9 minute read
November/December 2018 PS Magazine
The Importance of Plié - A Tutorial for Skaters and Dancers Alike
BY ANNETTE T. THOMAS
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If there is one underlying movement which connects figure skating and ballet, it is certainly the “Plié”. One can hear both coaches and ballet instructors around the world imploring their students to produce a deeper, springier, more dynamic bend of the knee. Every other movement in both dance and skating vitally depends on the quality of execution and timing of this one seemingly trivial movement.
Good use of plié is what enables a dancer to appear to float across the floor and a skater to flow seamlessly across the ice. A strong, well supported plié gives a skater deeper edges, higher jumps and more solid landings with less risk of injury. Plié helps to center spins, improves carriage and increases the capacity to breathe properly. Good plié provides the control for more precise timing and more expressive musicality.
Unfortunately the intricacies of this deceptively simple and yet so fundamentally important movement are often overlooked or taken for granted: “Well, everyone knows how to bend...they just need to do it more!” is often the attitude. And with the ever increasing social media “stars” demonstrating how to do just about everything, amateurs and professionals alike are taking a stab at sharing their own perspectives—which can be confusing at best.
A closer look at the Plié
Most beginning skaters tentatively move about with very little plié as the fear of falling prevents them from feeling that the ice is to be pressed into rather than to be avoided. This stiff action actually causes less stability and more uncertainty, as they are not “appreciating” their surface medium. I once had a ballet instructor tell me that I must learn to love the floor. She said “The floor is your friend; it is your canvas—push into it, feel it, and learn to use it”. From the very first lesson, the skater should apply these same suggestions: learn to love the ice, press into it, and learn to use it.
Let’s take a look at some of the fundamentals of plié from a methodological and biomechanical perspective so that we can begin to feel it from the “inside out”.
Whether in turn out or parallel, on two feet or one, it is important to understand that a plié is an action (not a position) that goes in two opposite directions at once. While pushing down into the ice or floor from the hips and lumbar vertebrae down, the plié simultaneously lifts from the thoracic vertebrae (bottom of the rib cage) through the top of the head and up to the ceiling. This stretch of the spine in two opposing directions, when combined with constantly drawing the deep abs in to the spine, creates a stable torso enabling us to find and keep our “center”. It also strengthens all of the muscles in the pelvic girdle to cushion against back injury especially during jump landings.
In “demi-plié” (meaning “half-bend”) the foot should feel the floor at all times constantly exerting equal pressure on the big toe, the little toe, and the heel. This means that in both parallel and in “turn out” there will be no rolling of the foot either inward or outward (a stable ankle), producing well aligned “tracking” of the knee over the toe. In demiplié everything depends on the foot being flat, firmly placed but no curling of the toes, rocking, or lifted heels. This foot and ankle stability is the basis for feeling your surface and “building” total body alignment. Since correct body awareness and alignment (what Joseph Pilates calls “imprinting”) is so important to executing good pliés, they should be practiced on a regular basis off-ice so that it becomes second nature there first without the distraction of velocity.
In Vaganova Methodology (which is what I teach and is the basis for all my classes), beginning level demi-pliés are practiced facing the ballet barre in eight very slow counts each: four counts down and four counts up, which is actually half of the original 16 counts—so be happy or not that it has been reduced! This is to imprint the entire movement correctly into the mind-body connection, and to actually form the body—just as physical therapy corrects alignment issues.
Hold on lightly either facing a ballet barre or the back of a chair, and stand about six to eight inches away from it with feet together in parallel. Draw in the center of the body (located approximately two to three inches below the navel) to the spine, aim the coccyx to the floor, and stretch from the back of the ribs (thoracic vertebrae) to the top of the head up toward the ceiling. Keep your shoulders gently pressed down and open at all times. Now bend your knees directly over your toes while keeping the spine engaged in the “two way spine stretch”. Bend to the deepest point possible while keeping the heels and little and big toes equally pressed against the floor. This stretches the Achilles tendon, which is very important in executing high jumps and fluid movement.
Now, instead of merely straightening knees, push off the floor, using the hamstring and glutes to straighten— because plié is an active part of a jump (not merely a “random” ballet exercise). When your knees have completely straightened, squeeze the legs together in an isometric manner to complete the action. This strengthens the knees, increases the ability to pull the legs together quickly for jumps, and is the “balance” in the stretch/ strengthen equilibrium of all Vaganova exercises. And remember—your buttocks and lower spine must never stick out as you will lose the power of your push.
Repeat this exercises eight times slowly and smoothly with eyes closed to begin to feel it internally. Now open your eyes and try it again eight times with hands off the barre/ chair but keeping everything else in place.
Demi-plié in first position with “natural turn out”
The easiest way to find your natural turn out without taking my courses is to stand in parallel facing the barre lift your toes off the floor and using only your gluteals and deep rotators and inner thigh muscles turn out both legs simultaneously (keeping heels together) and drop the toes back onto the floor. To maintain this turn-out you must constantly engage your gluteals and inner thigh muscles. Always keep your abdominals engaged and the two-way stretch of your spine active.
To begin plié in natural turn out, keep both hands on the barre and continue to feel the two-way spine stretch and the deep abs pressing toward the spine. As you begin the plié, contract the buttocks muscles to rotate the legs within the hip socket and rotate the inner thighs toward the front (without tucking the coccyx). Smoothly continue to bend knees over toes and stretching spine. Keep shoulders down and open, and feet firmly planted on the floor. At the lowest point, your back should still be completely straight with knees directly over toes and your coccyx pointing downward to the floor (again, not tucked and not tilted out). Feel the stretch in the inner thighs and the Achilles tendon.
To straighten, push with stable feet and ankles from the floor and smoothly begin to straighten legs. Be aware that keeping the knees over the toes is even more important during the rise as this is where problems arise in jump landings—the supporting knee turns in and the whole skeleton is then thrown off kilter.
End with the knees pulled up (quadriceps engaged) and employ the isometric squeeze for at least two of the eight counts.
Both going down and coming up should feel like one smooth and continuously aligned action. Practice this exercise with eyes closed to feel your center, the rhythm of the action, and to become aware of every part of your body executing it properly.
This exercise should be repeated eight times in first position always including the isometric squeeze and the end of each one. Keep the practice slow and do not allow the inner thighs or buttocks to disengage, especially on the way up as you will lose proper turn out and alignment.
Grand plié in natural first position
Grand plié is also practiced in eight slow counts facing the barre and is only introduced after the demi-plié has been mastered with proper alignment—this is the way real classical ballet is taught so that it is 100% effective without injury. For grand plié in first position, the heels come off the floor only when they cannot stretch any more while keeping correct alignment of whole body posture. You should also never allow the thighs to completely touch the calves as this over extends the knee joints and weakens them—something you really do not want if you want high jumps with many rotations!
With heels forward, turn out is always initiated from the gluteals, deep rotators, and upper thigh muscles. The calves do not touch the inner thighs.
The eight counts for grand plié are as follows: two counts to demi-plié—one count to grand plié—one count back to demi-plie (w/completely accurate alignment) —two counts pushing to straighten and two counts “isometric squeeze”.
No more than two grand pliés in each position of first, second, and third (not fourth or fifth) should be done in the first year of ballet training for skaters, as more will tend to weaken the movement not strengthen it. More is not always better!
When the student masters this off-ice, on-ice stroking and cross over exercises will be MUCH more effective as whole body awareness and a fundamental understanding of “Ballón” will have been effectively incorporated into the mindbody connection.
Article and photos are copyright (c) 2006 -2018 by Annette T. Thomas and Prime Radiant Press LLC. Book excerpts are from my book “Fundamentals of Alignment and Classical Movement for Figure Skaters” This material may not be copied or distributed without the prior consent of Annette T. Thomas.
Annette T. Thomas is the Education Director of American Ice Theatre and author of Fundamentals of Alignment and Classical Movement for Figure Skaters”, “Lessons in Classical Ballet for the Figure Skater” and instructional video “Lessons in Ballet for Figure Skaters Level -1”. She currently teaches on-line certification courses in conjunction with American Ice Theatre, and The Ohio Conservatory of Ballet, and conducts workshops worldwide in her exclusive “Ballet for Figure Skaters”. Floor-Barre, and Russian Method Classical ballet.
For more information on teaching resources, books and video, please visit: http://www.balletforfigureskaters.com/store/
