Passé

Passé describes the action of the working leg passing through the retiré position, where the pointed foot is drawn up to the side of the supporting knee. The word means “passed,” and that is the key idea: passé is a movement, the leg passing by the knee, while retiré is the still position it passes through. In everyday class the two words are often used loosely for the same shape.

The Shape and the Motion

In the retiré position the toe touches the front, side, or back of the standing knee, with the working thigh lifted and turned out. Passé is what happens as the foot travels from a low position up to and past that point, for instance moving from front to back by way of the knee. The supporting leg stays strong and straight or rises to demi-pointe or pointe, while the working knee stays open to keep the turnout.

Where It Appears

Passé is one of the busiest shapes in ballet. It is the core position of most pirouettes, where the raised foot sits at the knee while the dancer turns. It also links many steps, since drawing the foot up through passé is a tidy way to change the working leg’s height or direction. Because it depends on turnout, balance, and a clean line from hip to pointed toe, teachers use passé to build the placement dancers rely on for turning.

Getting a strong, correctly placed passé early makes pirouettes and many traveling steps far easier to learn later on.