Batterie & jumps
01 · Term and function
What is Entrechat quatre?
From plié the body jumps vertically. In flight the legs rapidly change their crossing and return to a clear fifth position before landing.
bend · take off · beat · cross · land
batterie, speed, leg coordination, and control of vertical jumping
Interactive schematic movement analysis with its own movement logic
02 · Technical execution
What matters in Entrechat quatre
A clear plié and vertical or traveling impulse create time for the beat.
The legs meet or cross rapidly in the air without losing the overall axis.
Point and articulate the feet while keeping the beat readable.
The beat must finish early enough to organize the landing.
Receive the floor through the forefoot and plié with controlled alignment.
Body awareness: Notice which part of the body supports the movement, which part travels, and where the movement can remain clear without forcing range, turnout, speed, or height.
03 · Movement phases
Entrechat quatre step by step
Carry out this phase with a clear direction, coordinated weight organization, and controlled transition into the next phase.
Organize weight, direction, feet, torso, and focus for the movement that follows.
Use the supporting foot and leg to create a clear upward or traveling impulse while maintaining alignment.
Carry out this phase with a clear direction, coordinated weight organization, and controlled transition into the next phase.
Receive the floor through the foot and plié, keeping the leg axis controlled and the next movement available.
Use the supporting foot and leg to create a clear upward or traveling impulse while maintaining alignment.
04 · For children and beginners
Observe and explore safely
Practice the preparation and landing before adding speed, height, beats, or rotation. Keep the jump small enough to land quietly and with control.
Which foot or leg is supporting you right now, and which part is moving?
Can you keep the direction and supporting organization clear while the movement changes?
Work only as large, fast, or high as you can control comfortably and without pain.
05 · Teaching and feedback
What teachers and learners can observe
Takeoff, leg organization, foot articulation, axis, and controlled landing.
Appropriate force in push-off and controlled absorption on landing.
Usable range without visible compensation in the pelvis or torso.
Timing, duration, flight rhythm, and intentional accent.
Clear direction, focus, beginning, and finish.
Maximum height, speed, turnout, or range is not a meaningful criterion on its own. What matters is controlled, physically coherent execution.
06 · Choreographic use
How the effect of Entrechat quatre can change
A technical movement is shaped on stage by time, space, form, gaze, and relationship. These variables change perception without assigning a fixed psychological meaning to the movement.
One beat, repeated beats, or a dense series changes rhythmic intensity.
More or less flight time changes how clearly the beat is perceived.
Vertical or traveling batterie changes spatial pressure.
Beats can answer, interrupt, echo, or counter another dancer.
07 · Feeling, need, and relationship
Possible readings — not fixed meanings
Feelings and needs are not derived from Entrechat quatre itself. They are possible readings of a specific situation. Feeling, need, intention, and movement operation therefore remain separate.
Possible feelings: concentration, composure. Possible needs: orientation, stability. Possible intentions: prepare, organize, sustain a state.
Possible feelings: determination, tension. Possible needs: clarity, effectiveness. Possible intentions: set an impulse, mark a direction.
Possible feelings: connection, caution, resistance, or curiosity — depending on context. Possible needs: cooperation, autonomy, respect, or orientation. Possible intentions: respond, follow, avoid, support, or mark a boundary.
Choreographic guiding question: How does one person’s action change another person’s possibilities for action?
08 · Continue learning
From Entrechat quatre to related movements
The working foot moves rapidly between positions in front of and behind the supporting leg. The movement remains small and is organized mainly from the knee joint.
A jump in which one leg beats against or visibly reaches the other in the air, after which the legs separate again or organize for landing.
A small jump from an organized starting position: plié, push-off, flight, landing in plié, and re-straightening.
A jump in which one working leg brushes out, both legs assemble in the air, and the landing is on two feet.
Assemblé combines the brushing and assembling of the legs with a beating action in the air.
A small jump from fifth position in which the feet exchange their front-back relationship in the air and land again in fifth position.
Brisé is a traveling beaten jump in which one leg brushes out, the legs meet in the air, and the landing continues the direction of travel.
The lifted working leg makes a quick beating action against or close to the supporting leg while thigh and torso remain as quiet as possible.
Additional professional background
Books on learning and body awareness
The movement lexicon complements two book projects by Mathias Ellmann: The Ballet Teaching Tree for reflective, healthy learning and Leni and Oscar and the Secret of the Ballet Tree for younger readers.
The Ballet Teaching Tree
A model for healthy, reflective, artistically oriented ballet learning — with body awareness, motivation, self-respect, and long-term development.
About The Ballet Teaching Tree
Leni and Oscar and the Secret of the Ballet Tree
A story about body awareness, courage, learning, and the joy of development for younger readers.
About the children’s bookConcept · Ballet knowledge · Choreography
Mathias Ellmann
Mathias Ellmann develops the Ballet Movement Lexicon as a connection between classical ballet technique, body awareness, learning, and choreographic application.
Movements are first described in observable terms. Choreographic variables, relationship, and possible dramaturgical readings are added only afterwards.
In the contemporary ballet projects, classical ballet technique is used as a precise language of human relationships. The central question is: How does one person’s action change another person’s possibilities for action?