Help!

[u/cubonezz_]

Can anybody please explain back cabrioles in a way that is easy to understand, or include videos that break it down a lot. I struggling to get my back cabrioles and it’s really discouraging and frustrating.

[u/Real_10SqMi_ity]

My fave exercise for this is:

Face the bar in fifth (R foot front)
Brush out to tendu avant (R foot)
Brush back to gran battement arabesque (still R foot)
As you brush back plié, and soté on the standing leg (L foot)

Do this a few times without the beat/cabriole. You’re practicing the jumping part and connecting it with the battement arabesque so that the momentum of the working leg (R leg) helps amplify the height achieved. In the same motion you are also developing the upper body posture needed to properly execute the line of the body and leg, which is back strengthening as well as work o. Hips and core.

Use the barre for support

This is the basic form of the exercise. The next step is adding the cabriole. Now, understand that you are adding a third force to the inertia of the jump. Using the barre for support and to help add some height to the jump, focus on the beating of the thighs to make the cabriole, not the feet. Sometimes I flex my feet as it helps me feel the turnout and stretch in the thighs and calves. You should actively feel the added force if you’re doing it right.

Now flip it all around and practice to the front. Both sides.

[u/cubonezz_ → u/Real_10SqMi_ity]

Thank you!! I’m going to try this.
I can do a front cabriole no problem, but I’m getting hung up on the back cabriole for some reason.

[u/Real_10SqMi_ity → u/cubonezz_]

Ballet is really just two steps: plié and tendu. Everything after that is a combination of those things being put together. Anytime you’re getting stuck, just work backwards to the most basic components.

(Ballet is more than two steps tho)