En l'air means in the air and is referring to "a movement [that] is to be made in the air". This is most typically used with Rond de Jambe en l'air. When performing moves en l'air a choreographer will usually use angles such as 45 degrees, 90 degrees, or more than 90 degrees. This is one of the many instances when math and ballet merge.
I am one of those teachers who happens to use A LOT of math terms in my classes. Enough so that my students once asked me if I was also a math teacher. (I'm not). This marriage of dance and math is not a new idea with the use of angles, geometry, symmetries, and counting, just to name a few. I was lucky enough to work with some guest choreographers at my college who have received Kennedy Center Honors with their research in combining math and dance. Dr. Karl Schaffer and Erik Stern wrote a book Math Dance where they describe many different ways that these two studies meet. For more information on their book, or some of their research, please see their website www.mathdance.org.
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