Promenade IN Arabesque
Promenade in Arabesque is a type of promenade that commonly appears in adagio combinations in center work, choreography, and partnering work. A promenade is a ballet term that generally describes a held position that uses a turnout motion of the standing foot and leg to rotate the position as a solid piece. A promenade that returns to its starting facing will rotate a full 360 degrees, but promenades can use less or more rotations depending on their purpose in the combination or choreography. All promenades are useful for working on balance, finding rotation from the correct muscles, and overall stability.
Promenades in arabesque are known to be a challenging adagio step because of the stability and slow and controlled quality they require. To begin a promenade in arabesque, it’s important to find a placed and held arabesque with a back leg height you can maintain through the whole step before beginning the rotation. Additionally, since a non-partnered promenade uses only your supporting leg as your balance and rotation point, it’s important to begin with a lifted, turned out, and stable standing leg. Think of the back of the leg stretching and the leg being held from the top of the hamstring and turnout muscles.
It’s equally necessary to establish a lifted and placed upper body and back and when you begin to promenade. The back and arms should feel supported and not dropped at any point during the promenade. One of the difficult elements of promenade in arabesque is keeping the connection from your back leg to your upper body. Because the back toe and front hand will be far away from each other in arabesque, remember that they are still part of the same position. It can be useful to think of the toe and front hand reaching and stretching up and out simultaneously. Try to keep the farthest possible space between these two points (while keeping your shoulders down). You can use the opposition of these points of the position for stability and connection through the promenade. Your position should be a stable and solid piece with every limb reaching out while staying placed through the step.
The supporting leg is solely responsible for the actual “promenade” element of this step. Once you have a stable and supported arabesque, you can begin to promenade by bringing the heel of the standing side forward along with the rest of the standing leg. The whole standing leg should rotate as part of the “turning out” action, not just the foot. The top of the standing leg should never try to start the rotation before the heel and foot though, as this will immediately create an unsupportive leg and turned-in foot. Keep the rotator muscles activated and lift from the top of the hamstring while the supporting leg continues to rotate. Make sure you are not trying to rotate so quickly that the arabesque position can’t keep up or so that the arabesque leg starts to drift to a position that isn’t crossed anymore. The back arabesque leg should always stay lined up with your center line. It can be challenging at first to coordinate this rotation on one leg, but it will help ensure that every part of the position stays held through the promenade. Instead of rotating a lot all at once, which can easily pull your arabesque off balance, use smaller heel and leg turnout movements for more continuous rotation.
With practice, promenades in arabesque can become a beautiful way to show a controlled adagio movement quality. They also are a wonderful preparation for arabesque turns, which just might be featured in an upcoming post!
Have a wonderful Technique Thursday!
