Insight: Ballet glossary – feet positions

Romany Pajdak, Royal Ballet First Artist, demonstrates positions of the feet.

Feet positions: In all schools of ballet, there are five basic foot positions: first, second, third, fourth, fifth. All ballet movements begin or end in one of these five positions. Ballet dancers must have good natural turnout of the leg from their hip to enable them to stand in first position with the feet turned out to the sides.

First position: Heels together, toes pointed outwards to the sides.
Second position: The feet remain pointing outwards, but are moved apart in parallel with each other, by approximately the length of the dancer's foot and a half.
Third position: The feet remain pointing outwards, but one is placed in front of the other, the front foot's heel touches the back foot's instep.
Fourth position opposite third / fourth open: The feet remain pointing outwards, and in the same position as third but the front foot is placed slightly forward (about the length of one of the dancer's feet).
Fourth position opposite fifth / fourth crossed: As above but the feet are crossed further with the front foot placed opposite the toes of the back foot.
Fifth position: The feet point outwards with the legs crossed and the feet touching. The heel of one foot is placed beside the toes of the other.

[parepidemosproductions]

as I'm watching this, I can't help but hear a voice screaming "TURN OUT BEGINS AT THE HIP"

[wendyogden]

Not the same, but similar. In both cases, the feet are placed parallel to each other, but in 3rd, they are, relatively speaking, placed heel of one foot to arch of the other foot, while in 5th they are placed heel of one foot to toe of the other. As one person pointed out in a comment above, there are differences depending on whether or not one is wearing pointe shoes vs ballet slippers. The shoes shown in the video are pointe shoes, used for going en pointe (on one's toes).

[RomyMacias]

@cheetos482 In the 3rd position, the heel of the front foot is in front of the other foot's arch. In 5th, the heel of the front foot is in front of the other foot's toes. In other words 5th position is more crossed than 3rd.

[TheChaiTeaLatte]

@cheetos482 nope. 3rd position isn't exactly at your arch.. in 3rd position you should cross your elastic (ribbon in this case cause she's wearing pointe shoes) while 5th should be all the way to the toes of the other foot.

[zanite]

The movement into 2nd reminds me of taking a step in fencing

[MariaThePotterNut]

Ah, yes. 4th crossed. We had a substitute for a jazz class, and she had us doing grande plie and turns in 4th crossed. Long story short, that was the day I gained a knee injury that causes me frequent and chronic pain.

[bari]

Danced for years but for some reason forgot 3 rd position. Can’t believe I forgot!

[snip-sniptear]

It seems my hamstrings are stiff and prevents legs to stay relaxed. I feel tightness on the biceps femoris.

[Pao]

por favor me pueden decir los nombre de cada posición?

[valeriegalliano]

I've been in dance for nine years and I still don't know all of these XD My dance teacher taught them to us before, but I can only remember first and second position XD

[Stylebyria]

Thank you for this video. Best one for feet position. Straight to the point. In second position are you sliding the heel of the foot?

[wiolska]

Barcarolle- Belle nuit, o nuit d'amour :)

[weasledust]

what music is being played in the background?