Plié is so much more than bending the knees!

By Chelsea Weidmann, ballet educator with 29 years of teaching experience and author of Artistry Inside Ballet Technique

In my very first ballet class I was told that a plié is when you bend and straighten your knees. That’s it. That isn’t wrong, but it isn’t complete either. If you’re standing and bend your knees, you have two options: bend other joints as part of the plié, or fall over.

What Is a Plié in Ballet?

Since dancers aren’t usually falling over, you’re bending other joints without realizing it. That incomplete understanding creates problems you may already know:

• Gripping in your hips and thighs

• Hip flexor pain, even with low extensions

• Frustratingly shallow pliés when you know you have the flexibility

When plié is taught as only knee bending, we work incredibly hard to do exactly what we’re told. We grip our hip flexors and extensors to keep the pelvis “stable.” We grip our toes to keep our ankles from moving. We want desperately to maintain what we think ballet “should” look like.

But dance is movement. When I think “movement,” I think freedom, a paint-soaked brush making broad strokes. When I think “bend your knees,” I think squeaky door hinge. So how do you make plié beautiful and tension-free? It starts with understanding that plié is actually a three-joint movement: your hips, your knees, and your ankles all bend.

Try it

Next time you plié, check all three joints. Can you feel your hips folding? Are your ankles bending? Is anything gripping that doesn’t need to? If your plié still feels stuck, here’s how to troubleshoot each joint: When Plié Struggles to Bend.

Feel Your Plié From the Inside

Noticing what each joint is doing is somatic awareness, one of nine elements of artistry. The Ballet Artistry Deck has six prompts for each one, so you can try a new experiment at your next class.

Get the Deck