7 Tips for a More Powerful Tour Jeté

It’s a staple of grand allégro, but tour jeté—also called grand jeté entournant or entrelacé—is not easy. Miami City Ballet School’s Geta Constantinescu shares how she helps her students fly higher.

Geta Constatinescu working with a Miami City Ballet School student. Photo by Pavel Antonov, Courtesy Miami City Ballet.

Prepare with care: “Let’s say you piqué arabesque on the right leg,” says Miami City Ballet School faculty member Geta Constantinescu. As you chassé sideways, “that right leg has to go in back, not in front of the left leg. Many don’t even notice that little mistake!” The left foot is then available as you turn to step forward onto it, going into the tour jeté.

Plié both legs generously as you brush the leg through first position, so you don’t jump from just one. “Use the floor to help elevate yourself.”

Be direct: Instead of brushing to grand battement devant, Constantinescu often sees dancers go through a rond de jambe or “something not very clear,” she says. “What is front, where is the toe going when you toss it in the air?” She suggests practicing the brush en avant in tendu and adagio combinations, to “imprint” that pathway.

Let the arms assist: Coordinate your port de bras with your grand battement. The arms go up through high fifth as you take off. They begin to open, Constantinescu says, “right at the top of the jump.”

Practice your takeoff and landing at the barre with this combination: Grand battement devant on demi-point, turning towards the barre as you close fifth to finish on the other side with the opposite leg in arabesque plié.

Think “forward”: As the legs switch, think of the arabesque in the air as a “demi-penché” to create space for a greater split. “Feel connected from the lower belly to the heart center as the leg goes back,” says Constantinescu. “That lifting of the sternum supports the line of the demi-penché.”

Imagine you’re “kicking a ball” with the front leg as the back leg scissors into arabesque, like in a big sissone ouvert. “This will incorporate that quality of split in the air.”