Plié is so much more than bending the knees!

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

Since students aren't usually falling over, they're bending other joints without realizing it. Here's why this incomplete understanding creates problems: All that gripping you see? The hip flexor pain despite low extensions? Those frustratingly shallow pliés when you know they have the flexibility? This happens when students misunderstand plié mechanics.

Ballet students work incredibly hard to do exactly as instructed. When we teach plié as only knee bending, they grip their hip flexors and extensors trying to keep the pelvis "stable." They grip their toes trying to keep ankles from moving. They want desperately to maintain what they understand 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. How do we make plié beautiful and tension-free? It starts with understanding that this is actually a three-joint movement.

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Want my complete systematic approach to teaching the three-joint plié? Get my free guide Beyond the Knees: Breathing Life into Ballet's Fundamental Movement - it includes specific teaching language and visual proof points you can use in your very next class. [Get the free guide here →]

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This three-joint concept is just the beginning. I work with plié differently at every curriculum level. In the Beginning Division, we explore basic joint coordination. In Level 5, where the key principle is turnout refinement, we dive deep into the muscular engagement patterns that make plié serve intermediate and advanced technique.

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This anatomically-informed approach is woven throughout my complete curriculum collection. Every fundamental movement includes the biomechanical understanding that creates efficient, beautiful technique.

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