Battement frappé meaning ‘to strike’ uses the ball of the foot to strike the floor. The foot comes to a cou de pied position (between the base of the calf and the top of the ankle) in a fully flexed position. Then using the ankle and knee joint and keeping the thigh completely still the foot comes to a fully pointed position off of the floor. The foot should be fully pointed using the metatarsals in order to achieve the maximum stretch of the foot. Care should be taken to ensure the weight is on the supporting leg with knee pulled up. The weight should be slightly over the ball of the foot on the supporting leg and the head, torso and hips should be over the supporting leg. If the weight isn’t correctly placed there will be weight on the working leg making it difficult to maintain balance and effectively strike the floor.
At Balletic we follow the bbodance ballet syllabus which in turn uses the ‘Gail Grant Technical Manual and Dictionary of Classical Ballet‘ for all of it‘s terminology. Diagrams may be different to what you are used to based on the school of ballet that you follow.