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My name is Maegan Woodin, and I'm a professional dancer, choreographer, teacher and student.
I have danced for MTV, Diana Ross, Marc Jacobs and have appeared in many music videos. You
can find more information about me and my career, as well as photos and videos, at www.dgtnyc.com.
I'm going to be talking to you about ballet. Plie is used in all dance styles and in dance
forms, and it's used as a transitional step, or a cushion for the end of a jump or the
beginning of the jump to give you power and strength. So I'm going to demonstrate plie
in first position. First position is when your toes are out to the side and your heels
are touching. You want to make sure that when you're plieing, that your knees are going
directly in the center of your foot. You don't want to have your knees go forward, or your
knees as well as your tailbone going back. So you want to make sure that you're just
going directly into the center of your foot. And also an important thing to remember is,
try to think of plie as going straight up and down, and that you have two walls on either
side of you. So when you're plieing, you don't want to go forward or go back. You want to
stay in this cylinder, and you want to bend and stretch. An important thing to remember
about plie is don't go to the extent of your plie. The full extent of your plie is when
your heels lift off the ground. So you want to go in between the stretch and the plie
in this middle section, and when you're in the middle section you'll get the most support
in your legs and your abdominals and your back. And this is the best way to do plie,
in the middle area.