I've heard that you are not supposed to sit in your plie. I THINK I know what this means, but could someone elaborate for me....<P>

AHallMark - that's a very good question, indeed. <P>Siting in the plié means spending a count at the bottom of the plié, or halting the movement at any one place. The plié should constantly move, a constant flow of energy and movement.<P>

Is there any rule about how far down you go? I know that you shouldn't lift your heels until you have to, but how far down beyond that point do you need to go?

That far that you still carrie yourself and use your muscles.<P>You are going to deep when you are actually sitting on your heels and don´t use your muscles.

In my opinion, full grand plié is of no benefit and quite harmful in any position except second. So, based on that - the answer is you only go into grand plié in second position until the thighs are horizontal and no further. <P><BR>If you have not had a chance to read this thread you might want to:<P><BR><A HREF=../../../ubb/Forum7/HTML/000448.html><B>PLIES AND KNEES</B></A><P><BR>

Yes, sitting in the plie is a big problem. It puts a tremendous strain in the knee. I should say,however, that many modern techniques, (P. Taylor among them)incorporate a great deal of movement in grand plie level. If you look at their dance repertory and analyze it, you'll see what I mean. Maybe this why many of their dancers have large quads. These large quads PROTECT the knee from injury. Large quads help to keep the knee joint (which tends to be unstable) in alignment and keeps patella (kneecap) tracking (moving) correctly over the hinged knee joint. I dont' recommend you try to get big quads by the way (obviously!)...there are other ways to keep the knee strong.<BR>As far as ballet, grand plies are not used that much in the actual repertory,except Bournonville which uses grand plies in jumping and a little bit in turning.<BR>To avoid sitting in grand plie, make sure you don't "pause" in grand plie; you should spend no more than one musical count in grand plie, and keep the hip and thigh muscles engaged, NOT relaxed.<P><p>[This message has been edited by trina (edited May 07, 2001).]

Yes, sitting in plié does refer to the pause at the bottom which shouldn't be there, but it also refers to that terrible position when people let their bottoms stick out - particularly ugly in 2nd position. It does actually look as if one is sitting on a bench in a rather ungainly manner.

I recently had a class with a new teacher and he told us to go as deep down in the demi-plie as possible. Well, I don't know why, I think my tendons are very long, but my full demi-plie(I mean plie without lifting the heels) in first position is VERY deep..it almost looks like full-plie, except the heels are on the floor. Isn't this wrong?

Annie - I think you should have your teacher check the rest of your alignment while in this very deep demi-plié that you are describing. It is true that some people have a construction that allows this, but if one is out of alignment - allowing the derriere to protrude, the pelvis to tilt incorrectly, could also be a factor.<P>Without seeing you do this, it is impossible to say. Generally speaking, demi-plié is done to the depth possible, without lifting the heels from the floor, and with pelvis and upper torso correctly held. <P>So, if I were you, I would have the teacher check it out. <P>In second the grand plié is only done to the extent that the thighs are horizontal. I am capable of going further, but it is incorrect.