Of the “beating” type of step, the fundamental is the battement: a beating movement of the free leg, the supporting leg remaining stationary. The accent is not on the up-stroke, as in a kick, but sharply on the down-stroke. The beats may be made from side, front, or (less usually) back. The foot may be raised to the height of the head (though it is not often done), to horizontal, to the height of the knee, or the distance of a foot’s length away from the supporting leg. Executed with a straight knee, the movement is a grand battement. A petit battement is action of the lower leg only, working from the knee as a stationary pivot, while the foot strikes the supporting ankle, calf, or knee. It is a movement designed for brilliancy, and should be executed rapidly. With practice it can be carried to such a degree of speed that the active foot seems to shimmer. It is the basic step of Scotch dances. Modified to allow the sole of the active foot to touch the floor, it provides the shuffle-step of the Irish Jigs and Reels. Petits battements, it should be added, are usually employed in a sequence of several in succession.
Correctly speaking, a battement does not constitute a step, but a temps.
The cabriole is a development of the battement. In the latter, only one leg is active; it leaves the supporting leg, and rejoins it. The cabriole is executed with both feet in the air; both legs act in the beating movement, rapidly separating and coming together, but not crossing.
A further development of the same theme brings us to the gem which, of the ballet’s entire collection, is the most dazzling: the entrechat. Instead of merely bringing the legs together, as in the cabriole, it uses a jump as the occasion for repeatedly crossing the feet. Cleanly done, it is as the sparkle of a humming-bird.