Instant Expert: Don Quixote

What’s the “Kitri Jump”?

One of the distinctive features of Don Quixote’s choreography is the “Kitri jump.” In this step, Kitri jumps into the air and as she does so kicks her back leg so that she nearly hits herself in the head. This shape appears throughout Don Quixote, with characters including Kitri’s friends and Mercedes performing versions of it, to give the ballet a Spanish flair. But it’s Kitri’s whose are most spectacular. The step is also sometimes called the Plisetskaya jump, after Soviet ballerina Maya Plisetskaya, who made the step famous.

This production was part of the 2022 Season.

Header Image: Mathilde Froustey in Tomasson/Possokhov’s Don Quixote // © Erik Tomasson