Plies in Jumps

[Guest starrdancer]

When I am doing jumps, I cant seem to relax into plie. My heels pop off the floor a little and my calves get really tired. Does anyone know anything that would help my jumps?

[dancersteven]

Practicing many demi-plies at the barre will help lengthen your Achilles tendon, allowing you to go lower before your heels come up. Do them slowly so that you can be SURE that your heels are not coming off the floor.

 

Once you have done that for a while, practice some simple sautes in first with both hands on the barre, working on keeping both heels on the marley, not only on the landing, but on the preperatory plie as well.

 

It has been my experience that heels are more likely to pop up when one is jumping quickly, so practice these SLOWLY, once the feeling of keeping your heels on the ground is in your body, aka second nature, it will be easier to keep them on when the tempo picks up. Hope that this helps!

 

S.

 

PS Your claves get tired because they do not stretch fully when you heels pop off of the floor, the muscles remain contracted continually, which makes them tire quickly.

[Victoria Leigh]

Starrdancer, your heels do not have a mind of their own. They will do what you make them do. Work on relaxing your plié at the barre. Practice release type pliés, that is, stand in first position and demi plié and then do two more without straigtening up all the way but just using a pulse like action. It's like plié/plié/plié, and straighten, slowly. Don't force the plié, just ALLOW it to happen, easily and freely. A bit like letting air out of a balloon, but do maintain your alignment and upward resistance and don't collapse into it!

[vrsfanatic]

Also if you do not have your weight evenly distributed throughout the whole foot your heels will pop up. Make sure to align your upper, middle and lower back in one piece. Make sure that you use your back in demi plie, up and down like going straight on an elevator not on a diagonal, forward and back!