My pupils often ask me why we need to do battement tendu in ballet. Although it does seem like a mundane exercise, there are many good reasons that dancers should be practicing their battement tendu as often as possible.
Balanchine quoted “If you just do battements tendu well, you don’t have to do anything else.”
I am sure that he exaggerated here, but he does make the point that battement tendu, along with the plie are the very foundation of a ballet dancer’s technique.
What Is A Battement Tendu In Ballet?
Translated literally, the word battement tendu means stretched beating. The dancer takes her straight working leg out along the floor with pressure, to its longest stretched position. The toes remain in contact with the floor at all times, and the foot then returns to a closed position with pressure on the floor.
A tendu can be done from almost any position, typically first or fifth. It looks like one leg is stretched away from the body, but the point of the toes is still on the floor as the dancer’s foot arches/stretches. A tendu should be a fluid movement that travels through checkpoints without stopping.
What is the Purpose of Battement Tendu?
Here are some of the main reasons that dancers do battement tendu:
- To develop strong and supple feet.
- To learn how to move the feet and legs correctly in dance.
- To build strength and control the dancer will need to stand on one leg while the other leg works in all directions.
- To learn to articulate the feet.
- To strengthen the ankles.
What Muscles Are Used When Doing A Battement Tendu?
The ankle should be pointed by the big calf muscles; the smaller ‘extrinsic’ foot muscles control the alignment of the ankle, while the toes are pointed by the small ‘intrinsic’ foot muscles.
How To Do A Battement Tendu
How To Get The Most Out Of Your Battement Tendu In Ballet
Here are some tips to ensure that you are getting the most out of your battement tendu.
- Practice leading with your inner thigh to work on your turnout. Keep your inner thigh engaged throughout.
- Think about the stability of the working side.
- Use your feet and work through the ball of your foot. When your foot is stretched, the ankles and the metatarsal joints are fully stretched.
- Make sure your closings are perfect, whether it be first or fifth position.
- Feel resistance of the inner thighs on the closings.
- Lead with your heel when going out to the front and with your toe as you close. The reverse is true when doing battement tendu derriere.
- Keep your upper body controlled throughout.
How To Improve Your Battement Tendu
Use Your Turnout
The battement tendu in ballet is an excellent exercise to improve your turnout – but only if you remember to use it. When your leg is fully extended, think about rotating your heel towards you by rotating your whole leg outwards from the hip, no matter whether you are pointing to the side, back, or front.
But make sure you think about your turnout at every other stage of your tendu as well: when you’re standing on two feet, all the way through to that final extended position.
Use Your Feet
A tendu is about not standing on two feet and then just pointing the foot in front of you. It is also every position in between.
Make sure you show your foot moving along the floor, through the demi-pointe position, then extending through the toes to the fully-pointed final position – and reverse this step by step on the way back. Make sure to keep pressure on the floor as you do this, and your big toe never leaves the floor.
As you start to slide that foot out, stay on the floor as long as possible and only lift your heel off the floor on the way out when you have to, and get it back on the floor as soon as you can on the way back in.
Never scrunch your toes or your foot. Feel the muscles elongating.
Keep Your Foot Centred
Move through the center of your foot, not the back or the front, leading with the heel. This will prevent you from doing things like rolling your ankles, sickling your feet, or winging your feet.
Get longer legs
As you extend your leg along the floor, imagine your leg is growing longer as you slide it out. Work on pulling that leg away from the hip (growing it longer). Think of stretching the back of the knee and keeping the muscles above the knees nice and tight.
Over time, your muscles will respond to this effort and change to give you the lovely shape we see on the legs of professionals.
Don’t forget the supporting leg
Don’t forget to hold the turnout in the supporting leg and stretch it well. Sometimes we are so busy thinking about the working leg that we forget about the leg we are standing on.
Variations of Battement Tendu
In ballet class, there will be many variations of this important exercise. The dancer will experience slow and quick combinations as well as some of the ones mentioned below:
- a battement tendu lowering the ball of the foot in the extended position then repointing it before closing
- a battement tendu with a pas de cheval
- a battement tendu flexing the foot in the extended position, then repointing it and closing
- a battement tendu with a transfer of weight
- a battement tendu into temps lie
So next time your teacher asks you to do a battement tendu, rather than moaning, think of all the benefits you are gaining as a dancer.
Hi Michele,
As usual, your article is absolutely excellent, I really enjoyed the reading!
My teacher’s name was Michele as well, she was so nice but very hard on us when were dancing:)
I remember that every single day we were doing battement tendu and even after years of doing this exercise, my teacher was still correcting us, it is not as easy as it seems. What I like about ballet is that we always have to perfect the exercises that we do, no matter which one, even the fingers positions are very important. I love ballet:)
Thank you for this useful article!
You are right. Ballet is a constant fight for perfectionism. Thank you for your feedback.
Hey! It’s really that I just found your site because I’m actually at work, beside one of my co-workers that loves to dance.
She’s actually a dance teacher for kids in our area.
She’s confirming that your article is excellent. I have no doubt that people fallng on your site will come back for more.
I’m not that into dance and ballet, but you sure have found a new subscriber (beside me hehe).
Have a good one.
Thanks for stopping by Sim.
I have never done ballet before but after reading your article I have a couple of questions. I do a lot of horse back riding and my right ankle is weak when I have not ridden for a while. I think if I did the battement tendu it would strengthen my ankle. My question is I also get cramps in that same foot at times especially when I stretch my toes. How would I cure this?
Horse riding and ballet are totally opposite, as in horse riding your heels point down and toes point inwards and in ballet the reverse.
For a weak ankle the best exercise would be to do slow rises, keeping your weight on your big toes and your heels together. Once you get stronger, then you can try on one foot at a time. Cramping normally happens when you are not getting enough magnesium, salt which is not normally the case or phosphorus. Try Dolomite vitiman tablets.
Well well I learnt two new words today – battement and tendu – so you know I am not a regular visitor to ballet classes but it gives me info to have a conversation with my German daughter who is a professional modern dancer.
The video was very helpful and I can see myself using the exercise for my daily stretch exercises. a presentation that was simple to follow for all. There were two references in french, perhaps a little translation for us non french viewers.
Thanks for stopping by Courtney and glad you learnt something new today.