One e or two ee?

The next term in the Ballet Dictionary is Allongé or Allongée.  There are many terms that have these two different spellings.  From my understanding, the first one is masculine and an noun where the second on is feminine and a verb.  Since english doesn't have masculine and feminine endings to words, this is not a concept that many English speaking students understand, unless they have taken a foreign language in school.  For the consistency of this blog, I will use the term as a noun when describing it, but when it is associated with another movement I will use the verb spelling.

Back to Allongé which means extended or outstretched.  I have really only used this term when preparing for Pirouettes.  The basic preparation for a Pirouette for younger students is a Tendu to the side, then a Demi-Rond de Jambe to the back followed with a Plié in Fourth Position, and then the Pirouette.  An alternate preparation is to use a Fourth Position Allongée with the back leg straight instead of bent.  This keeps most of the weight on the front foot which some teachers prefer.  I am not one of those teachers, but can appreciate the movement.  I prefer to have students execute a Pirouette from a Fourth Position Plié because I think that it sets them up with more power and also prepares them for Pointe Shoes in the future.  Not that Allongé is wrong, I personally don't like to use it with my younger students, until they can master leaving the ground from a Plié.

This term is also most notably used with Arabesque Allongée.  Which requires the line of the leg to be horizontal to the floor.  Or in Arabesque Allongée à Terre, which follows what I previously said with the Pirouette preparation.  I will go into more detail on these terms in the future.