Ballet Jeopardy

Vocab Translations

100

To rise

Relevé / élevé

200

To jump

Sauté

300

Outside

En dehors

400

Under-over (or over-under)

Sous-sus / sus-sous

500

Open OR Closed, as in sissonne (bonus 100pts for both!)

Ouvert / Fermé

Name That Step!

100

The toe draws a half circle on the ground, finishing in first or fifth

Rond de jambe

200

The toe draws up the leg to the knee, then returns to the fifth it came from

Retiré

300

The foot is pointed and wrapped around the ankle

Sur la coup-de-pied

400

The leg lifts straight to the back, then passes through attitude, passé, and coupé back to fifth

Enveloppé derrière

500

From fifth, the back foot (working leg) brushes out to the side as the front foot pushes off to jump, in the air the working leg beats in the back, then lands fifth front

Assemblé battu

Ballet History

100

Back in the 1400s, ballet originated in the courts of this country

Italy

200

Last October, this ballet superstar retired from the American Ballet Theatre stage

Misty Copeland

300

In the early 1830s, she was the first ballerina to dance en pointe, as she danced in La Sylphide (the ballet choreographed for her by her father)

Maria Taglioni

400

Around 1900-1910, she was accused of "cheating" with her heavily modified pointe shoes, featuring harder leather soles and a flatter toe box (sound familiar?)

Anna Pavlova

500

Future History: This choreographer has pushed ballet into a fresh contemporary direction with repertoire like In the Middle, Somewhat Elevated and The Blake Works, defying that the art of ballet is dying in our modern age

William Forsythe

Ballet By The Plot

100

This 1890 Marius Petipa classic features fairies, magic, and a princess in need of true love's kiss

Sleeping Beauty

200

A prince promises a princess his loyalty by a lake; but when he's tricked by a magical look-alike, he dooms her to never be human again

Swan Lake

300

Franz becomes obsessed with a girl reading in her window; so much so that he forsakes his fiancé Swanhilda. She wins him back when he realizes the other girl is just a doll, and she saves him from being sacrificed to bring the doll to life! 

(Fun Fact: Waltz of the Hours is from this ballet!)

Coppélia

400

This one-act ballet (lengthened by the request of Anna Pavlova) shows all the dancing dolls get up to when the toy store is closed at night

The Fairy Doll (Die Puppenfee)

500

When this knight comes into Barcelona, Spain, he helps a young woman escape her arranged marriage to be with the man she truly loves

Don Quixote