Relevé and Passé in Ballet: A Simple Guide

If you’ve taken even a handful of ballet classes, you’ve already done relevé and passé more times than you can count. They show up at the barre, in the center, inside every turn, and tucked into most jumps. Get comfortable with these two and a huge chunk of ballet suddenly makes more sense.

So let’s break them down, plain and simple. What each one is, how to do it well, and the little mistakes that trip almost everyone up at first.

What is a relevé?

A relevé (say it “ruh-luh-VAY”) is when you rise up onto the balls of your feet. The word literally means “to rise” or “lifted up” in French, which is about as on-the-nose as ballet terms get.

You can relevé to two heights:

• Demi-pointe: up onto the balls of your feet, heels lifted off the floor. This is where most dancers live.
• Pointe: all the way up onto the tips of your toes in pointe shoes, once you’re ready for that.

You’ll relevé on two feet and on one foot, in every position of the feet, holding still or as the launch for something bigger.

Relevé vs élevé

Here’s a distinction that confuses a lot of dancers, so let’s clear it up.

• Relevé uses a little spring or a plié (a bend of the knees) to get you up. There’s a small push, a bit of a bounce.
• Élevé (say it “ay-luh-VAY”) gets you up too, but with no plié and no spring. You rise smoothly from straight legs, slow and controlled.

Think of it like the difference between hopping up onto a curb and slowly rising onto your tiptoes to reach a high shelf. Same destination, different way of getting there. A lot of teachers use the word relevé for both in everyday class, so don’t panic if you hear them mixed up. Just know the real difference when someone asks for one specifically.

What is a passé (and retiré)?

A passé is when you draw your working foot up your standing leg until your pointed toe rests near the side of your knee. Your lifted knee points out to the side, and your foot makes a neat little triangle shape against your leg.

You’ll also hear the word retiré (say it “ruh-tee-RAY”) for this, and here’s the honest truth about those two words:

• Retiré is the position, the shape where your foot is parked by your knee.
• Passé is the action of the foot passing through or past that spot, like moving from the front of the knee to the back.

In real life, almost everyone says passé for both, and your teacher will know exactly what you mean. So don’t stress about which word is technically correct. Just know they’re describing the same basic shape.

How to hold a good passé

A clean passé looks simple and is secretly kind of hard. Here’s what actually matters:

• Toe near the knee, not on top of it. The pointed toe touches the side of your standing knee, not the kneecap.
• Point the foot fully. A lazy, floppy foot is the number one giveaway of a rushed passé.
• Turn the lifted knee out. Open that knee to the side instead of letting it drift forward.
• Keep your hips level. It’s tempting to hike the hip on the lifted side up toward your ribs. Fight that. Both hip bones stay square and facing front.
• Stand tall over your standing leg. Your weight is fully on the leg you’re balancing on, right over the ball of the foot.

Where you’ll see them everywhere

Once you know these two, you’ll start spotting them all over class, because they’re the building blocks for the flashier stuff.

• Pirouettes: A pirouette is basically a relevé into passé that spins. You plié, relevé up, snap into passé, and turn. No steady relevé-passé, no turn. This is why teachers make you drill it before they care how many spins you can crank out.
• Jumps: Lots of jumps take off from a relevé or push through demi-pointe on the way up and down. That spring you practice at the barre is the same spring that gets you off the floor.
• Balances: Standing in passé on a high relevé is one of the classic center-work balances, and it’s the honest test of whether your ankles and core are doing their jobs.
• Traveling steps: Passé also passes through as a transition, your foot moving from front to back as you change direction.

Common mistakes (and easy fixes)

We’ve all wobbled through these. Here’s what to watch for.

• Sinking into a low relevé. Half-rising makes everything harder. Push all the way up to your full height and get your weight over the front of your foot.
• Rolling in or out on the ankle. Your weight should stack over your first two toes, not roll toward your big toe (sickling) or off the pinky side. Strong, straight ankles come with time and those endless barre relevés.
• A passé toe that’s too low. Aim for the knee. A toe stuck at mid-shin reads as unfinished.
• Hiking the hip. The classic passé tell. Keep both hips level even if it means lifting the knee a touch lower at first.
• Rushing. Relevé and passé reward control. Going slow on purpose builds the strength that makes the fast version possible later.

The bottom line

Relevé gets you up, passé gets your foot to your knee, and together they’re hiding inside a shocking amount of ballet. Spend real time on them at the barre and your turns, jumps, and balances all get easier, almost like magic. If you want to keep going, our pirouette exercises put relevé and passé to work, and you can always look up any term you hit in the ballet terms dictionary.

Rise tall, point that foot, and trust me on this one: the slow, careful reps are the ones that pay off.