When Martine van Hamel teaches a développé en effacé, she makes sure to bring her students’ attention to their orientation in space. “It’s important the dancers know which direction they’re facing,” she says, citing the occasional confusion over what a true effacé line looks like. “I ask, ‘Are you facing the corner, the side or the front?'” she says. The hips and shoulders should be square to the corner, van Hamel notes, and the working leg stays directly in front of the hips during the développé.
Martine van Hamel had a 35-year career dancing with American Ballet Theatre (where she was a principal), National Ballet of Canada, Joffrey Ballet and Nederlands Dans Theater III. She co-founded the Kaatsbaan International Dance Center in 1990 in upstate New York.
Virginia Lensi, 17, is a member of the ABT Studio Company.