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I bet if you asked any of the preschoolers that were in my ballet class what a plié is they could tell you or show you. It’s simple enough for a 3yr old to understand and execute, yet it has the power to transform almost every move you make in ballet class. Let's see if we can re-vamp our plié. This is Mindful Monday, so it starts with the Mind.
It teaches us how to support the spine as the knees bend and straighten with good alignment. It is the preparatory step before a jump or leap. It is the first exercise done at the barre at the beginning of class. A preparatory step before a pirouette or turn. A great warm up movement.
But do it wrong and you can seriously hurt your knees. If you are utilizing your turn out from the hips and not the knees and ankles, you should be able to safely plié with your knee aligned over your baby toe, not your big toe.
I’ve taught a lot of Barre and Pilates classes to non-dancers. I love to start class with pliés. I can always tell by the end of the warm-up if there’s a dancer in the room. 😃 Always. It takes 1-2 Pliés and you can tell if they are a dancer. ❤️
But I can say one simple thing to the class that vastly changes the quality of their movement through a plié. I tell them to change the way they think about their plié.
Don’t think of it as a down and up movement. Think of it as a circular movement.
Their quality of movement immediately changes.
You see the mindfulness I’m showing you here? The power of the mind is amazing.
When an instructor tells you “use your plié!” I believe if you think of making a bigger circle with your plié you will nail it.
Try it out.
Stand up and do an up and down plie several times.
Now make it a big circle.
Notice a difference? Did you automatically go a bit deeper? Did you automatically put some resistance on it?
Isn’t that amazing?
*That* is using your plie. Good work!
How useful do you think the 1st kind of plié will be vs the 2nd? Now go do it 100 x the right way until you’ve built some strength and some muscle memory. 😊
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