Depth of Plié
I've recently become aware of an interesting, and exciting phenomenon that I just had to share!
I've never been blessed with a body that makes dance easier, at least from an aesthetic perspective. The arches in my feet aren't high, my legs aren't long and my turnout (hip external rotation) is rather limited. Nevertheless, I have always found a way to use the structure I do have to create movement, and nothing limits the joy I feel through that creation.
One of the physical differences I have noticed between myself and other dancers is the depth of my demi-plié. A demi-plié, for those of you who are non-dancers, is simply a bend in the knees without lifting the heels. A dancer's range of motion in this movement is usually limited by both the skeletal structure of the ankle (talocrural) joint and the length and flexibility of the plantar flexors (calf muscles and toe flexors) and the surrounding fascia. One of my good friends (a dancer) has extremely long calf muscles and fascia, combined with an ankle joint that seems almost non-existent as she goes lower and lower into her demi-plié. I envied that range of motion, but resigned myself to the fact that I would never achieve a deeper plié. I would bend as far as I could, and then I would feel a limitation that didn't feel muscular; so I assumed it was skeletal, and there was not a lot I could do to drastically change my range.
Over the past year, as I have learned more about Restorative Exercise™ and incorporated those ideas into my daily life, I have spent time focusing on realigning my legs (see my previous post). This has also included stretching my calves (gastrocnemius specifically -- I haven't spent a lot of time stretching the soleus yet) with my legs more properly aligned. Sadly I have not had the opportunity to dance over the past six months, but I still continue to work on my alignment.
Now to the interesting part -- I was doing a little bit of stretching/moving while waiting for a client to arrive, and I started doing some demi-pliés in parallel (feet hip width-apart). To my surprise, as I sank lower and lower, I seemed to have gained at least several inches of depth! At least, it felt that way to me, but possibly could be a slight exaggeration, given how excited I was and still am! As I explored further, I discovered that my left leg could go quite a bit further than my right into a deeper plié, but both legs were capable of more range of motion than I had ever thought possible.
Below, my "ingrained over many years" alignment as I demi-plié:
Now see the change in my plié after correcting my alignment:
So, of course because it's not enough to just feel the difference in my plié, but rather I need to know exactly how much it changed, I got out my protractor and measured some angles. It turns out that my knees flexed 51 degrees in my poorly-aligned plié and . . . wait for it . . . 59 degrees in my correctly-aligned plié! Okay, so not quite the substantial change it felt like, but eight more degrees is nothing to laugh at . . . right?
Anyway, applying what I know about the body and what I have been working on, I can make the following assumptions:
With my old foot/knee alignment, my knees/lower legs were trying to bend forward while my feet pointed outward, which took my talocrural joints out of the plane in which they were supposed to be hinging. By realigning my feet with the outside edges pointing forward, my talocrural joints are now capable of a full range of motion, thus allowing my ankles to hinge and my knees to bend further than before.
As I have been working on realigning my legs, I have also been both stretching and mobilizing muscles and fascia in my calves with this new alignment, and that new length seems to have added to my range of motion.
It is fun to suddenly discover a large change you have effected in your own body without being aware of doing so! Dancers, another reason why properly aligning your body is so important -- imagine suddenly finding more potential within your body's structure. Now I just need to start dancing again so that I can utilize my new depth of plié!