Petit jeté explained: a jump from one leg to the other with a “thrown” working leg. Prerequisites, build-up, typical mistakes and landing, step by step.
The honest answer to “What is a jeté?”: it is a jump from one foot to the other in which the working leg is brushed into the air and looks “thrown” – that is how the American Ballet Theatre ballet dictionary describes it [1]. “Jeté” simply means “thrown” in French. The petit jeté is the small version you meet early in class.
It sounds harmless, and compared with other jumps it is: in a pilot study with 11 adolescent dancers, a sensor on the pelvis measured about 2.4 g on landing after the petit jeté [2]. The entrechat quatre reached about 4.3 g [2] – so the petit jeté is only a little more than half as hard. That means a good jump for beginners, but not a free pass, because you land on one leg.
How hard is it really? The sequence is quickly understood. The difficulty is staying calm during the brush of the working leg, the push-off and the landing all at once. No study has measured how long that takes – plan on weeks to a few months of regular classes (experience value, no source).
Important up front: there is hardly any research on the petit jeté as a single step. What we can support concerns jumps and landings in ballet in general – we flag that where it matters.
Stand at the barre and brush the leg from the base position outwards until the toe is just above the floor, then bring it back. This is the “throw” of the jeté in slow motion. Milestone: ten clean repetitions per side without the pelvis tipping along.
Jump on two legs, heel to the floor, soft plié. For building up jumps, a study with 18 dancers suggests this order: relevé, relevé with intent to jump, single-leg relevé, single-leg relevé with intent to jump, double-leg sauté, single-leg sauté [3]. Holding the barre hardly changed the vertical load [3]. Milestone: ten landings in a row so quiet that your teacher hears nothing.
Now the part that separates the jeté from the sauté: jump lightly from both legs and land on one. Hold for three seconds, knee over foot, heel down. Check both sides. A study of 255 adolescent pre-professional dancers found that larger left-right differences in jump tests were linked to a 1.3 to 1.7 times higher injury risk in the following year [5]. That is an association, not proof of cause and effect – but a good reason not to hide your weaker side. Milestone: three clean landings per side, held.
Jump slowly from one leg to the other: the working leg is brushed, you push off and land on the other foot in a soft plié [1]. Speed comes later. Milestone: four repetitions in a row without gripping the barre.
Let go of the barre, repeat two to four jetés and film yourself from the side. Watch landing and knees, not height.
Most injuries in dance jumps happen on landing: in a study of 90 professional dancers, the lower back, knees, ankles and feet were most often affected, and classical jumps produced the highest ground reaction forces of the three dance styles tested [7]. So warm up, do not jump when tired and do not jump on hard concrete. If you feel pain in the foot, knee or back, stop and clarify it with your teacher or a doctor. This guide explains and motivates but does not replace supervised training.
Begin every practice round with your weaker side. Then the better side is not the yardstick but the reward. This is practical experience, not backed by a study – but it fits what the asymmetry study suggests [5].
“Jeté” means “thrown”. It is a jump from one foot to the other in which the working leg is brushed into the air and looks “thrown” [1]. There are many variations, in all directions [1]. The petit jeté is the small version, the grand jeté the big one.
It is an entry-level jump, but not a first-lesson step: you need a secure sauté and dégagé. In a pilot study, adolescents landed at about 2.4 g after the petit jeté, clearly below the entrechat quatre at around 4.3 g [2].
In the grand jeté you throw the legs to 90 degrees and jump correspondingly high and far; it is always introduced by a preparatory movement such as a glissade or pas couru [1]. In the petit jeté everything stays smaller. The grand jeté landed at about 3.0 g in the pilot study [2].
You can practise dégagé, sauté and the single-leg landing at home, but get feedback by video or class for the jeté itself. Film yourself from the side and watch heel, knee and a quiet landing.
Entrechat Quatre: Learning the Beat in the Air