Dance Dictionary: Assemble and Attitude

“Socrates learned to dance when he was seventy because he felt that an essential part of himself had been neglected.”

-Source Unknown

Rounding off the A’s to the dance dictionary are the ballet terms of assemble and attitude. Both commonly used in across the floor, at the barre, and in dance routines.

Assemblé [a-sahn-BLAY]

Simply put it means when two legs are joined together in the air. It is when the dancer shoots one leg up into the air and then jumps the second leg to join the two legs together in the air. Usually the dancer will land in fifth position of plie after the jump. A dancer can also take note that this term looks similar to the English of assemble. So, in an even simpler note, this term literally means to assemble the feet. They are apart and assemble together to finish.

 

Attitude [a-tee-TEWD]

An attitude is a standing position on one leg with the other leg lifted in the front or the back with the knee bent at an angle of 90 degrees and well turned out so that the knee is higher than the foot. The knee must be higher than the foot, otherwise the attitude turns into a jazz foot flick in comparison to the technical ballet attitude. The supporting foot may be à terre, sur la pointe or sur la demi-pointe. The arm on the side of the raised leg is held over the head in a curved position while the other arm is extended to the side. A dancer’s back in attitude should be straight, hips should be down, with a raised head to finish out the pose. Attitudes are also commonly done within turn sequences, or used in half in some leaps. Generally in ballet, they are poses, done with seamless execution.

~Julia Brewer