You wrote:

I'm perfecting (or trying to, at least) something that Ms. A calls "flic-flac."  

>The moving leg begins at sur le cour-de-pied on the front of the supporting leg and whips out, very quickly, into second.  The movement does brush the floor a little bit, but doesn't seem to be a true frappe.  In any case, the leg returns just as quickly to sur le coup-de-pied, but behind the supporting leg.  

>On Tuesdays and Thursdays, however, Ms. K calls the exact same thing the "royale."  Ms. K was educated at North Carolina School of Dance and has been all over the map as a professional dancer.  But she hasn't proclaimed herself to be a disciple of any single school.  

A "flic-flac," (It's only name, as far as I know) is from the Russian school.  However, clasically it starts with the foot a tendue a-la-second, pointed, 45 degrees off the floor.  The foot comes down and the ball of the foot brushes the floor as it moves to sur-le-coupe-de-pied and then beyond that position, to a crossed position past the standing leg.  Then the foot is thrust back to 45 degrees second, and returned to the crossed position, then back out to end in 45 degrees a-la-second.  It is performed en dedans or en dehors (front to back; back to front).

But rather than the foot ending up in sur-le-coupe-de-pied, I was always taugh that the foot ended in second position, 45 degrees off the floor.

The basic movement of the foot out from the body to an extended position then back into the body position is a battement.

In the Russian school, a battement frappe usually starts sur-le-coupe-de-pied and extends outward and then back to to the strating position (front-front, front-back and vice versa), and the foot very rarely brushes the floor in these frappes.

In the Cecchetti school, the foot strikes the floor.

I'm not sure what Ms. K. is takling about in her description of the "royale."  I was always taught, regardless of the school, that the royale is a changement with a beat.  "Jump-beat-change!"  Although flic-flac may be done with the standing foot on the floor or raising to demi-pointe while the foot points 45 degrees second, the royale involes leaving the floor.

I'm not knocking Ms. K!  I have found many very experienced teachers whom I've had to ask for explanations of exercises because they were calling them something different than I learned in my study of the different schools, both on paper and by watching vidoes.

I usually like to try to translate the steps into basic English words, like jump-beat-change for the royale.  That often helps, especially if the words fall into a cadence that can fit the music.

anonymous

• UH OH! - ana - 23.02. 20:40:21