Movements of dance 1: Plié – to bend or to fold

Formerly, pliés marked the start of every ballet class, but we now understand more why effective warm-up must come first. Increased internal body heat warms the muscles to undertake slow, gentle, rhythmic joint movements and improve circulation of blood flow and oxygen. This in turn stimulates the synovial membrane round the joint to release synovial fluid which acts as a lubricant, allowing freer movement of the joint and also acting as a shock absorber in joint areas. After five to eight minutes of mobility, pulse-raising and stretching exercises, students should then be ready to plié.

There are many different types of pliés, the four most common are:
1. Reserve, impulse plié, or plié soutenu – the sustained use of plié into another movement (to be discussed in future articles)
2. Quarter plié
3. Demi-plié
4. Grand plié.

Reserve pliés, impulse or soutenu

Reserve pliés, impulse or soutenu release the joints further, deepening the plié a little extra in a pulse down action for a relevé, pirouette, jump or stretch of the legs. They differ from all other pliés because there is not such an even flow of movement, but rather a pump-like, limbering motion with a release on the descent and a dynamic accent up, on the ascent.

Quarter pliés

Quarter pliés are half way between the straight legs and a demi-plié. They are used a good deal in allegro and pointe work. They are first used when teaching pliés to the very young.

Demi-pliés

Demi-pliés are half way to the full bending of the knees and should be practised much more than grand pliés in training. Strength and control of the legs can be developed through good use of these movements to balance muscle groups. Students need to be confident about pliés so that when they practise or perform work on one leg they will be more secure.

Grand pliés

Grand pliés when correctly executed with full turn-out allow the knees to bend until the thighs lie parallel to the floor. Whereas in grand pliés in second and fourth open, the heels remain on the floor, in first, fourth crossed and fifth grand pliés the heels rise after the maximum depth of the demi-plié has been reached. The process is reversed on rising from grand plié. Both heels must press as soon as possible into the floor at the same time and the knees should straighten only after this is achieved.

Tamara Karsavina advised, 'Do not think of plié merely as an exercise, but capture the whole concept of it as a continuous flow of movement that is not broken by jerks or stops and which follows the musical phrasing'. If the plié is allowed to be divided into ascent and descent the continuity of motion is destroyed and the muscles work twice as hard as necessary resulting in over-developed thighs.

Technique

Throughout this series of articles I have stressed how important it is that children, from the outset of their training, use the correct muscles to execute a movement and protect joints.

To plié, a dancer stands erect, initially slowly bending both knees in line with legs. Turn-out is from the hip joints. Both feet should be flat on the floor, the front of each ankle relaxed, the heels firmly on the ground and the body's weight centred equally on two feet. The extent to which the knee bends with the heels flat is determined by the length of the Achilles tendon and the suppleness of the two calf muscles to which it is attached.

Good rotation from the hip socket, allowing classical alignment, is important for faultless classical ballet technique. Not every dancer has such turn-out, so it is vital in training that when performing a plié the knees should be directly over the toes, their angle controlled by the degree of turn-out in the hip socket that is possessed. As the body descends there must be a slight counter pull upwards to keep posture upright. Shoulders should not fall forward if using arm movements. I have always found it useful to talk about muscular control rather than joint action and discuss the part hamstrings play in controlling the descent in pliés.

If the feet of children or adolescents are turned-out further than the rotation of the hip joints allows, the growing ends of the bones can be damaged. The knee is designed as a hinge, therefore any rotational force when weight bearing could damage the ligaments and menisci.

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