How To Do The Bourre In Ballet Dancing

So I'm going to show you how to do some bourre movements. Bourre means running so there are different ways that you can do this step. There's a pas de bourree which is a step of running and the pas de bourree is a nice linking step so I'll show you one of those to start.

So, you could start with your foot in a bit of a plie derriere here and your general pas de bourree is behind, side, front. And that would be a pas de bourree en dehors. So, you start and I'll do it on the other side, have your foot in a cou-de-pied behind there, behind the ankle, we're going to come up onto your demi-pointe, up a small step to second and then close it in fifth, pas de bourree under.

So, there are also lots of combinations of pas de bourrees that you could do. You could take it from a fondue here and do a pas de bourree under from there, so you draw up, small second and finish. You could also do pas de bourree overs, unders, en devants, turning, so I shall show you a couple of those from here.

You can pas de bourree en avante and extend, so pas de bourree en arriere, so that means travelling backwards. You can also do a pas de bourree turning, so it's still taking those three little steps, start in a croise here with the arms in third position and you're going to bring them into first as you go up, up, down and that would be a pas de bourree turning. So, for your pas de bourree en arriere, you're extending the foot in front of you on fondue here.

You draw up to demi-pointe, step backwards and then finish in a nice soft plie. And your other type of bourree is more done in pointe shoes or on demi-pointe and it's just little running steps as quick as you can with the legs tightly held together and that's a bourre. .