An entrechat (here's Inaki Urlezaga doing a bunch of them) seems, to anyone who knows French, to mean "between the cats". This is intriguing, because I've never seen my cats jump straight upward and beat their little paws in the air (but then I've never seen them point their toes at their knees in a pas de chat either). In fact, "entrechat" is a French corruption of the Italian phrase capriola intrecciata meaning literally "a complicated caper". Intrecciata comes from the word treccia (a tress or braid), and this is a clearer image of what the legs do in an entrechat.
Are you a ballet lover who, like me, loves words as well as wordless art forms? Head on over to my other blog, Wordlady for some fascinating tidbits about language.
No comments:
Post a Comment