Ballet Terms

Tours en l'air

Pronunciation: /tuʁz ɑ̃ l ɛːʁ/

What does “Tours en l'air” mean in ballet?

( ; literally 'turn in the air.') A jump, typically done by males, with a full rotation in the air. The landing can be on both feet, on one leg with the other extended in attitude or arabesque , or down on one knee as at the end of a variation . A single tour is a 360° rotation, a double is 720°. Vaslav Nijinsky was known to perform triple tours en l'air .

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Definition adapted from Glossary of ballet on Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0.

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