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Show 78 THE CODE OF TERPSICHORE. formance of which, the dancer's legs rapidly cross each other, and then come down either in the fifth position, or in an attitude upon one leg, as in the entrechat a cinq, a sept, a neuf, the cabriole, brise's and the rond-de-jambe en I'air; all these, ending thus on one leg, may also finish in any of the attitudes and arabesques pointed out in the plates referred to at the close of the foregoing chapter. Entrechats are generally begun with an assemble1, coupe, or jette,- the body then springs into the air, and the legs pass to the fifth position, to cross and cut. In entrechats, you may cut four, six, eight, ten, and even twelve times, if you possess the requisite strength. Some can go as far as fourteen, but such efforts have adisagreeable effect,and occasion nothing more, in the beholder, than wonder at the extraordinary muscular powers of the leaper. W h e n a dancer endeavours to make too great a number of cuts, he cannotfinish his entrechat in time, and his body, shaken by such rapid movements, writhes in a variety of contortions, that offend the eye of the spectator. The most elegant entrechats are the entrechat a six, and the entrechat a six ouvert, done by opening at the third cut, (see plate XII, fig. 4.,) and the entrechat a huit. The following different entrechats, viz:-entrechat a cinq dessus; entrechat a cinq dessous; bris4 de cote, dessus et dessous; en arriere et en avant; entrechat a cinq de cot6 et en arriere; sissonne battue en avant et sissonne battue der-riere; entrechat a quatre stir unejambe; entrechat a sept en avant et en arriere; la cabriole a un et a deux temps ; la cabriole Italienne en avant et en arriere; les deux ronds-de- jambes en dehors et en dedans, §c. may be done in turning, excepting the entrechat a cinq de cote et en arriere, the entrechat a sept en avant and the cabriole. L'entrechat a six, sefail en tournant. |