Positions of the feet in ballet

The positions of the feet in ballet is a fundamental part of classical ballet technique that defines standard placements of feet on the floor. There are five basic positions in modern-day classical ballet, known as the first through fifth positions. In 1725, dancing master Pierre Rameau credited the codification of these five positions to choreographer Pierre Beauchamp.[1] Two additional positions, known as the sixth and seventh positions, were codified by Serge Lifar in the 1930s while serving as Ballet Master at the Paris Opéra Ballet, though their use is limited to Lifar's choreographies.[2][3] The sixth and seventh positions were not Lifar's inventions, but revivals of positions that already existed in the eighteenth century, when there were ten positions of the feet in classical ballet.[4]

  1. ^ Harris-Warrick, Rebecca; Brown, Bruce Alan (2005). The Grotesque Dancer on the Eighteenth-Century Stage. University of Wisconsin Press. p. 115. ISBN 978-0299203542.
  2. ^ Lifar, Serge (1951). Lifar on Classical Ballet. Allan Wingate. ASIN B0006ASYP2.
  3. ^ Ries, Frank W. D. (1986). The Dance theatre of Jean Cocteau. Ann Arbor: University Microfilms International Research Press. p. 132. ISBN 0-8357-1994-4.
  4. ^ Paolacci, Claire (2004). "Serge Lifar and the Paris Opera during World War II". Journal of the Oxford University History Society: 8.