Why Ballet Terms Are in French, and Their Poetic Meanings

When you take ballet classes, French words come at you from every direction. Plié, arabesque... At first they were just words to memorize. But one day, I looked up their meanings and was genuinely surprised. Ballet terms turned out to be far more poetic and sensory than I expected.

Not "bend your knees" but "to melt." Not "lift your foot" but "to set free." Since these names were coined when ballet was formalized in the 17th-century French court, each one is elegant and emotional. So I decided to compile the meanings of the terms I've been hearing in ballet class.

Why Are Ballet Terms in French?

Ballet originally started in the Italian Renaissance courts. But after crossing over to France, it was formally systematized during the reign of Louis XIV, and the terminology was established in French. Louis XIV himself was a passionate dancer, and in 1661 he founded the world's first dance academy, the Académie Royale de Danse. Dance teacher Pierre Beauchamp created the foundational system including the five basic foot positions, and those terms are still used in ballet studios around the world today.

Legs and Feet

The foundation of ballet is legwork. The movements repeated daily at the barre each carry beautiful names.

Terms That Capture the Feel of Movement

Term	Meaning	Movement	Related Word
plié	to fold, to bend	Bending the knees	pliable
battement	to strike, to beat	General term for leg-extending or striking movements	beat
fondu	to melt	Slowly bending the knee with a lingering tempo	cheese fondue
tendu	stretched taut	Extending the foot along the floor	tension
dégagé	to release, to set free	Lifting the foot off the floor and extending	disengage
frappé	to strike, to hit	Knee stays fixed, foot strikes the floor	café frappé
relevé	to rise again	Rising onto the balls of the feet	re + lever (to raise)
développé	to unfold, to develop	Unfolding and lifting the leg from a bent position	develop

Dégagé is closer to sweeping the foot along the floor and tossing it upward. The meaning "to set free" somehow feels fitting.

Types of Battement

Battement means "to strike" and is the umbrella term for movements that extend or kick the legs. Different modifiers create different variations. Tendu and dégagé are technically battement tendu and battement dégagé, but they're often shortened to just "tendu" and "dégagé."

Term	Meaning	Movement
battement tendu	striking tautly	Extending the foot while keeping it on the floor
battement dégagé	striking with release	Extending the foot slightly off the floor
battement frappé	striking with a hit	Striking the floor with the foot
battement fondu	striking while melting	Bending the supporting leg like melting while extending the working leg
grand battement	big strike	Kicking the leg up high
petit battement	small strike	Small, quick movements around the ankle

Traveling and Jumps

Term	Meaning	Movement
glissade	to glide	Sliding sideways
chassé	to chase	One foot chases the other
sauté	to jump	Jump in place
balancé	to sway	Rocking step side to side
tombé	to fall	Stepping forward as if falling onto one foot
coupé	to cut	One foot "cuts" and replaces the other
assemblé	to assemble	Jumping and bringing both feet together
jeté	to throw	Jumping from one foot and landing on the other
grand jeté	to throw big	A grand leap with legs in a split in the air
sissonne	(derived from a name)	Jumping from both feet and landing on one
changement	change	Jumping and switching front and back feet
échappé	to escape	Jumping from 5th to 2nd position, opening the feet
pas de chat	cat's step	A jump with both knees tucked into a diamond shape
pas de bourrée	bourrée dance step	Quick linking steps

In pas de bourrée, bourrée is the name of a 17th-century folk dance from the Auvergne region of France.

Like a cat: Pas de Chat
Pas de chat means "cat's step," and true to its name, it resembles a cat lightly leaping. At the peak of the jump, both legs are bent to form a diamond shape, and the landing is feather-soft. The name perfectly captures feline agility and grace. A similar jump is saut de chat, which means "cat's leap" -- a bigger, more dynamic version.

Advanced Jumps: Batterie

Movements where the feet strike or cross in the air are called batterie. The word comes from battre, meaning "to strike."

Term	Meaning	Movement
entrechat	to interlace	Jumping and rapidly crossing the feet in the air
cabriole	goat's leap	A jump where one leg strikes the other upward in the air
brisé	broken	A jump that travels sideways with feet beating in the air
battu	beaten	Indicates that a beat has been added to a jump

Entrechat changes its name based on the number of crossings. Two crossings is entrechat deux, four is entrechat quatre, six is entrechat six. Cabriole means "goat's leap," named after the playful way a goat springs into the air.

Turning Movements

Term	Meaning	Movement
pirouette	spinning top	Turning in place on one foot
fouetté	to whip	Continuous turns whipping the leg like a whip
chaînés	chain	Rapid consecutive turns alternating feet
tour en l'air	turn in the air	Jumping and completing a full turn in the air (mostly male dancers)
piqué tour	pricking turn	Turning by stepping sharply onto one foot
promenade	stroll	Slowly rotating in place while holding a pose

Pirouette means "spinning top." Picture yourself spinning like a top on one foot as the axis. Fouetté means "to whip" -- you gain rotational force by whipping the leg like a whip. The famous scene where the black swan Odile does 32 consecutive fouettés in Swan Lake is iconic.

Chaînés means "chain" -- the name comes from how the turns link together like chain links. When you do chaînés across the stage diagonally, they really do unfurl like a chain being released.

Leg Poses and Directions

Signature Poses

Term	Meaning	Description
arabesque	Arabesque (Arabic-style)	Standing on one leg with the other extended straight behind
attitude	attitude, posture	Similar to arabesque but with the back leg bent
penché	to tilt, to lean	Tilting the torso forward from an arabesque position
retiré	to withdraw	Foot placed at the side of the knee
passé	to pass	One foot "passes" the other leg's knee

Arabesque means "Arabic-style" -- just as arabesque patterns interweave plant and geometric forms in curves, the dancer's arms, torso, and legs form one beautiful curved line. That's where the name came from.

Passé and retiré are often used interchangeably, but strictly speaking, passé is the "passing movement" while retiré is the "pose held at the knee."

Direction and Position

Term	Meaning	Example
devant	forward	tendu devant
derrière	backward	arabesque derrière
à la seconde	to second position (sideways)	développé à la seconde
à terre	on the ground	rond de jambe à terre
en l'air	in the air	rond de jambe en l'air
en avant	forward	chassé en avant
en arrière	backward	glissade en arrière
en dedans	inward	pirouette en dedans
en dehors	outward	pirouette en dehors

En means "in," "at," or "to" in French. En l'air (in the air), en dedans (inward), en avant (forward)... Just knowing this one little word suddenly makes a ton of ballet terms click.

Circular Movements

Term	Meaning
rond de jambe	drawing a circle with the leg
rond	circle, round
jambe	leg

Like battement, rond de jambe has many variations depending on the modifier that follows.

Term	Meaning	Movement
rond de jambe à terre	drawing a circle with the leg on the floor	Tracing a semicircle with the toe on the floor
rond de jambe en l'air	drawing a circle with the leg in the air	Drawing an oval with the lower leg while the leg is raised
grand rond de jambe	drawing a big circle with the leg	Tracing a large semicircle with the leg raised high
rond de jambe en dehors	circling outward	Front to side to back (clockwise)
rond de jambe en dedans	circling inward	Back to side to front (counterclockwise)

À terre means "on the ground" and en l'air means "in the air." The same rond de jambe feels completely different depending on whether you do it on the floor or in the air. On the floor it's smooth and flowing; in the air it's sharper, more precise, and harder.

Arms: The World of Port de Bras

In ballet, arm movements are called port de bras. It means "carriage of the arms" -- not simply moving the arms, but a flowing movement where energy starts from the back, travels through the shoulders, and extends to the fingertips.

Basic Arm Positions

Term	Meaning	Description
bras bas	low arms	Preparatory position with arms rounded low in front of the hips
en bas	below	Arms held in a low position
en avant	forward	Arms brought forward
en haut	high	Arms rounded above the head
à la seconde	sideways	Arms extended to the sides
allongé	elongated	Arms straightened to create a long line

Allongé is especially common in arabesque. When you extend your rounded arms straight out to create one long line from shoulder to fingertip, that's allongé.

Shoulders and Upper Body Expression

Term	Meaning	Description
épaulement	shouldering	Slightly twisting the shoulders to add dimension
cambré	arched	Bending the upper body backward or sideways from the waist
croisé	crossed	Body angled diagonally with legs appearing crossed
effacé	erased, faded	Body open so the legs appear uncrossed
écarté	separated, spread	Body angled diagonally with the leg extended to the side

Épaulement is one of the elements that makes ballet look like ballet. Even the same movement becomes suddenly dimensional and elegant with a slight twist of the shoulders. You'd be amazed at how much difference one shoulder adjustment makes.

Croisé, effacé, and écarté are terms for body direction, and the names are beautifully intuitive. In croisé the legs appear "crossed," in effacé the crossing is "erased" so the body looks open, and in écarté the legs are "spread" to the side. The names directly describe how it looks from the audience's perspective.

Body Part Terminology

Term	Meaning	Description
cou-de-pied	neck of the foot	The ankle area (cou = neck, pied = foot)
pied	foot	Same Latin root as Spanish pie, Italian piede
jambe	leg
bras	arm
tête	head

The same root as pied survives in English too. Pedestrian and pedal are both words related to "foot."

Expressions of Size and Degree

Term	Meaning	Example
demi	half	demi plié (half bend)
grand	big	grand plié (full bend), grand jeté (big leap)
petit	small	petit allegro (small, quick movements)

Spanish grande, Italian gran -- they all come from the same Latin root (grandis). The Romance language connection.

Terms Also Used in Music

Term	Meaning
adagio	slowly, at ease
allegro	fast, lively

These two are Italian, but since music and ballet are inseparable, they were adopted as-is. In ballet class, the adagio portion is for slow, controlled movements, while the allegro portion is for quick, lively jumps.

Beginning and End of Class

Term	Meaning
révérence	bow, reverence

Every ballet class ends with a révérence. It's a moment to offer thanks to the teacher and the pianist (or the music). You bow gracefully to mark the end of class. True to its meaning of "paying respect," it's a closing ritual for the day's practice.

In Closing

I think ballet terms are so poetic because instead of describing movements functionally, they expressed them through feeling and imagery.

Not "bend your knees" but "to melt" (fondu)
Not "lift your foot" but "to set free" (dégagé)
Not "move sideways" but "to glide" (glissade)
Not "jump" but "cat's step" (pas de chat)

At first they were just terms to memorize, but once I learned their meanings, the imagery comes to mind every time I do the movements. When I do fondu, I genuinely feel like I'm melting. When I do glissade, it feels like gliding across ice.

Maybe this is why ballet terminology has remained unchanged for centuries and is used worldwide. Because they're not just labels -- they're a language that captures the essence of each movement.