you do not want it to be audible. Téndu back to your starting position and you have finished the step.

This concludes my blog post, and I hope that you have learned something, new or experienced. It can be very nice to hear someone else's take on an exercise and what they think about it, so you can also do so if you agree or like what they say. Do you have anything specific you think about during dégagés?