How To Do Changement

Okay, so now, I'm going to show you how to do a changement. Changement is an allegro step, and it just means to change your feet. But first of all, I'm going to ask Rhiann to do a saute in first which is basically a jump in first and that will show you the position that you end up in the air when you do a changement.

So Rhiann, if you stand in first position arms bras bas, and she's just going to do a simple saute, because you see when you do changement, your legs pass through first in the air before they land in fifth, so plie and push. There's your saute in first, so now if you cross your feet in fifth, the first thing is, of course, you need to be in fifth position. And then she's going to do a demi plie, but when she jumps, she's going to go to first in the air, which is the jump you saw a minute ago, and then she's going to land with the other foot in front.

And, up, down! Let's try it one more time; plie, up, down! And there you have it, a simple changement, a change of feet. So now, see that really closely. Just a little tip when you do your changements, you must make sure that you hold on to your turn out really firmly, which means just underneath your bottom, basically you need to squeeze round your turn out muscles.

Otherwise, what might happen and she's not going to do it in reality, but just show us what might happen when you land. You could end up landing by standing on your own feet, because your knees aren't turned out because you haven't held your turnout, so you need to make sure that you really hold your turn out at the top of your thighs, and up! And hold your turnout when you land, otherwise you'll have bruised toenails.