Why do we do grand plies? PLUS: Why Leigh gives super fast degages at the barre

You can always count on people who love ballet, dancers or teachers or simply avid balletomanes, to argue about the art form. Is that a tour jete or a grand jete en tournant? A pas de chat or saut de chat? Do you point or flex the foot in a frappe en releve?

Lately I have heard the argument against doing grand plie at the barre.
"They are too hard on your knees!"
"They are not used in the center!"
"They are really hard to do correctly and I don't feel like doing (or teaching) them!"

Those are all valid arguments. As a teacher of many levels of dancers, I can say unequivocally that grand plie is not easy to teach, to learn or to re-learn, which many of us do if we weren't taught correctly or if we skim through them without actually using the correct muscles. And let's face it, plies at the barre are often an exercise people do by rote. If it's the first or second exercise at the barre, you may not even be thinking about them! You're thinking about where you parked your car, what you might have left at the office, and if you need to stop at Trader Joe's on the way home. So plies are an afterthought.

However, I would argue there are two very valid reasons to do grand plie:
1. Jumps
2. Stability

The first is obvious: when we do deep knee bends, we are building our quads and our hamstrings, both of which we really need if we want to jump off the ground. Of course, we move through our demi-plie at the beginning and end of each jump, but the power has to come from somewhere!

The second is less-obvious: when we are in the center performing an adagio, we need to stabilize our center so we don't wobble and our knees don't buckle. When we talk about holding our core muscles (front, back and sides of our torso) we really want to engage the very deep muscles in our abdomen called the rectus abdominis, which are two long muscles running down the center front of your body, side by side, and the transverse abdominis, which are under our obliques and connect on the sides of the pelvis. These muscles are critical to holding us steady away from the barre. And what's a great way to engage them? Grand plie! How, you ask? When you perform a demi-plie at the barre, it's easy to correct the pelvic tilt but when you go just a bit deeper into a grand plie, it's that much more challenging to keep your pelvis aligned properly. To do it correctly requires that you engage the muscles very deep in your center.

Source: Wikipedia, CC lic

NB: correct pelvic posture is important to fully engage the deep abdominal muscles and strengthen them for center stabilization so be sure to either ask your teacher for guidance or take a quick peek at your profile in the mirror to see what's happening in your pelvic region. If you're tilting (i.e. spilling your cup of water!), engage the muscles and align them properly.

Source: Wikipedia, CC lic (NB, the darkest shade of red is the Transversus Abdominis)

Now, do you really need to do a super deep grand plie all the way to the floor? Absolutely not. And it's very difficult for many dancers to do that and maintain the turnout in their hips without forcing it. You should take your grand just to the point before you begin to turn in. You need to be able to lower yourself to this position and then recover from it without turning the knees in and allowing the hips to swing back behind the heels. Again, this may require a bit of guidance from your teacher, especially if you're not exactly sure what it should feel like. That's what we're here for! We want you properly aligned and building strength!

It's up to you and your knees (and your teacher!) as to whether you do a grand plie and there may be lots of good reasons for you personally to not attempt them but if there isn't and you find that you're wobbly in the center or you can't get off the ground in big jumps, consider working on your grand plie.

BONUS!

QUESTION from the class: "Leigh, why do you give such fast degage combinations at the barre? They're hard and confusing!"

Good question! No matter what level class you take with me, I will give you a fast degage combo at the barre. You might have trouble with it because of the speed but I want you to try it anyway. Why?

1. Step out of your comfort zone! We all have a tempo at which we like to perform certain steps (for instance, I like slow grand battements so I can get my leg high which takes time) so if you push yourself a little bit, it will be that much easier the next time you try it. This goes for anything! Try for the triple turn when you want a double, etc.

2. Focus on speed for allegro. Fast small steps in the center require quick feet and fast reflexes. If we do a fast combo at the barre and constantly shift our weight from side to side, that's going to have a direct impact on our movements in the center later. We will be more likely to be able to shift our weight and our muscles will fire up faster.

3. Engage the inner thighs. Slow degages tend to use the quads more than the inner thighs, especially if the accent is on the degage extension rather than the close to the position. When we do a quicker action, we are accenting the close, which requires us to use the muscles that close the thighs together. Again, this has a direct application to our allegro combinations in the center.

Do I expect you to perform a super fast combination perfectly? It would be nice, sure, but it takes time to feel comfortable or at least allow yourself to not be perfect. You will flub it and feel like your feet and toes are made of concrete but the more frequently you do them, the more you will find the time to work the feet properly.

Happy dancing~

Heels out, toes in

In physics, scientists are always looking for universal elements (see Unified Field Theory as an example), things that are true throughout the universe that can be applied in every situation.

Let's face it, it's a lot easier to say we should always hold our arms like this or we should always tilt our heads like that. But we don't. There are lots of different styles of ballet.

Still, that doesn't stop us from trying to find them! Rules, give us rules! We are disciplined ballet dancers who want to do everything right.

Here is one possible addition to our Unified Ballet Theory:

Heels out, toes in.

That is, every movement from our centers outward and away from our bodies, whether that is a battement tendu or a developpe devant  or even a retire, needs to begin with the heel of the foot moving first and then returning to the position (or the center of the body) with the toes.

Try it yourself.

1. Start in fifth position, right foot in front.
2. Using the heel of the right foot, begin to slide it en avant as you perform a tendu.
3. Notice how the heel stays lifted and the foot's arch is nicely curved as you stretch it all the way forward.
4. Now, using the toes of the right foot, pull it back to your fifth position and nestle it snugly against the instep of your left foot.
5. Feel how the muscles at the top of your leg are engaged and your rotation is being used as the foot returns to 5th.

Repeat the exercise with degage, grand battement, rond de jambe a terre, etc. Anything you want! And definitely try this a la seconde and  en arriere. It works!

Happy dancing~

Photo Alicia Heaney, CC Lic

3 Mistakes You're Probably Making with Degage

Whether you call it battement degage (Cecchetti) or battement glisse (French) or battement tendu jete (Russian), it is a step from 5th or 1st position in which you brush the foot against the floor until it leaves the floor at a 45 degree (or less) angle, then returns to the position going through tendu.

Here is my YouTube video in which I demonstrate the close-up footwork of a degage:

You're probably doing it wrong. That's okay. Lots of people do it wrong. Here are 3 ways along with their corrections:

1. You don't push the foot against the floor. Instead you lift it and place it on the return, heel first. This makes the movement clunky and stiff.

Correction: press the foot into the floor to initiate the movement, then glide the heel-ball-toe off the floor until the foot points enough to lift it from the floor.

2. You wait too long to touch the floor on the return. When you bring the foot back to the position, you wait until the ball of the foot (or worse, the heel) is about to hit the floor, then you close the position.

Correction: on the return, hit the toes on the floor as far away from you as possible, and then pull in the ball of the foot and finally the heel at the last second. The visual image of the toes melting into the floor can help. This will insure the longest line possible, especially when translated to the center for glissade, etc.

3. Your degage is short, moving from the knee down. It's then very hard to do fast degages without looking short and "choppy."

Correction: perform the movement with the entire leg, from the top of the thigh all the way down to the foot. This will make the line longer and will allow you to do very fast degages because it gives you plenty of room under your hips.

Happy dancing~