THE STORY OF A GRAND BATTEMENT & A ROCKET SHIP

There once lived a lonely rocket ship sitting on a NASA launch pad, waiting eagerly for someone to hop in! Until one day, the perfectly primed astroballerina Bella leaped onto the tarmac. She jumped in, with her supporting leg as the launch pad and her working leg as the rocket ship.

"10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1... BLAST OFF!" The working leg (rocket ship) launches fast into the air, separating from the pad, while the launch pad stays anchored and strong!

I use this analogy day in and day out to teach grand battements—and no matter the age of the student, they adore it, and it gets AMAZING results! Who said learning serious ballet technique can’t be fun?!

Once my students had a solid understanding of counter-pulling the working leg away from the body, combined with a strong standing leg (demonstrating proper weight transfer), we never looked back! Strong, supple, smooth grand battements - 10 out of 10 times, guaranteed!

Dynamic stretches like leg swings and active flexibility stretches are the bread and butter of beautifully executed, next-level grand battement technique. Try this active flexibility stretch to elevate your technique: Face the barre, feet in 5th position, lift the right leg onto the barre in devant, keep hips square, hands on the barre, and lift the leg off, holding it—even if just a centimeter. Relax back down, and build up to 15–25 repetitions a day, in both devant and 2nd positions.