Moshe Pinhas Feldenkrais 101
notes from an introduction by Mark Reese



1904 Born on May 6th in Slavuta (in present day Ukranian Republic)
1918 Left on a solo 6-month journey to Palestine
1930 Enrolled in an engineering college in Paris
1931 Published Jiu Jitsu, a book on self defense
1933 Met Jigaro Kano, founder of Judo
1936 Received his black belt in Judo, one of first Europeans to do so
1940 Escaped to England as Germans arrived in Paris
1949 Published “Book and Mature Behavior,” the first book on his method
1951-1953 Returned to direct the Israeli Army Department of Electronics
1952 Published “Higher Judo,” his last book on Judo
1954 Moved permanently to Tel Aviv
1955 Establish a permanent studio for Awareness through Movement®
1957 Began giving lessons to Israeli Prime Minister, David ben Gurion
Mid-1960s Published Mind and Body and Bodily Expression
1967 Published Improving the Ability to Perform
1968 Established permanent studio for his Functiona Integration practice
1970s Introduced the work to the U.S.
1977 Published The Case of Nora
1981 Published The Elusive Obvious and Health deteriorated
1984 Died on July 1st

Was an engineer, physicist, inventor, martial artist and student of human development

His knee injury started him on an exploration of the relationship between movement and consciousness

Studied anatomy, physiology, child development, movement science, evolution, psychology, a number of Eastern awareness practices and other somatic approaches in developing his method

Studied with:
George Gurdjieff, a Greek-Armenian mystic, a teacher of sacred dances, and a spiritual teacher
F. M. Alexander, an Australian actor who developed Alexander Technique
William Bates, American physician who practiced ophthalmology and developed the Bates Method for better eyesight
Heinrich Jacoby, a German educator whose teaching was based on developing sensitivity and awareness

Notes on Feldenkrais Method from www.feldenkrais.com

The Feldenkrais Method is expressed in two parallel forms: Awareness Through Movement® and Functional Integration®.

Awareness Through Movement® Classes

Using movement sequences to increase awareness of one's own habitual neuromuscular patterns and rigidities and expand options for new ways of moving while increasing sensitivity and improving efficiency

- generally lasts from thirty to sixty minutes
- verbally directed movement sequences for groups
- precisely structured movement explorations that involve thinking, sensing, moving, and imagining
- explorations based on developmental movements and ordinary functional activities and more abstract explorations of joint, muscle, and postural relationships.
- hundreds of Awareness Through Movement lessons contained in the Feldenkrais Method that have varying levels

Functional Integration® Lessons

Functional Integration is a hands-on form of tactile, kinesthetic communication. It guides people through movement with gentle, non-invasive touching so they are able to move in more expanded functional motor patterns.

- lesson should relate to a desire, intention, or need of the student.
- creates a comfortable learning environment through rapport and respect for the student’s abilities and qualities
- usually performed with the student lying on a table designed specifically for the work
- can also be done with the student in sitting or standing positions
- various props are used in an effort to support the person’s body configuration or to facilitate certain movements.

In a video called "What is the Feldenkrais Method®," participants professed that the method improved their workout regiment/sports. People were running faster, playing better tennis...

Free Feldenkrais classes at the Feldenkrais Institute of NY

Barbara Clark Notes

Barbara Clark (1889-1982)

In 1889,

Born in Vermont. She was the weakest child in her family. She did not crawl as a baby and then a serious illness impaired her physical development and confident in movement.

In 1919,

- Entered a two-year nurse's training course at Faulkner Hospital in Boston.

- Focused on pediatrics and found great satisfaction in this aspect of nursing.

- As a Registered Nurse, Clark established a reputation as a highly qualified “baby nurse”, assisting families with the care of their infants.

In 1923, (In Boston)

- Clark learned of Mabel Todd's work and became convinced that Todd's approach was the answer to her long-standing problems.

- In exchange for the fees for some of her lessons, Clark took charge of the children who came to the studio for help with posture and movement.

   1. Explored ideas of making Todd's material simpler, using objects that embodied key aspects of idea posture as imagery.

         →Showing a small round sponge as an image of the relaxation desirable in the rib cage

         →Tiny sea horse demonstrating the alignment of the neck and jaw facilitated the child's grasp of concepts.

   2. Found ways to apply Todd's ideas in her nursing practice.

        →Some of the babies she worked with exhibited development delays and poor coordination. The sensory experience of Clark's touch in modified table work procedures often help them to improve.

   3. Devised simple games and rhymes to encourage the practice of rolling, crawling and other movements supporting the development of good posture.

   4. Taught parents her strategies for improved coordination through movement play.

In 1929,

Clark published a small pamphlet entitled “Structural Hygiene for the preschool Child: Steps in the Baby's Procedure for Balance and Movement”.

- Began to spread her knowledge of posture education and development movement to prospective preschool teachers through her work as nurse at the Ruggles Street Nursery School.

 (Ruggles Street was the first nursery “teacher training” school in U.S.)

In Ruggles Street,

- She designed and modified play equipment to encourage optimum physical development.

- Her best-know design was the “Tunnel Toy”, a small tunnel that youngsters could crawl through, straddle, or play inside of.

- Created a unique identity for herself as a practitioner of Todd's method.

- Success in reaching children through very simple imagery also motivated Clark to   pare down Todd's ideas in her work with adults.

- Taught elements of anatomy and their implications for postural balance as   matters of practicality and common sense.

In 1949 (Age of 60),

(In that time, Mabel Todd more concerted on her writing than teaching.)

Clark left the Boston area for New York City.

- Studied drawing at the Art Student's League with the goal of approach to Todd's teaching.

- Her hoped was to write body alignment “manuals” in a practical that could assist anyone to become, as she put it, “physically educated.”

- Abstracting the forms of the joints, bones and muscles into simple designs became a avenue of kinesthetic discovery for Clark.

Met Dr. Lulu Sweigard

Clark did form a relationship with Dr. Lulu Sweigard.

- Observed Sweigard's classes at NYU and briefly became her assistant.

- Relieves Sweigard of an overload of private pupils who came primarily from the world of dance.

- Groomed a few of the dance students as teachers of her version Todd's approach, which she began to refer to as “mind-body integration”.

In 1963,

“Let's Enjoy Sitting,Standing and Walking” -- her first body alignment manual.

- It focused on imagery for the axial skeleton.

The imagery was to practiced in simple activities of daily life such as sitting down and getting up, walking or tying one's shoes, as well as the development movements of rolling and squatting.

In 1968,

“How to Live in Your Axis- Your Vertical Line” --Second one

- was designed to supplement classes taught by her students.

The imagery was more abstract and the instructions for practice assumed the reader were familiar with basic dance movement.

• Imagery for the alignment of the arms and shoulders was presented in this manual as well as ideas for integration movement with breathing.

• The centerpiece of the work was a visual image that captured one of Todd's mechanical concepts-- the balance of compression forces conveying weights “down the back” of the body, with tensile forces suspending weights “up the front”.

In the late 1960's,

(Influence “post-modern” dancers)

- Clark was attracting a new generation of students who were also exploring “post-modern” dance.

- Her work enhanced their fascination with pedestrian movement and helped them to perfect its performance from the inside, out.

- Also influenced the way they teach.

- Her sessions with students centered on the issues that were uppermost in her own thinking-- the lessons and imagery she was creating for third manual.

In early 1970's,

Left City and settled in Urbana-Champaign, home of the University of Illinois.

In 1973,

Third Manual--

“Body Proportion Needs Depth—Front to Black”

Fourth Manual--

“The Body is Round-- Use all the Radii”

Dead in 1982.

In 1993

“A Kinesthetic Legacy: The Life and Works of Barbara Clark”--

Clark's biography and writings are documented in the book.

The book is written by Pamela Matt

From Ideokinesis

http://www.ideokinesis.com/pioneers/clark/clark.htm

December 4th Last meeting

We meet on December 4th at 10.45am for the last meeting of the semester.

Please bring in a short class description.

Meanwhile, research Feldenkrais and Alexander techniques.

Thank you.

Eric Franklin notes

Eric Franklin
Notes from Institut fur Franklin-Methode

Dancer, movement educator, university lecturer, successful author and founder of the Franklin-Method Institute in Switzerland

“According to Indian Ayurvedic medicine, if you want to know what thoughts you have had in your life so far, you should look at your body.”

Training:
B.S. from University of Zurich
BFA from NYU Tisch Dance
(studied with Andre Bernard at Tisch)
Movement Imagery and Conditioning

Books:
Dynamic Alignment through Imagery (1996)
Dance Imagery for Technique and Performance (1996)
Relax your Neck - Liberate your Shoulders (2002)
Pelvic Power (2003)
Inner Focus, Outer Strength (2006).

Dates:
1986 Started teaching 
 

1998 Introduced first dance conditioning methodology to mainland China

Teaching Engagements:
Universities and arts educational schools throughout the world including New York University Tisch School of the Arts, the Royal Ballet School and the Laban Center in London. Recently Eric Franklin has taught at the Juilliard School in New York and the Royal Danish Ballet. 


The Franklin Method

The Franklin Method teaches the practical elements of body design, emphasizing imagery for maximum efficiency. It is at the forefront of practical neuro-plasticity by harnessing the transforming power of the mind. To activate the body/mind function, the method uses Dynamic Imagery, Experiential Anatomy and Reconditioning Movement.

Dynamic Imagery is a multi sensory and kinesthetic way of using the brain to affect movement and function.
Experiential Anatomy gives you direct physical awareness of your body's function and design.
Reconditioning Movement integrates dynamic imagery with experiential anatomy to produce optimum function.

Notes from Dynamic Alignment Through Imagery:

Dynamic alignment needs to withstand the influence of our surroundings.

He found that some people unconsciously shied away from using imagery accurately because of the power. They were tremendously attached to their physical and emotional tension. Some people who declared their intent to improve their posture were not ready to do so on an emotional level.

Changing alignment in a dynamic way, not just altering your external shape, changes your relationship with the whole world and the people in it.

The Roots of Imagery for Alignment:
Heinrich Kosnick and Mabel Todd
Lulu Sweigard and Ideokinesis
Barbara Clark
Joan Skinner
Somatic Disciplines
Alexander Technique, Autogenic training, Functional relaxation, Feldenkrais, Body-Mind Centering

Barbara Mahler Notes

Barbara Mahler 101
Notes from barbaramahler.com

First modern dance experience through Alvin AIley Dance Company and offshoots of that style
- " hard on the body and the spirit, but definitely "spirited." "
Suffered many injuries
Began studying modern dance at Hunter College under the tutelage of Dorothy Vislocky
- Dorothy Vislocky is "a pioneer in kinesiology for dance"
- Dorothy Vislocky was part of Nikolais' early company, along with Phyllis Lamhut =)
Started learning of more efficient ways for movement
Began training at the Susan Klein School of Dance in 1977 under Susan Klein and Colette Barry
- she was not "fixed" or pressured to conform to a look
- able to find process where she is able to be herself in the movement
Started teaching in 1979
Continued to add her own exercises and concepts to the school
"Susan Klein and Barbara Mahler School of Dance" name change in 2001 to acknowledge Mahler's contributions


Has been mentor and teacher to a new generation of dancers and choreographers, such as Trisha Brown, Bebe Miller, Jeremy Nelson and Gerald Casel (winkwink)
Has been passionate about making solo dances since the late 1980s

My Personal Experience in Barbara Mahler's placement classes:
If you go into class, expecting to ask questions and receive an answer that is clear cut and easy to understand, you will be disappointed or frustrated. It is a reminder that our bodies take time to adjust in subtle, yet significant ways. Barbara may not be giving a verbal answer that is instantly illuminating, but she is giving information to our bodies by working hands on with us or using other bodies as visual aids. She also spends a lot of time on roll downs and hang overs. It can get quite excruciating for me at times but my sacrum and back feel so good after.

Susan Klein Notes

Susan Klein 101 notes from kleintechnique.com and barbaramahler.com

We look at the body as a whole, not just the troubled parts.

Klein began dancing at 5 years old, studying Graham and German Modern Dance. She suffered a serious knee injury at 19, just as she was beginning her professional career. Klein Technique™ emerged from her personal struggle and physical and intellectual learning. It became a revolutionary technique that has affected the study and practice of post modern dance throughout the world.

Mentors/ Influenced by:
Steffi Nossen
Martha Graham
May O’Donnell
Gertrude Shure
Don Farnworth
Colette Barry
Barbara Mahler
Dr. Barbara Vedder, D.C.
Irmgard Bartenieff,
Dr. Fritz Smith, M.D.
Dr. J. R. Worsley, D. Ac

1952: Susan Klein is born
1957: Began dancing
1971: Suffers serious knee injury
1972: Began teaching professionally in NYC
1975: Opened her own studio
1977: Began a private practice in Movement Therapy
Barbara Mahler started studying with Klein
1982: Became fourth to be certified in Zero Balancing
1985: Graduated from the Traditional Acupuncture Institute in Columbia, Maryland
1988: Received a Bachelor of Acupuncture from the College of Traditional Chinese
Acupuncture in UK
1990: Master of Acupuncture from the Traditional Acupuncture Institute

Klein Technique™

created by dancers, specifically for dancers (although it is applicable to other movement practices)

seeks to improve and to further movement potential through analyzing and understanding the body. It is based in anatomical realities and strives an internal knowing, an understanding which is integrated into the body.

works at the level of the bones, to align the bones using the muscles of deep postural support: the psoas, the hamstrings, the external rotators, and the pelvic floor.

The process:
~Awakening of pelvic floor muscles
~Sacrum moving in a figure of eight motion
~In sagittal movement (walking, running), weight transfers side-side from the sacrum through the pelvis out to the greater
trochanters
~Freeing the shoulder blades from the ribs in order to allow the shoulder girdle to sit on the torso
~Work to integrate upper and lower halves through the diagonals and spirals of the body
~Bridge thrust and counter thrust actions, dynamics between mobility and stability, lightness and strength, soaring upward and
being rooted

Famous choreographers who have studied with Klein:
Trisha Brown, Stephen Petronio, Bebe Miller, Wally Cardona, Jeremy Nelson and members of their companies

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

An intro to Zero-Balancing from zerobalancing.com

The mission of the Zero Balancing Health Association is to help people experience health, well-being and higher consciousness by facilitating the study, practice and development of Zero Balancing. The Association was founded in 1991 to promote and support the teaching and practice of Zero-Balancing, a hands-on body/mind system designed by Dr Fritz Smith in 1973 to align body energy with the body's physical structure.

Zero Balancing process generally takes between 30 and 40 minutes and is performed with you fully clothed. Using touch, the ZB practitioner evaluates your energy fields and energy flow in these two positions and balances the structures as needed. He or she may focus on body, mind, spirit, or all three, depending on where the fields are disturbed or the energy is blocked. Throughout the Zero Balancing session, attention is given to the skeleton in particular because it contains the deepest and strongest currents.

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

Reminder to Gerald

Hi Gerald,

Just a little reminder for us to continue our dialogue regarding learning, roadblocks, and the crazy terrain of floorwork. : )

Thanks,
e

Irene Dowd

Irene Dowd I. Notes from Ideokinsis Website

  - Majored in philosophy at Vassar College

(where she completed a thesis on body image in relation to movement for her Bachelor of Arts degree.)

In 1968,

  - After she graduated from Vassar, she was into the Juilliard School As a special studies student focusing on choreography. → Became a student → Assistant of Dr. Lulu Sweigard.

  - She also undertook class the study of human anatomy and neuroanatomy at Columbia Presbyterian Medical School.

In 1974 (The year of Swigard's death)

  - She established a private practice in neuromuscular training.

60's~90's,

  - Her personal study of dance and choreography was a constant through the 60's,70's and 80's when she studied with Merce Cunningham, Lucas Hoving, Antony Tudor and Viola Farber.

Into the 90's

  - She also became a student of the movement sciences exploring the areas of motor control, brain lateralization, motor development, sensory motor integration, the neurobehavioral basis of locomotion, biomechanics and individualized fitness training.

1984-1986,

  - She was co-principle investigator in a study on the “Effects of Neuromuscular Retraining on the Mobility of the Elderly,” with Judy A. Smith, PhD. R.N.

• Dowd's record of professional activity since the 1970's includes the teaching of dance, composition, functional and kinesthetic anatomy and neuromuscular re-education.

• Her articles and drawings have been published in many journals.

Now

- She teaches in Juilliard School.

- She has also designed a course for high school summer study students devoted to “Understanding

Technique.”

- In Canada's National Ballet School in Toronto.

- The National Ballet School has produced a series of videos the Dowd choreographed, directed and edited, including:

(1) Spirals

(2) Warming up the Hip: Turnout Dance and Orbits

(3) Trunk Stabilization and Volutes.

  - Book: Taking Root to Fly: Articles on Functional Anatomy for Dancers.1981

From Ideokinesis.com→http://www.ideokinesis.com/dancegen/dowd/dowd.htm

II. From Dance Magazine-- Irene Dowd: Teacher's wisdom

Irene Dowd has developed a unique approach to injury prevention using neuromuscular reeducation.

She is an the dance faculty of The Juilliard School and The National Ballet School of Canada.

HOW IS ANATOMY VALUABLE FOR DANCERS?

- Anatomy doesn't tell us what to do, but how we're doing it.

- It is a way of describing what we're doing in great detail.

SO, YOU CHOREOGRAPHED WARM-UP SEQUENCES LIKE "SPIRALS"?

- Yes. They're designed to take our joints through all their possible motions and our muscles through      all their possible length ranges, a sort of "equal rights" for all movement choices.

- I call it a warm-up because it's a starting place in which my mind and body are one.

- Dancing is about a constantly changing relationship with gravity.

HOW DOES VISUALIZATION HELP?

- We all use visualization. We have to have an idea of the movement we are going to perform in order to perform it.

- Our brain talks to our muscles constantly, so if they're not getting the message, our concept is blurry.

- The clarity with which we enter into the movement and the richness of our visualization will be constantly growing throughout our lives.

DO OUR HABITS HELP US AS WELL AS HINDER US?

- It's much more functional to think of them as strategies than as "good" or "bad" habits.

- Our body is our instrument. A guitar is tuned in different ways to serve different music. It's not  that one tuning is wrong and the other is right--there are many possible tunings.

- If a strategy achieves certain goals effectively, that's magnificent! However, a particular strategy  that worked so well for one goal may not be the best strategy for another goal. So, let's just add to  our strategies.

DO WE GET INTO TROUBLE BY HAVING A "RIGHT" IDEA OF HOW TO MOVE?

- "Right" varies according to the movement goal.

- "Right" is constantly changing.

- Mabel Todd used to say, "The mind is an instrument of thought, not a museum."

From: Dance Magazine, June,2005-- Irene Dowd: teacher's wisdom

http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1083/is_6_79/ai_n13803451

* Video: Irene Dowd “Resonance”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wrlOFep5AqA

BMC-Bonnie Bainbridge Cohen

Bonnie Bainbridge Cohen

is the developer of Body-Mind Centering

the founder and Educational Director of the School.

For over 35 years~

she has been an innovator and leader in developing this embodied and integrated approach to movement, touch and repatterning, experiential anatomy, developmental principles, perceptions and psychophysical processes.

Book: Sensing, Feeling and Action,1993.

Bonnie is - a Registered Occupational Therapist

                  - a Registered Movement Therapist

                  - also certified in Neurodevelopmental Therapy,

                                                 Laban Movement Analysis,

                                                 Kestenberg Movement Profiling.

She has - practiced occupational therapy

              - helped to establish a school for occupational and physical therapy for the Tokyo  government

              - practiced bodywork and movement in psychiatric settings;

She taught - in university hospitals;

             - in the masters program in Dance Therapy at Antioch New England College

             - dance at Hunter College and at the Erick Hawkins School of Dance in New York

             - presented workshops throughout the U.S., Canada and Europe.

Body-Mind Centering- Bonnie Bainbridge Cohen

• Body-Mind Centering is an ongoing, experiential journey into the alive and changing territory of the body. The explorer is the mind- our thoughts, feelings, energy, soul and spirit. Through this journey we are let to an understanding of how the mind is expressed through the body in movement.

• We, as part of nature, also form patterns. The mind is like the wind and the body is like the sand; if you want to know how the wind is blowing, you can look at the sand.

• In BMC, “centering” is a process of balancing, not a place of arrival. This balancing is based on dialogue, and the dialogue is based on experience.

• An important aspect of our journey in Body-Mind Centering is discovering the relationship between the smallest level of activity within the body and the largest movement of the body- aligning the inner cellular movement with the external expression of movement through space.

THE BODY SYSTEMS

- Skeletal System

- Ligamentous System

- Muscular System

- Organs System

- Endocrine System

- Nervous System

- Fluid System

- Fascial System

- Fat

- Skin

DEVELOPMENTAL MOVEMENT

The developmental material includes primitive reflexes, righting reactions, equilibrium responses, and the Basic Neurological Patterns.

The reflexes, righting reactions, and equilibrium responses are the fundamental elements, or the alphabet, of our movement. They combine to build the Basic Neurological Patterns, which are based upon pre-vertebrate and vertebrate movement patterns.

Pre-vertebrate Patterns

1. Cellular Breathing (the expanding/contracting process in breathing and movement in each and every cell of the body)

2. Naval radiation (the relating and movement of all parts of the body via the navel)

3. Mouthing (movement of the body initiated by the mouth)

4. Pre-spinal Movement (soft sequential movements of the spine initiated via the interface between the spinal cord and the digestive tract)

Vertebrate Patterns

1. Spinal Movement (head to tail movement)

2. Homologous Movement (symmetrical movement of two upper and/or two lower limbs simultaneously)

3. Homolateral Movement (asymmetrical movement of one upper limb and the lower limb on the same side)

4.Contralateral Movement (diagonal movement of one upper limb with the opposite lower limb)

THE DYNAMICS OF PERCEPTION

  - Touch and movement are the first of the senses to develop. They establish the baseline for future perception through taste, small, hearing, and vision.

BREAHITNG AND VOCALIZAITON

  -Breathing is automatic, internal movement, and organized in patterns.

  - Breathing can be consciously known. As the breathing process is sensed and felt, unconscious blocks can be released.

THE ART OF TOUCH AND REPATTERNING 

is an exploration of communication through touch- the transmission and acceptance of the flow of energy within ourselves and between ourselves and others.

From Body-Mind Centering Bainbridge Cohen & 

           The School for Body-Mind Centering Website  http://www.bodymindcentering.com/

Bonnie Bainbridge Cohen and BMC (complete)

Bonnie Bainbridge Cohen Notes
(information from BMC School website, Jerome Robbins Library and Kestenberg Movement Profiling site)

For over 35 years, Bonnie Bainbridge Cohen has been a leader in advancing an integrated approach to the body and mind connection. The body and mind are not separate entities that are at odds with each other. Instead, the mind and body inform each other and changes can be made in the body by accessing the mind.

Credentials:
~ Registered Occupational Therapist
~ Registered Movement Therapist
~ Certified in Neurodevelopmental Therapy,
~ Certified in Laban Movement Analysis
~ Certified in **Kestenberg Movement Profiling.

What she has done:
~ developed Body-Mind Centering® (BMC)
~ founded the BMC School in NY in 1973 (now located in Amherst, Massachusetts)
~ wrote the book, Sensing, Feeling and Action.
~ practiced occupational therapy and taught in university hospitals
~ helped to establish a school for occupational and physical therapy for the Tokyo government
~ practiced bodywork and movement in psychiatric settings
~ taught in the masters program in Dance Therapy at Antioch New England College
~ taught dance at Hunter College and at the Erick Hawkins School of Dance in New York
~ presents workshops throughout the U.S., Canada and Europe.

There is a 30 min. videorecording of an interview with Cohen at the Jerome Robbins Dance Collection. She discusses her concept of body-mind centering and about her training, recalling Erick Hawkins and Irmgard Bartenieff as special mentors. She discusses the aims and program of her School of Body-Mind Centering.

Title: Dance on: Bonnie Bainbridge Cohen [videorecording]
Producer: Billie Mahoney 1990
Call Number: Performing Arts - Dance *MGZIC 9-2279
Interviewer: Billie Mahoney.


**KMP is a complex instrument for describing, assessing and interpreting nonverbal behavior. Developed by Judith Kestenberg who based KMP on Laban Analysis. Download the profiling program here.

BODY MIND CENTERING notes
(Adapted from Sensing, Feeling & Action
by Bonnie Bainbridge Cohen)

“There is something in nature that forms patterns. We, as part of nature, also form patterns. The mind is like the wind and the body is like the sand; if you want to know how the wind is blowing, you can look at the sand.” BBC

BMC Philosophy
Body-Mind Centering® (BMC) is an ongoing, experiential journey into the alive and changing territory of the body. It challenges the notion that the body and the mind are separate and opposed entities. In BMC, the body and mind have an intimate relationship on many different levels and the relationship is always changing according to experience. There is no arrival. There is no centered. There is no balanced. Balancing is a constant dialogue based on experience.

Although BMC is based in Western terminology and mapping, it has been informed by Eastern Philosophy. Like the relationship between body and mind, the Eastern and Western value systems blend and complement each other in BMC. Physical substances (eg. blood or lymph) are treated as substances with states of consciousness and processes inherent within them.

“We are relating our experiences to these maps, but the maps are not the experience.” BBC

BMC tracks the connection between “smallest level of activity within the body and the largest movement of the body—aligning the inner cellular movement with the external expression of movement through space.”

The study of BMC includes both the cognitive and experiential learning of the body systems:
Cellular – each cell has its own living intelligence
Skeleton - supporting ground for our thoughts, the leverage for our ideas
Ligaments - helps articulate clarity of focus and concentration to detail.
Muscles - express our power, and engage in the dialogue of resistance and resolution
Fascia - connect our inner feeling with our outer expression
Fat – Static Fat Vs Mobilized Fat. Fat that is embraced offers nurturing comfort.
Skin - It sets our general tone of openness and closedness to being in the world
Organs - habitats of the memories of our inner reactions to our personal histories.
Fluids - underlie transformation, and mediate the flow between rest and activity
breathing and vocalization
The Senses and the Dynamics of Perception
Developmental Movement (both human infant development and the evolutionary
progression of species)
Psychophysical Integration.

DEVELOPMENTAL MOVEMENT
Ontogenetic (human infant development)
Phylogenetic (the evolutionary progression through the animal kingdom)

The Basic Neurological Patterns are based upon prevertebrate and vertebrate movement patterns.
Prevertebrate patterns:
Cellular Breathing
expanding/contracting process in breathing and movement in every cell of the body
correlates to the movement of the one-celled animals
Naval radiation
relating and movement of all parts of the body via the navel
Mouthing
movement of the body initiated by the mouth
Prespinal movement
soft sequential movements of the spine initiated by means of the crossing point between the spinal cord and the digestive tract

Vertebrate patterns:
Spinal movement (fish)
head to tail movement
Homologous movement (amphibian)
symmetrical movement of two upper and/or two lower limbs simultaneously
Homolateral movement (reptile)
asymmetrical movement of one upper limb and the lower limb on the same side
Contralateral movement (mammals)
diagonal movement of one upper limb with the opposite lower limb

Todd and Sweigard

From "The Thinking Body".....

"Thinking" of image goals could be used to break old habits and establish better body balance

"The thinking body" promotes an understanding of body alignment as a function of mechanical principles

"Why hold the bony parts of our body when we can let them hang or sit?"

Ideo - idea; kinesis - movement

Ideokinesis involves sustained mental focus upon imagined actions

Proprioceptive - "perceiving of self" self-awareness; also called "organic"

Exteroceptive - mechanisms by which the outer world is perceived

Organic sensations are grouped into three general types

1) kinesthesia - feeling of movement

2) labyrinthe - the feeling of position in space as derived from organs in the inner ear

3) visceral - miscellaneous impressions from various internal organs

Most of the operations involved in the guidance and control of our bodily movements are entirely unconscious.  Movements are a combination of reflexes and not the moving of muscles.

Force in one direction must be met with an equal opposing force

advanced anatomy wed 10/29

Hello Gerald & Independent Study friends,

So, next Wednesday in Lynn Martin's advanced anatomy workshop I will be doing a small presentation on the work of Eric Franklin. (For those that were there, this was my subject for last year's final anatomy project.)

The topic of this workshop is the hip and upper leg so I will be leading a few of Eric's imagery exercises which focus on these areas. It might be a nice hands-on intro to Franklin, a fellow we will be studying a little later in the semester. Hope you can come!

Wed 10/29 5-5:45 pm Studio I

Love, elizebeth

Faye's Mabel Todd Notes

Notes on Mabel Todd
from her biography written by Pamela Matt on ideokinesis.com

Years: 1880-1956
Hometown: Syracuse, New York

Childhood: As a child, she suffered from a severe illness that weakened her kidneys and threatened her with lifelong invalidism. She recovered from the illness and began developing a keen interest in science.

Beginnings of bodywork: Todd had a bad fall that immobilized her for months. She finally took control of her rehab. She used her knowledge of physics and applied that to movement mechanics. She gathered more information about the anatomy and kinesiology and allowed that information to infiltrate her practice of simple movements. She gradually improved her posture and movement.

Voice and posture: At Emerson College of Oratory on Boston where she enrolled as a college student, she discovered the relationship between voice and posture. A weak and unstable voice came concurrently with problems in posture and coordination. At the start of WW1, she began teaching with techniques from her rehab and voice methods and called the practice “Natural Posture.”

Development of teaching method: People working in makeshift factories for the war efforts needed help restoring their bodies from the harsh conditions. Todd taught them to use their bodies in more efficient ways and to break the habit of a “military posture.” She impressed many doctors in the area who sent patients to her. Her clientele grew and she began training her students to be teaching assistants. This process clarified her teaching method.

A class with Todd: She would present a picture of a skeleton or an anatomy chart that suggested good posture. An image will be offered to assist the student in achieving good posture. Voluntary muscular response to the image was discouraged. The student would be instructed to maintain that image while practicing simple movement patterns like walking or crawling.

Connection with Columbia University: Dr. Jesse Feiring Williams, who was head of the Department of Physical Education, invited Todd to earn a Bachelor of Science degree for a portion of classes usually required. Williams had been challenging the dualistic notion that the body was separated into two opposed parts: the material body and the immaterial mind. He developed a progressive and holistic curriculum that “promoted movement as a ‘laboratory’ for learning in all the subject areas as well as enhancing social responsibility and moral values.” Todd graduated from Columbia in 1927 and immediately began lecturing at the college.

Publication of The Thinking Body, a Study of the Balancing Forces of Dynamic Man: In 1937, Todd published this seminal work to “promote an understanding of body alignment as a function of mechanical principles.” Recognition from this publication helped sustain her studio classrooms for a while. By the late 40s, a new generation of the NYC medical establishment challenged her approach and threatened to sue her. Todd lacked the energy and funds to defend herself so she agreed to stop working in NY.

Publication of The Hidden You in 1953: Todd moved to California and developed her book The Hidden You in Los Angeles. She expanded on ideas from The Thinking Body to include psychological and spiritual connections to posture and movement. It seemed natural to her that “the process of exploring dynamic body balance would eventually inform all dimensions of one being.”

Her legacy: Todd died in 1956 in California. Her students dispersed after that. Lulu Sweigard organized and scientifically verified Todd’s method, while Barbara Clark developed accessible educational manuals for the general public.

Traci's Laban/Bartenieff notes

Laban established choreology - the discipline of dance analysis

Labanotation is also known as Kinetography

Laban led the ausdrucktanz movement and was recognized as an intellectual in the field of dance theatre and movement study

When he opened the Art of Movement studio in Manchester in 1946, he concentrated on movement as behavior

Laban's ideas: 1) he was influenced by the social and cultural changes happening at the time
2) feeling was being questioned - opened the way for a freeing of the feeling body
3) he felt that the best way to advocate this freedom was by mirroring it in dance and movement arts
4) he valued individuals own choice of movement and self initiated vocabularies
5) he abandoned constraints of traditional steps, reliance on music for inspiration, and mime

Der Freier Tanz was born!

What sets him apart?? He was a creative artist and a creative theorist at home, in the studio and the lab. he could express himself equally through movement and writing. His legacy is in studio practices and theoretical methods driven by movement practice. His passion was to establish dance as an art of equal standing to its sister arts. He thought that without dance literacy, dance would never be taken seriously, so that is why he developed labanotation.

Bartenieff
was a physical therapist

applied developmental principles and Laban's theories to her work with polio patients and dancers, which originated the Bartenieff Fundamentals (a physical reeducation).

her Effort/Shape training began in various projects in areas such as psychology, physical therapy, child development and the performing arts

Four LMA components: Body, Effort, Shape, Space. These components of movement phrases are irreducible, meaning that they are the smallest units needed in describing an observed movement.

For great online descriptions of the LMA components, go to the NYU movement research website at: http://movement.nyu.edu/projects/lma/intro.html

Faye's Bartenieff Notes

Irmgard Bartenieff 101
Birthplace: Germany
Early interests: Biology, art and dance
Professions: dancer, choreographer, teacher, Labanotation expert, Physical Therapist, pioneer in the development of Dance Movement Therapy, and a cross-cultural researcher

Important dates:
1900: Irmgard Bartenieff was born
1925: Met Rudolf Laban
1936: Fled Germany to the U.S. with her husband, Michail Bartenieff
1943: Irmgard Bartenieff graduated from New York University's Physical Therapy program
1954 –1957: Chief Therapist at Blythedale Hospital Valhalla, NY, an orthopedic hospital for children
1978: Founded Laban/Bartenieff Institute of Movement Studies – LIMS in New York City
1980: Bartenieff’s text, Body Movement: Coping with the Environment, was published
1981: Bartenieff passes away

Life in Germany:
She studied, taught dance and toured around Germany with her husband.

Upon moving to the US:
Introduced Labanotation at the Hanya Holm Studio
Lectured at Bennington College, Columbia Teachers College, The New School for Social Research, and the Brooklyn Museum.

Beginnings of Bartnenieff Fundamentals:
As Chief Physical Therapist of the Polio Service of Willard Parker Hospital, NY, she worked to rehabilitate victims of the polio epidemic by teaching active participation instead on passive acceptance. This approach, combined with her work with the Choreometrics Project, became core to her body re-education method, Bartenieff Fundamentals.

Bartenieff’s Process of Exploration:
Peggy Hackney wrote in the preface to her book “Making Connections” that the focus of Bartenieff’s teachings would change from year to year. Bartenieff Fundamentals “developed in application,” meaning that the focal point of her theory that year was directly related to what Bartenieff was experiencing and investigating in her own body.

What is FUNDAMENTAL?
Change is fundamental: The essence of movement is change
Relationship is fundamental: Relationship is connection
Patterning Body Connections is fundamental

Faye's Laban Notes

Rudolf Laban 101
Birthplace: Austro-Hungary
Family Background: Hungarian Military Family
Religion: Combination of Victorian Theosophy, Sufism, and popular fin de siecle Hermeticism.
Training: Art and Architecture in Paris

Important dates:
1879: Rudolf Laban, born in Austria - Hungary
1915: Rudolf Laban established the Choreographic Institute in Zürich and later founded branches in Italy, France, and central Europe.
1928: First publication of what will be known as Labanotation
1938: Flees from Germany to the UK to join Kurt Jooss and Lisa Ullmann, his students.
1947: Published “Effort”
1948: Laban School establishes as the Art of Movement Studio in Manchester.
1953: Studio moves to Addlestone in Surrey due to expansion.
1958: Rudolf Laban died.

Interest in movement arts:
In Munich, he was influenced by dancer/choreographer Heidi Dzinkowska to study German Expressionist Dance. His study in architecture and movement arts led to his interest in the moving human form and the space around it.

Movement choir:
He developed the movement choir, which involves choreographing people en masse. His spiritual pursuits shaped this form.

Alleged Nazi Involvement:
In 1934, he was promoted to director of the Deutsche Tanzbuhne in Nazi Germany. He received funding from the propaganda ministry for running dance festivals. He published this statement: “We want to dedicate our means of expression and the articulation of our power to the service of the great tasks of our Volk. With unswerving clarity our Führer points the way”. He started removing non-Aryan pupils from his children’s course in July 1933. By 1936, he had fallen out with the Nazi regime.

“Shadow movements”
Laban believed that “shadow movements” wasted evergy and time. While in the UK, he tried to help workers eliminate these “shadow movements and to concentrate on effective movements for their jobs. This work led him to publish a book entitled Effort in 1947.

Legacy:
His student Irmgard Bartenieff developed Bartenieff Fundamentals based on his teachings. Kurt Jooss, Mary Wigman, and DH Lawrence also studied with him. He shaped the philosophical basis of the new German Dance Theatre that flourished after the 1960s with Pina Bausch and Susannah Linke and others.

Trivia:
Laban means “Bible” in Hebrew.

Overview of Laban Movement Analysis:

People combine the elements of movement in unique ways and organize them to create phrases and relationships, which reveal personal, artistic, or cultural style.

The elements of movement are
Effort, Shape, Space and Body

It is in the PHRASING of these elements that relationships are formed.

Patterns of Total Body Connectivity:
Breath
Core-Distal Connectivity
Head-Tail Connectivity
Upper-Lower Connectivity
Body-Half Connectivity
Cross-Lateral Connectivity

Sequencing of movement:
Simultaneous
Successive (adjacent)
Sequential (non-adjacent)

Effort
Flow, Weight, Time and Space

Flow effort: Free and Bound
Weight effort: Light and Strong
Passive sensing: Limp and Heavy
Time effort: Sustained and Sudden
Space effort: Indirect and direct

Reading List

Hello everyone,

Here is a preliminary (suggested) reading list. This is a list that I
have recently compiled for a graduate course I taught this summer at
UW-Milwaukee. I thought it would be a good place to start for us as
well. Feel free to browse through these books as they have been
tremendously helpful to me in the last few years. I don't plan on
having a mandatory reading list as many of these books are expensive
and difficult to obtain. It may be nice to share amongst yourselves. I
know that many of them are available at Bobst. I also have some of
them, particularly Erkert's book (who was my pedagogy teacher). Let
me know if you are interested.

My best,
Gerald


Books:
Harnessing the Wind: The Art of Teaching Modern Dance by Jan Erkert
Sensing, Feeling, and Action: The Experiential Anatomy of Body-Mind
Centering by Bonnie Bainbridge Cohen
Making Connections: Total Body Integration Through Bartenieff
Fundamentals by Peggy Hackney
The Thinking Body by Mabel Todd
Taking Root to Fly: Articles on Functional Anatomy by Irene Dowd
Human Movement Potential: Its Ideokinetic Facilitation by Lulu E. Sweigard
Dance Kinesiology by Sally Sevey Fitt
Dynamic Alignment Through Imagery by Eric N. Franklin
Anatomy of Movement by Blandine Calais-Germain

Websites:
www.kleintechnique.com
www.bodymindcentering.com
www.limsonline.org
www.alexandertechnique.com
www.feldenkrais.com
www.skinnerreleasing.com
www.ideokinesis.com

Somatics 101

A nice introductory article on somatics:

Somatics 101
Dance Magazine
July, 2006
Article by Nancy Wozny

Why do some dancers fully inhabit their bodies, creating a seamless whole between the dancer and the dance? Can we attribute this to a kind of somatic intelligence? Dancers have heard the term somatics tossed around for three decades, but few know the exact origins of the practice. And yet, dancers have been a driving force in the field. The somatic movement was already well under way when the philosopher Thomas Hanna coined the term in 1976. Somatics derives from the Greek word for the living body, soma, and is the study of the body experienced from within. The roots of somatics can be traced back to the late 19th-century European Gymnastik movement, which used breath, movement, and touch to direct awareness. Francois Delsarte, Emile Jaques-Dalcroze, and Bess Mensendieck encouraged a kind of inside-out expression that questioned the traditional nature of movement training. They seemed to be saying, "The body is the person," thus joining mind and body in a celebration of the human form.

American somatic thinkers also made significant contributions. Mabel Elsworth Todd's classic text, The Thinking Body, introduced dancers to the role of the mind in dance training in 1937. Her student, Lulu Sweigard (who later taught at Juilliard), developed "ideokinesis," a process of activating the imagination to affect movement. Somatic
pioneers Bonnie Bainbridge Cohen (Body-Mind Centering), Emily Conrad (Continuum), Joan Skinner (Skinner Releasing), Elaine Summers (Kinetic Awareness), Susan Klein (Klein Technique), and Judith Aston (Aston-Patterning), all hail from the dance world.

What makes a movement experience somatic? Glenna Batson, who teaches Alexander Technique in the Hollins University/MFA program at American Dance Festival, highlights five components of a somatic discipline: using sensory feedback, slowing down and paying attention, learning through internal experience rather than imitation, applying a rhythm of doing and resting, and exploring movement rather than simply completing exercises. Martha Myers, Dean Emerita of ADF, was a key
figure in integrating somatics into dance. Her seminal collection of articles in Dance Magazine, "Dance and the Body Therapies" (March, April, May, July 1980), introduced the work of Alexander, Feldenkrais, Irmgard Bartenieff, and Irene Dowd to readers. "Each comes at the work differently," says Myers. "But somatics always involves awakening the sensate self." Many somatics teachers combine various approaches.
Martha Eddy, director of MovingOnCenter in California, combines Laban Movement Analysis, Bartenieff work, and Body-Mind Centering to create SOMAction Movement Therapy. Dance historian Sondra Horton Fraleigh created a hybrid form after studying Feldenkrais, Craniosacral Therapy, Myofascial Release, yoga, and Zen meditation. Klein acknowledges influences from Bartenieff, Bainbridge Cohen, and Barbara Mahler. Somatics gained momentum in the dance world as a means to prevent injury. We become more prone to injury when we're on autopilot. Whether it's the gentle touch of an Alexander teacher's hand at the back of your neck or going through the mental inventory of sensations in a Feldenkrais scan, it's about paying attention to
what's already going on in our bodies. Somatics classes are offered at many dance training centers, including Juilliard, ADF, and the Bates Summer Dance Festival. Ray Schwartz, of University of Texas at Austin, uses Feldenkrais to jump-start improvisation sessions. "This is a very democratic way of working," says Schwartz. "The dancers develop movement phrases from their own sensations rather than through imitating the choreographer." Somatics has influenced many choreographers, from Anna Halprin and Trisha Brown to Jennifer Monson, DD Dorvillier, and Daniel Burkholder. Each has created a unique style with attention to a more sensory-based compass. Whether we want to heal from an injury, shake up the creative process, or dance like we are fully at home in our own skin, somatics will continue to inform
the dance terrain, and dancers will be instrumental in moving somatics into the future.

Nancy Wozny is a Feldenkrais teacher and writer in Houston.
COPYRIGHT 2006 Dance Magazine, Inc.
COPYRIGHT 2006 Gale Group