In classical ballet, we occupy a space that is theoretically a cube. If our stage is in fact a rectangle or some other shape, that can function as well, but we continue to imagine a box or square around the body at all times, with the front wall facing our audience. Part of what makes it “classical” dancing is this, formerly courtly, context, and aesthetic ideas about lines, shapes, and proportion, what forms are most appealing and what variations in pose suggest in terms of narrative or mood.

We begin the study of ballet theory with the 5+ positions of the feet, but then we must also explore the body’s position in relationship to the audience, the stage, and of course to the other dancers. Presentation of the body is important to how the self or character is expressed and how the dancer extends greetings and interacts with others onstage and also sometimes directly with the audience.

At the start of her seminal book, Basic Principles of Classical Ballet, ballet pedagogue Agrippina Vaganova shares an important diagram of the student or dancer in their practice space and onstage and explains:

“To indicate the degree of turn of the body, or the specific direction of a movement, I use the diagram reproduced here. On it: a--indicates the position of the pupil on the floor, 1--the middle of the footlight line, 2--the corner in front and to the right of the pupil, 3--the middle of the right side, etc."

The Cecchetti Method of Classical Ballet: Theory and Technique by Cyril Beaumont and Stanislas Idzikowski also contains an “Explanatory diagram for the division of the walls of the practice-room into eight imaginary fixed points,” and both depict a square on the floor, with a dancer in the middle, bisected by criss-crossing and diagonal lines, like the divisions of a square pie. This visual underscores the importance for us to have a shared vocabulary with which to relate to our dancing space. The major schools of ballet disagree on the numbering of the various walls and corners of the space (or invisible box around the dancer), but what is more important than precisely how they are numbered is that the dancers and teacher or choreographer have a shared framework.

Once we have a shared language about the positions in the room, whether we use theatre language of “center stage,” “downstage,” “upstage,” “stage right,” “stage left” and so on, or the numbering of the corners and walls recognized by our preferred school of ballet technique, then we can describe, create, and study the Body Positions, of which there are eight or nine, depending on which technique you’re studying, possibly including:

• En Face (facing front): à la quatrième devant (4th front) & derrière (4th behind), à la seconde (side/2nd)
  
• Croisé: devant (crossed front) & derrière (crossed back)
  
• Écarté: devant (spread side/front) & derrière (spread side/back)
  
• Effacé (shaded): devant (open front) & derrière (open back)
  
• Epaulé (shouldered)

As these are specific spatial ideas, it will be helpful to also see them pictured in photos or on video, and you can learn more in “Classical Ballet Centre Tendu, Temps lié, & Bourrée - Space & Body Directions” and others on my YouTube Channel. Please share which are your favorite ballet body positions and shapes, and if you’re enjoying my podcast, it means a lot if you would rate and review it favorably on iTunes! For more free resources, please visit me at ablythecoach.com