Barre

Barre: The horizontal bar that a dancer will hold as support.

Barre Exercises or Exercices à la barre

The barre is home. This wonderful tradition has been passed down from generation to generation, and this haunting notion that every ballet dancer around the world, past and present, starts or started their day off with this ritual. The barre is there as a support to create strength in the supporting leg, while the working leg develops the correct coordination needed for each step in the repertoire. The barre is where young dancers learn to refine their lines, build strength, and improve flexibility. In contrast, the professional dancer will use the barre to warm up their body for the day. The younger you are, the more time is focused on barre work. The older you get, the less time you spend there.

The barre is home. This wonderful tradition has been passed down from generation to generation, and this haunting notion that every ballet dancer around the world, past and present, starts or started their day off with this ritual. The barre is there as a support to create strength in the supporting leg, while the working leg develops the correct coordination needed for each step in the repertoire. The barre is where young dancers learn to refine their lines, build strength, and improve flexibility. In contrast, the professional dancer will use the barre to warm up their body for the day. The younger you are, the more time is focused on barre work. The older you get, the less time you spend there.

Barre is normally always started with pliés, but some teachers will start it with a warm up exercise. The barre is then broken up into a series of prescribed exercises including battement tendus, battements tendus jetés, fondus, ronds de jambe à Terre, battements frappés, adagio, petits battements sur le cou-de-pied, ronds de jambe en l’air, and grands battements.