Twyla Tharp

Next, tendre, to stretch.

to reach out from that base, not so far as you're going to fall, but far enough so that you have to evolve and occupy a little bit more space each time you do it.

And you will go first from the tendu to a plié, to a tendu to a plié, and then tendu to a straight leg, which by drawing in, you're pulling the center even higher.

And so therefore it comes later in the series of exercises.

They're designed to evolve, right?

After the stretches comes the rond de jambe, one of the few exercises actually that's circular.

Most of ballet comes from fencing.

It's very linear.

It's the attack, it's the retreat.

But it doesn't have a whole lot of that going on unless somebody's gotten very ambitious and

flamboyant with their fencing styles, could be, I don't know.

But in any case, rond de jambe is the circling of the leg from a full fourth forward all the way to an open second, all the way to a full fourth back, all the way back to your second, all the way back to your fourth forward and down, full rotation.

Both sides, by the way, you're always reversing.

Even the ones that are in a symmetrical position, you still reverse right and left because, as I'm sure you're well aware, right and left occupy...

your body all the time and are constantly arguing with one another.

We have an interior conflict going on that makes almost anything else in life impossible.

But so we have right and left, which we're always trying to balance, okay?

After rond de jambe, you can have petit battement, which is little throws, little throws.

So from your fifth or from your first throw,

You're reaching quickly out, little darting movements, right?