Ballet for Salsa Dancers Class 1

Improve your Salsa dancing by applying basic ballet techniques to increase body awareness and create beautiful lines.

Created byJenny Levin

Last updated 1/2026

English

What you'll learn

Learn the basics of ballet technique
Understand how ballet technique transitions to Salsa dancing.
Learn basic ballet positions and movements.
Learn how ballet can improve the quality of your Salsa dancing.

Course content

1 section • 23 lectures • 59m total length

Introduction0:45
A brief course introduction. Take a peek at what you will learn.
Posture and Weight Placement1:13
Warmup - Explanation & Demo7:05
Warm up your feet and legs while learning how to correctly use them in dance.
Warmup - With Music3:42
Follow-along warmup with the music. Let's get ready to dance!
Tendu - Explanation and Demo3:14
Learn one of the fundamental movements in ballet - the tendu. Tendu is a foundational movement that allows dancers of all levels to begin understanding and practicing the correct movement and create beautiful lines.
Tendu - With Music3:18
Follow-along tendu practice. Practice the tendu movement with the music.
Creating Beautiful Lines - Explanation & Demo5:08
Continue to learn to create beautiful lines with tendu. This is one more combination using tendu, which is the foundation of many of the movements used in ballet. Tendu technique can also be applied to other dance styles to ensure beautiful leg and foot line, clear weight transfer, and correct alignment.
Creating Beautiful Lines - With Music3:19
Follow-along tendu practice with the music.
Upper Body - Explanation & Demo4:43
Learn how to start to involve your upper body correctly with emphasis on placement and alignment. While ballet port-de-bras often differs from how we use arms and upper body in other dance styles, it teaches us control and full-body awareness - skills that are necessary for any style.
Upper Body - With Music1:38
Follow-along port-de-bra combination with the music.
Off-the-floor Extensions: Explanation & Demo3:08
Continue to work on creating beautiful lines with your legs and feet with this jeté exercise. This is another fundamental ballet movement that allows dancers to develop control and correct leg and foot positions. But this time, our feet come off the floor, demanding even more strength and control.
Off-the-floor Extensions: With Music1:44
Follow-along jeté exercise with the music.
Using Movement - Rond de Jambe: Explanation & Demo2:44
Rond de jambe is the next movement in every ballet dancer's arsenal. It involves elements of tendu, but takes it to the next level, adding movement and demanding more control, balance and strength.
Using Movement - Rond de Jambe: With Music2:54
Follow-along rond de jambe practice with the music.
High Extensions - Grand Battement: Explanation & Demo2:20
Learn the movement that helps ballet dancers create those impressive high extensions - the grand battement. Apply the principles of tendu and jeté, as well as the placement and posture we learned in previous exercises to create this explosive movement.
High Extensions - Grand Battement: With Music1:08
Follow-along grand battement exercise with the music.
Focus on Upper Body: Explanation & Demo3:31
Upper body plays an important role in a dancer's ability to stay poised and expressive throughout the dance. This center exercise focuses on the port-de-bras for upper body coordination and placement. Here, we are working in the center, without an additional support, so posture, balance and alignments are super important.
Focus on Upper Body: With Music1:30
Follow-along port-de-bra exercise with the music.
Focus on Balance: Explanation & Demo2:25
This exercise revisits tendu one more time, but this time it is done on center, without an additional support. Here, we focus on our balance to maintain the same movement quality as we did at the barre on center.
Focus on Balance: With Music1:08
Follow-along center tendu exercise with music.
Using All We've Learned: Explanation & Demo1:53
In this final exercise for the class, we use all we've learned previously, and combine it all to dance the movements in the center.
Using All We've Learned: With Music1:09
Follow-along with the music as we put it all together.
Outro - Thank You for Watching!0:16
Thank you so much for watching! I hope to see you again soon in my other courses!

Requirements

No prior experience or tools are required for this course. Just jump in and have fun!

Description

Learn the basics of ballet posture, weight placement and fundamental movements as they apply to Salsa and other dance styles. Ballet technique and movement progression differs dramatically from that of Salsa, and yet, ballet dancers who dance other styles (Salsa among them) can always be spotted by their smooth and controlled movements, clean lines, and impeccable body control and musicality.

This course covers the basic techniques and movements of ballet to help all dancers look as clean and effortless on the dance floor. You will learn about and practice:

* Weight placement and posture

* Balance and extensions

* Coordination

* The fundamental movements: tendu, jeté, rond de jambe, grand battement

* The use of port-de-bras

Each section offers an explanation and demo of the movement or combination we will be practicing, followed by a follow-along practice section. Combinations facing the barre are done with the music once. Those done sideways to the barre are repeated separately on both sides to make it easier to follow along. However, feel free to pause, replay and try again any of the exercises as many times as you need!

While the course focuses on Salsa dancers who want to learn ballet, it is appropriate for dancers of any style, as well as for those who have zero dance experience.

You will not need any specific equipment, aside from something to use for support for the barre exercises. (A ballet barre is excellent if you have access to one, but a chair or kitchen counter work just as well!)

Who this course is for:

Salsa dancers of all levels
Adult dance beginners
Dancers of any dance style interested in learning ballet basics