Experience of Teaching...

I am reflecting today after my peer facilitation/ teaching session.
Teaching is something relatively new to me - I have aiding in others teaching & led small improvisations before, but never have I self-led a group on a topic of my choice.
What follows is the hand-out sheet I gave to my peers...



Contralateral Movement Pattern..

"The Contralateral pattern is the basic pattern of our bipedal walking and running... Most mammals display this pattern in their normal walking gait. Although at certain phrases of the movement the coordination appears to be the same as for the homolateral pattern, the initiation is different"   Wisdom Of The Body Moving, Linda Hartley

Seeing the body in 4 quarters...

Finding the diagonal lines through the centre...

Intention and desire for the other... Being engaged in the world...

 Psoas Muscle:

"As part of the iliopsoas, psoas major contributes to flexion and external rotation in the hip joint. On the lumbar spine, unilateral contraction bends the trunk laterally, while bilateral contraction raises the trunk from it's supine position."

"It forms part of a group of muscles called the hip flexors, whose action is primarily to lift the upper leg towards the body when the body is fixed or to pull the body towards the leg when the leg is fixed."

_______________________________________________________________________

 I found it was really difficult to know when to add in more information.
I gave my dancers choices of what they wanted to move with.

Feeding into the space - different things to work with.

Showed clear images

x

Homologous Pattern..

The frog!!

www.arkive.org

Not walking in opposition.

Differentiation between upper & lower body - 2 limbs at the same time, symmetry.

Begins in the later stages of utero - this pattern is part of the birthing process, ingrained.

Like the spinal pattern, we have yield & push and reach & pull in the homologous pattern.

This pattern starts to take us into moving through space.

Can find support from the organ system in this.

Sense of sight is coming into play.

Moving with intention.

x

Yield & Push / Reach & Pull

Finding the bony spine. Bony touch - waking up the spine.
Finding the bony skull. Bringing my attention to the organ brain. The back brain helps bring awareness to this. Finding the fluid - runs through all of my body, connection to the ankles.

Moving with this idea of front, middle & back. Digestive system, fluid, nervous system & bony spine.

Exploring the pattern head-to-head. Reaching through the head & pulling through the tail. Playing with crawling backward & forward as a duo with these initiations.

x

...

Recognising our movement patterns & opening up possibilities of other patterns.

x

Spinal Pattern..

Spinal Pattern - leaving behind pre-vertebrae patterns & entering vertebrae.   Still in water (fish).   This underlies what happens on land with limbs.   Head-tail relationship.  Digestive system (central line) stays with us - soft & flexible.  Spine was once soft in our movement memory.  Brain & spinal chord are still present - they are now protected by a bony encasement.  3 layers of the spine.

Fish fins - balance - replicates relationship between centre of the body & the limbs.
They sense temperature / light / sound / vibration through their skin.

Lateral line (side) is a particularly sensory place.

Nervous system is taking in information through the body. 

____________________________________________________________________________

YIELD & PUSH PATTERN..

Yielding so far - can feel a response to come out of it - rebounding.

Image of getting into a bath.
Finding movement up from the floor.
Finding support before we push upwards towards activity.

(image from journal to scan in!!)

Hands-on:
Inviting possibility of yeidling. Melting into the floor.
Something gooey.
Yeidling taking you into activity.

The floor swallowing me. Allowing it to release me into moving.

Sometimes yielding so much that I don't want to move.

Heavy body.

Connected with my breath & my weight to be able to readily accept movement.

Exploring the articulation in all of the vertebrae. Trying rolling down a wall. Still keeping the digestive tract with me. Connecting with the nod in my head - where my skull nods on my spine.

x

Integration..

Bringing the mouthing pattern & soft spine into my phrase work.

Figuring out where it is more prominent.

centre line

moving on my axis

layers of the movement & layers of the body

soft spine

cellular breathing

centre line

fluid through the body

soft spine

layers

.

x

Cerebrospinal fluid..

health.rush.edu

Mouthing Pattern..

Sucking, rocking head into spine.
Movement down the whole length of the spine.
Whole body experience.
Fluid line.

External & internal witness.
Can witness internally if coaxed.
Noticing seeing eyes.
Switching on attention.

Moving from the Sea Squirt (mouthing pattern)

towards the lancelet (soft spine)

Adding two tubes to the digestive system - the NOTOCHORD (soft - eventually becoming the spine & disks) & the NEURAL TUBE (eventually becomes the brain & spinal chord). Recognising the difference between front & back. FRONT - digestive tract. MIDDLE - reminance of notochord. BACK - reminance of neural tube.

Gives us sequential movement, fluidity & awareness of front & back in relationship to the central line. Spine & brain are bathed in fluid. We have all lived a soft spine.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Writing from my experience:

Organ brain.   Fluid.   Jelly spine - soft. Like a baby in the womb.   No gravity.  Spine not having to support or hold anything.                Blue? Sea? Water?                 Floating.

Breath floating through my spine. Weightless digestive tract.   Relationship between brain, mouth & spine. Spinal chord - spinal disks.       Water.               Backwards blinks.            Spiralling the fluid. Awareness of middle in relation to front & back. Jelly fish brain - tentacles dangling down into the body.

Spine not as solid bone.                                           3D.                                  What's in-between?  

Thinking of my spine as a water sock

(as you squeeze it, it slips  from your hands - has a hole travelling all through the centre)

- has fluid in-between the outer layers.

x

Digestive Tract / Mouthing Pattern..

www.umm.edu 

greaterimmunity.com 

www.childrenscolorado.org 

.................................................................................................................................

Initiating from the mouth - stroking the side of my partners face. Rolling toward the stroke and tracking through the digestive system.

Splitting the body in two. Digestive system - central line. Yet it is still connected. Mouthing Pattern offers a fluid central line.

x

Reflective Questions..

1. Discuss understandings of readings.
   
   
2. Connections across classes.
   
   
3. Learning points - what these patterns.

- Changing one things, changing another (Katye's class).  - Coordinated movement through the navel.  - Each finds its relationship to the other through the navel.  - Locating our own individual centre. Need to nourish it to find it, breath. Found it through navel to spine in pilates.  - Movement is not conscious, it is what is needed.  - Re-patterning.  - A whole with separate entities of self.  - Core support, approaches to life, personal growth.  - Pilates, balance & stability.  - Navel being level with partners (CI) coming to self in order to meet other.  - Back to back (Katye's class) core to core, two starfish stuck together, connected through the navel. 

x

Starfish...

 

Back to back. Sitting, eyes closed. Feeling the breath. Feeling the skin, clothes, temperature. My partners breath. Contact points - my relationship to the environment.

Awareness of self & other..

Anchoring to the self..

Negotiation of awareness..

Touch is a central part of life.

In culture we are restricted in our touching.

Potency of touch. Skin is our communication with the outside world.

Skin is the outside of the nervous system. Many receptors.

Receptors in the organs.   Internal & external world.

Skin as a container, body as a whole.    Fundamental..

Naval Radiation Pattern

Movement in utero...  Intention-directed movement will emerge later...
Unconscious purpose of movement, pre-intentional... Through the stimulation of
movement, tough, and vibration, the potential of the nervous system
will begin to unfold... Actions appear to originate not locally, in the muscles of the
limbs, but from the navel centre of the infant's body... 

Centre of the organism..

Significance of the navel as the central organizing point...

Equality between the limbs of the starfish...

Integrated through the centre...

In utero, the head and the mouth is unimportant, importance of the navel...

Stomach and mouth are the same in a starfish...

Mush more like a starfish in 8 weeks of utero...

Movement & touch is our main sense - proprioception...

6 limbs of the body, each equal...

How this movement pattern can offer integration between centre & periphery...

Core & Distal movement...

Connectivity...

_______________________________________________

Squashy, vulnerable centre - protecting it.

Can almost see through my limbs.

Re-remembering our centre.

The arms don't end at the shoulders, they come right into the centre.

The hand is almost like a starfish - the palm being the centre & the fingers the limbs.

Tracking in my minds eye...

Lying on front, partners hand resting on the back where the navel is. Leaving one have in the centre and using the other to trace along the 6 limbs. Allowing the receiver to play with condensing and expanding around the navel. Felt busy and warm in the centre and my limbs became longer than they are. Feeling Charly's cold hands still buzzing on my skin. Resonating. Felt really interconnected - all limbs joining in the centre.

x

Cellular Breathing..

In relation to my earlier post re breath, I have been exploring the concept of cellular breathing...

Fluid cells.  Shifting.  Heavy, heavy cells.  Sleepy this morning - having to really concentrate to bring this image to the fore-front of my thinking.  Distracted cells, wayward..

Lightness of attention needs to match lightness of touch..

Hands on.  Cellular breathing.  Focus on the different layers of the body. Focusing on Emma's breathing - could feel it throughout her body. Found that I associated different areas of her body with different layers.

Belly = skin/ fluid/ organs.

Elbow = bone/ skin.

Head = bone.

Leg = muscle/ skin.

Knee = bone/ tendon.

Kept returning to the fleshy belly - strong breath.

x 

Yielding..

Yielding into the floor!

Playing with one side/half yielding & another expanding / stretching. This being the basis of support - our yielding side. Focus on initiation points - head & tail connection / yielding surface / condensing & expanding around navel / relationship between inner & outer. A whole world & environment in each cell.

x

Breath..

Coming into the activity of moving  -  whatever I need to do. 

Allowing the breath out to be a sigh & allowing noise to enter this.

Warming up my insides.

Voice is movement - the movement of  our vocal chords. 

Visualising the breath in my movement.

With a partner feeling their breath.

Feeling the vibrations & the movement.

Bringing sound into the out breath - playing with pitch/ volume/ tone.

Moving together.

Comfortable.

Undulating.

Exploring my own breath.

Letting it move me.

Feeling & hearing it  -  bubbling.

State of embodied self. 3D. 

Bringing in awareness of cellular breathing.

Cells shifting. Flow of breath.

x

The Cell..

The structure of the cell :

- Nucleus (core).
- Membrane (outer layer).
- Cytoplasm (fluid).




Writing from my experience.

Cells everywhere.    Shifting weight with my breathing - subtle shifts - small movements. 
Can't really remember now what was said.       Heavy, fluid cells.     Lethargic.           
Floating.                         Cocoon.                                             Blue & red. 
Weighted.        Body contains all of the cells.      Oxygen in the bloodstream. 
                                              The body as a container. 

Here is a video showing the inside of the cell. It made me realise the depth and complexity of our bodies, especially our cells. 3D body.. It makes me think of having a whole world inside our cells.

x

Body Systems...

Body Systems..

What body systems do I notice when I am moving?

What systems are available to me?

For me the systems I tend to remember / connect with seem to be:

           respiratory system

                                         skeletal system

                                                                  circulatory system

                                                                                                 nervous system

I think these are the systems that aren't necessarily always ready for me, but they're definitely the ones I would think of first. So I thought I would do a little research on the systems of the body.

The Digestive System:

Organs that break down food

The Endocrine System:

Made up of a group of glands that produce the body's hormones.

The Immune System:

Body's defence mechanism.

The Lymphatic System:

Filters out organisms that cause disease & produces white blood cells.

The Muscular System:

Made up of tissues that work with the skeletal system to control movement of the body.

The Nervous System:

Made up of the brain, the spinal cord & the nerves.

The Reproductive System:

Brings air into the body & removes carbon dioxide.

The Skeletal System:

Made up of bones, ligaments and tendons.

The Circulatory System:

Transports blood through the body.

(http://www.factmonster.com/ipka/A0774536.html)

The respiratory system is very available for me today. 

Flow of breath. 

Maybe because I'm focused on my cough!!

....

The digestive system is not available today - I'm not aware of it.

It does what it needs to do internally without notice.

x

Body Mind Centering..

Today we were introduced to BMC (Body Mind Centering). 
BMC is an approach to moving and understanding the anatomy of the body - the founder of BMC is Bonnie Bainbridge Cohen, for more information on this you can take a peek at http://www.bodymindcentering.com/ .


From today's discussion my understanding of BMC is:

• Embodying body systems.

• Reintegration back to the whole self.

• Holistic approach.

• Non linear approach to learning.

• Coming at the same thing through many different entry points.

• Movement development patterns.

x