The ballet bar plays a crucial role in any ballet dance routine as it provides the dancer with the necessary area in which to practise and hone their skills, as well as allowing them to develop the required muscles needed to do the various physically demanding and challenging moves.
However, it is crucial that any warm up routine is conducted in a safe and proper manner, and that the exercises are executed in the order that they are supposed to, as the last thing the dancer needs is to pull a muscle or injure themselves before they have even began their workout in earnest!
Any ballet bar exercise routine should always begin with the “plie”, the reason for this is that the plies will always help to stretch tone and improve the circulation of blood to all of the major muscle groups found within the legs.
The plies can be seen as the foundation upon which the rest of the exercise regime will be based upon, and they are crucial to get the dancer both physically and mentally ready before undertaking some of the more physically challenging and difficult of the exercises.
Plies are classed into two broad categories, the “demi” group which means that whenever the dancer executes a plie, they only bend the knees one half of the way.
The “grand” group is whenever the dancer executes a plie by bending their knees fully although regardless of whether you use the demi or the grand variety of plies, you will be strengthening and toning all of the muscles within the legs so do not get too pedantic about only doing the demis as opposed to the grands.
Make sure you do at least 10 plies in total before moving onto any other of the exercises, and also make sure you take a rest after carrying them out.
