Relevé

[ruhl-VAY] - “raised” -  refers to the rising movement of the body that starts with the foot completely engaged with the floor and finishes in demi-pointe, or the position of the foot where only the metatarsals are touching the floor (heel and arch are raised). Relevé begins with a demi plié and finishes on a straight leg (unbent knee).

BONUS GEEKY STUFF: There are two different ways to relevé: 1) With a slight spring up to demi pointe and 2) With a continuous, fluid movement from plié up to demi pointe. The French school teaches the second method of relevé and the Cecchetti and Vaganova, or Russian, folks prefer the first (although the Russian school calls the step “temps levé sur les pointes”, or “time lifted on the points”.

WHY WE DO IT

Relevé is one of the seven basic movements of ballet and is a part of numerous more common advanced ballet movements. Relevé decreases the surface area of the foot on the floor, thus making a more efficient (less oblong) balancing point on which to turn. Circular objects rotate better than oblong ones, right?

Relevé lengthens the line of the body, making the dancer appear taller and elongated. And in the great words of Cher from Clueless, “I want to be 5’10” just like Cindy Crawford”.

Relevé also strengthens the calf muscles, stretches the front of the ankle joint, and (if the dancer is correctly doing the movement finishing with a straight knee), engages the quadriceps and gluteal muscles. Basically, it’s a super great muscle toner and is easy to do practically anywhere. Relevés while brushing your teeth, anyone?

HOW TO DO IT BETTER

The tendency of most dancers when performing a relevé is to move from correct body placement into an anterior pelvic tilt, or what many teachers term “duck butt”. You can keep this from happening by actively engaging your lower abdominal muscles when rising (think of someone giving you a front-wedgie).

The more flexible the front of your ankle, the higher your relevé will be. So . . . to make your relevé better, stretch your feet. Find a friend, have a seat on the floor, and ask them to gently press down on the top of your foot while your leg is straight. (Make sure they are stretching your ANKLE toward the floor rather than just your toes).


MORE BONUS GEEKY STUFF: The Russian ballet method has another kind of relevé. In the Vaganova method, the term relevé can also refer to “battement relevé lent” or “beated slow rise” which is a slow raising of the straightened leg from tendu up to 45 or 90 degrees and then back down.

Photo credit: John Manning

Dancer: Emma Grosjean