Steps Gone Into Hiding

Dance geometry.

Lately I have had this feeling that my vocabulary of steps has gotten visibly smaller. There has been a lot of focus on clean technique, on improving turn-out and forwarding heels, on long backs and elegant épaulemant. Which is all fine and as it should be and certainly what I need to do. Still, I´m really starting to miss some old friends, like big saut de basques, ballotés and ballonés, cabrioles (in all directions) and fouetteés. Even my frenemies brisé volé and those dreaded turning emboite jumps, which I just never seem to get right. Nonetheless, I would sometimes like to put our quest for perfection aside and just dance, whether I look elegant or not! Hah!

Come to think of lost steps, anyone out there know what this saut is called? It´s done basically like a changement, but you bend your knees in the air, like you would do in a pas de chat. I remember one teacher from waay back calling it "Italian changement", but I could be so very wrong. Anyway, it´s a fun jump and I would love to do it again. Also that grand saut, which starts like a pas de chat, but then you straighten the front leg in mid-air (and return to fifth pos. on landing) - I want to learn it so bad! I wonder if I could ask our teacher sometime? "Madame, I have this wish-list..." 

The video clip shows Dorothee Gilbert dancing in Raymonda. Watch out for the jump at 0:42, it´s the one I described above. We never did it quite this big though.