"Floating" grand jeté videos

October 26, 2015 1:00 PM

Are there any good videos of "floating" grand jetés on YouTube (or other online streaming video sites)?

I'm teaching an introductory physics class, and as part of our discussion of center of mass I'd like to show a video of a grand jeté that seems to "float", either from classical ballet or from contemporary dance. I would prefer that it be a professional dancer in the context of a performance, if at all possible; but it's remarkably hard to search YouTube for a specific dance move without turning up umpteen training videos.

The best I could find was this video from a production of La Bayadère, starting around 1:35. I'll use it if I can't find anything better, but if I could find something without the in-your-face Orientalism, so much the better.

posted by Johnny Assay to Media & Arts (10 answers total)

Best answer: Baryshnikov dancing the cavalier in his Nutcracker might work. There's a lovely sequence of turning grand jetes. Later in the coda, he and Gelsey Kirkland get nice ballon in their grand jetes as well. Here's a "ballon" dance-off from Le Corsaire which might also be helpful.
posted by ChuraChura at 2:02 PM on October 26, 2015 [1 favorite]

Check out this Ric Burns' documentary on American Ballet Theatre. I'm almost positive there's a grand jete somewhere in there.
posted by invisible ink at 3:22 PM on October 26, 2015

Here's a great clip of Sylvie Guillem.

In this clip, Paloma Herrera does the same variation at 6:22.
posted by invisible ink at 3:38 PM on October 26, 2015

Argh, it's not the same variation, but it does include grant jetes.
posted by invisible ink at 3:47 PM on October 26, 2015 [1 favorite]

The final scene of "Billy Elliot" has Adam Cooper's spectacular leap in slow motion.
posted by Dolley at 4:19 PM on October 26, 2015

Best answer: The one you post is an example of coupe jetes, that is what you are looking for then this might help. It has both a man and a woman doing them and even has them in slow motion after showing at full speed.

Anyway if that is they type you are looking for you may want to try searching for "coupe jete" or "coupe jete en tournant" to find a video that is exactly what you want.
posted by magnetsphere at 4:21 PM on October 26, 2015

I think I know exactly what you are looking for: videos of a grand jeté where the dancer seems to hover at the peak of the jump, seemingly defying physics.

There is one in slow-motion in the video in this article
Here is another one called Zero Gravity.

I found these with a google search on the words "grand jete slow motion hover" on the video tab. In the resulting hits, the word 'gravity' came up a lot, too.

a similar search [grand jete slow motion] on youtube turned up:

Naturally Lightweight
Grand Jete Variation - Paquita
PNB's Grand Jeté for Royal Ballet LIVE
posted by QuakerMel at 5:09 PM on October 26, 2015

And in terms of searching for additional videos, if one of those doesn't do the trick for you: once you find a performance containing a grand jeté, you can add the name of the ballet/scene to your search and see if you can find other dancers performing.
posted by QuakerMel at 5:12 PM on October 26, 2015

Best answer: This Angel Corella performance as the slave in Le Corsair at 3:40 and 6:50 looks like what you are describing.
posted by gemmy at 5:45 PM on October 26, 2015

Response by poster: Thanks for the suggestions, everyone! All of the answers were helpful, but I ended up using the ones I've marked as "best answers."
posted by Johnny Assay at 5:51 PM on November 3, 2015