Exercises to improve your Grand Jete With Bethany Kingsley Garner | Move Dancewear
By Saskia Longley on 28th Oct 2024
How To Improve Your Grand Jete
Bethany Kingsley Garner is back with her ballet technique expertise and this time she is sharing her top tips and exercises on how to improve a grand jete. A grand jete is an essential but difficult part of ballet technique but done right can look elegant and mesmerising. Whether you are looking to nail your landing, improve your take off or achieve that perfect split in the air keep reading to find out the exercises Beth uses to master the grand jete….
Exercise one
Sauté into Demi plié - This exercise will help the stability of the jump. When taking off for a grand jete you need to use all these components so by using this preparation training you can ensure a safe landing.
Step forward to take off for a jump and bring your working leg to a cou-de-pied back, as you land hold on to your turn using your glutes, hamstrings and core.
Step back and repeat the other leg. Repeat x4 times on each side.
Exercise two
Lunge jump - This exercise will help you power up your jump, and give you strength from the back of the leg to be able to push up for the grand jete.
Take one leg back into a lunge, keeping knees over the toes, focus on the glutes and drive your back leg up into hop jump. Make sure you stretch the bottom foot on your supporting leg on take-off and focus on keeping the landing controlled. Repeat x4 times on each side and change legs.
Exercise three
Lung with a knee drop - This exercise uses the same feeling of a grand jete but gives you the control of feeling how far to push and being able to use your breath without the use of jumping. A hard component of a grand jete is ensuring the back leg is turned out and fully extended, this exercise will help you with this.
Take a deep lunge forward so the back leg knee is touching the ground. Use your hands to support your back up by pressing down on the supporting knee.
Using your back leg toes, push into the ground and bring the knee up to feel the stretch at the front of the leg. Make sure you breathe into the stretch and only go as far as comfortable.
Repeat x4 times on each leg.
Exercises four
Demi plie rise -This exercise helps you feel how the arms help the drive of the jumps and will bring the connectivity to the up movement and the arms coming to arabesque. The coordination of arms on a grade jete is so important and can get lost when focusing on the power of the jump.
Standing in first position, plie and bring your arms to 1st. Imagine you are taking off for a jump so use the same energy in the legs, push to a rise at the same time bringing your arms to 1st arabesque imagining this is the top of the jump. Repeat x8 times.
Shop Bethany's much loved collection of stunning dance leotards and skirts here!
For more dance technique tips from Beth checkout her Bethany Kingsley Garners Top 3 Exercises To Improve Your Fouetté blog.
The Move Dance Team x