Teachers, with young or beginner ballet students the use of proper vocabulary is a must right from the start. So, why not reinforce the lessons with a fun “Do-Now” or “Take-Home” task?! Below are basic ballet vocabulary terms. Have students create a ballet movement sentence starting with plié and ending with plié. Then have them fill in the other actions with movement from the terms above or from the American Ballet Theatre Dictionary.
NAME: ____________________________________________
Ballet Terms
Plié: To bend
Tendu: To stretch
Temps lie: Connected movement
Port de bras: Carriage of the arms
Bras bas (en bas): Arms low or down
Rond de jambe: To circle the leg
Sauté: To jump
Jeté: A jump from one foot to the other
Échappé: To escape (from 1st to 2nd position and back to first)
Chassé: One foot chases the other foot out of position
***For more ballet terms, look at the American Ballet Theatre’s online ballet dictionary at:
http://abt.org/education/dictionary/index.html
PLIE ______________________ ____________________
__________________ _______________________ _______________________
PLIE
(The end)
