Modern Dance Warm-Ups: 2nd Position Plié

Video Transcript

"Hi! My name is Chell Garcia-Trias and I am a modern dance instructor in Austin, Texas. I am going to show you how to do second position plies, the way that we would do them in modern dance. So first of all, we are going to take our feet about hips width apart. So, here is your hips. If I dropped my heels right beneath my hips they would actually be in a little bit. I am going to open them up a little bit wider than that. So, there is about two or maybe three feet between my legs. I should be able to stand comfortably here and my legs, my feet are a little turned out. So, that when I bend my knees, my knees are going right over my toes. You have to kind of open your knees out a little bit as you are going. Plie. So, I bend my knees plie. And, straighten. Because it is modern dance, I am just going to let my arms hand to side and I am going to bend down to where it is comfortable. I can feel my hips start to warm up while I am doing this. Plie. And, I am really going to push through my heels all the way to the top of my head. I am going to make sure that my tailbone is tucking under a little bit. That I am using engaging my stomach muscles, imagining there is a zipper pulling up through my stomach. And, that I am reaching through the crown of my head. Plie. So, there is an up motion even though I am going down. And, it is a constantly moving thing. There is no bottom and top. It is just a constantly moving plie. Plie and up. So, that is the way we would do plies in second position in modern dance."