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Ballet Moves II

A few notes on the content and format of the DanceForms Ballet Dictionaries:

Ballet Moves II contains a Ballet Dictionary with over 200 animation files of the English, Russian and Italian “schools” with over 200 animation files, many containing several versions or variations of ballet positions and movements. 

Titles of files show run-on names with each word capitalized for example “RondDeJambe” (French spelling shows prepositions lowercase, i.e., “Rond de Jambe”).

Entries ending with “E.lfa” show terms as performed in the English School. Entries ending with “R.lfa” show terms as performed in the Russian School; and those ending with “I.lfa” show terms as performed in the Italian School.
Most entries begin centrestage (0, 0). Some steps that are traditionally taken en diagonale begin in or near a corner of the stage.

In the English dictionary, each entry is presented first with the right foot and again with the left foot. Exercises at the barre are taken with the barre positioned parallel to the wings, first facing downstage/front with the right foot working, then repeated facing upstage/back with the left foot working. In the Russian dictionary, most entries are given on one side only.

Although Barre Exercises are set facing front/back, the View is set from downstage right since watching the exercise from an oblique perspective gives a more interesting line. To watch from other perspectives, simply select them in the View menu or use the scroll bars.

Main transitions between repetitions in each entry are intentionally unspecified. As you watch an entry, you may therefore notice that a transition appears unreal. For example, the feet appear to slide through one another in transitions from 5th to 5th. The dancer appears to “pop up” off the stage in transitions from cou-de-pied to 5th position, etc. (see User Guide Exercise 5). The dancer appears to glide along the stage from the end location of one repetition to the start position of the next.

A note on timing. Simple, slow movements are presented at a low frame, usually 3fps. Very slow movements like PortDeBrasE.lfa are shown at 1fps. Faster actions like jumps are shown at 6fps or higher. 
DanceForms will automatically adjust the frame rate when you copy parts of a Dictionary entry into your personal file (see User Guide Lesson 16). You can find the frame rate by selecting Control menu > Frame Rate… or by looking at the Time Bar. For example:

The advanced version of BattementFonduAtBarreE.dfa is taken at 3fps. By looking at the Time Bar, you can see that each second is divided into 3 parts (.0, .1, .2):

This portion of the Time Bar shows 6 frames taking 2 seconds in duration.
Each Dictionary animation is linked to a sound file of a metronome beat that marks a sample tempo.

Ballet Moves II also contains a full DanceForms User Guide and sample files. These can be found the DanceForms User Guide folder.
