Learn how to perfect your Ballet Plié

Learn everything you need to know about Ballet Pliés in this Ballet Plié tutorial from Miss Hannah. This How-To video format help Miss Hannah share Ballet expertise with you in an easy to digest format! This Ballet Plié tutorial video provides you with step-by-step guidance on how to Plié, including the different types of Plié (Demi-Plié and Grand Plié). It also covers other useful information you'd want from a guide video includiing common mistakes in ballet, ballet tips, ballet tricks, ballet hacks & more!

Plié How to video description

Learn how to do Plies in Miss Hannah's Beginner Ballet Barre tutorial. Ballet tutorial includes ballet tips, ballet tricks, ballet hacks and Ballet 'how to' step by step guidance. Demonstrations for you to practice your ballet at home with these demi-plie & grand plie exercises.

I demonstrate Pliés, Demi-Plies and Grand Pliés in this how to Ballet exercise guide video.

Difficulty / Level

This Ballet video was designed for beginner Ballet dancers You can learn how to Plié with little to no experience with this Ballet how-to video tutorial to a fundamental of Ballet.

Beginner Baller Barre - Plié Tutorial video YouTube Transcript:

Welcome back to the channel everybody. It's Hannah from Stardust. I've made this short video all about Pliés to help you with a few helpful hints and tricks, as well as letting you know about some common mistakes to watch out for when you're doing your Pliés in your ballet classes. I really hope you find it useful. If you do, please drop me a comment below because I would love to hear from you.

[How to guide begins]

So firstly, the word Plié means to bend and we are bending our knees so these can be done in lots of different positions. And typically your Plié exercise is the very first exercise that you would do when you get to the barre. In any kind of ballet class she would do. We always start with Pliés after a little cardio warmup. We also use them a lot when you get to the Center for instance, every time you jump in ballet you'll start and finish in a Plié. So this is for safety. So we are protecting our knees and our Plié is like shock absorption. So landing in a Plié just stops any knee or hip injuries that could happen if you landed without a Plié. So they are super important and used. Loads in ballet classes. Whenever you land a leap; before you do a turn, you will see lots of Pliés, so there are lots of different types of Plié. So we start in first position and you've got your Demi Plié. means little or half, so this is our half a Plié and in first position you keep your heels flat on the floor, heads up nice and tall and we're making a diamond shape between our knees, squeezing our knees out to the side and squeezing our legs. Back together, same thing can be taken in a second position. Demi-Plié heels are staying down on the floor. Good, they can also be done in 3rd and 5th and 4th positions. Same thing just going down and squeezing back up fabulous. Good job. Now things that can go wrong with a Demi Plié is rolling of your feet so I'm just going to move my barre so you can see my feet a little bit better when you're first learning Pliés you might do them facing the bar and this is so that you don't twist as much but in older grades or when you've done a ballet a little bit more you might take them sideways to the bar. And hold your other arm in second position. So we want to make sure our feet are flat on the floor and we're not rolling our feet so all 10 toes on the floor weight on the balls of your feet squeezing down lovely now want you to pretend you are in between 2 brick walls so you go down and squeeze back up so we're not leaning forwards or backwards. We're staying nice and tall, wonderful, same thing when you're taking it in second position. Back up nice and straight spine, nice and long. Tailbone pointing down towards the floor and make sure you squeeze those knees out so our knees are going out over our toes so it in a lovely turned out position and our knees are tracking over our toes so we're not going to hurt those knees then moving on to our full Plié or our Grande Plié depending what your teacher calls them. We need to go through a Demi Plié really important through a demi-plié. As low as you can go, and then your heels are going to lift off the floor as you keep going down. Then as soon as you can get your heels back on the floor so you show another Demi Plié and then stretch and lengthen good so a full Plié should contain 2 Demi-Pliés knees need to go out to the side and you want to keep moving at the same speed so you don't want to stop. Or sit at the bottom of your Plié . That's another common fault. Some people just go straight down, sit there for a moment, and then come straight back up. Alright, we want to keep moving so slowly down through your full. That's it and coming back. Lovely squeezing up through that full Plié  now when you take your full Plié in second position is a little bit different because your heels don't lift off the floor because they don't really need to. We can go all the way down and get a nice inside the thigh stretch. So going down through your Demi and then you keep going just as low as you can either to wear your thighs are flat or just above squeezing back up good so again. If you're just learning these, you might be doing there facing the barre and that just keeps your shoulders and your hips nice and square and you don't have to worry about the arm when you take these sideways to the barre, you use your arm, but a common fault when we start to use the arm is sometimes people take the shoulder with them, so you must keep your shoulders square even when your arm is moving.

[How to guide ends]

OK, so lots of things to think about. You might think a Plié is super easy. Just bending and stretching, but there is loads of things that you need to think about when you are doing your Pliés, so I really hope this little video has been useful. If it has, feel free to drop me a comment down below and let me know what you have enjoyed. What you find easy or difficult about Plies in your ballet classes and if there are any other videos I can make to help you with your dancing at home. Please let me know. Thanks for watching and hope to see you soon.