In this class, we revisit rounding, arching and side-bending in standing and go on to explore further on hands and knees.
We play with initiating from different regions of ourselves, especially from our hidden contact to the earth from which we receive its support. We orient ourselves by attending to the relationship between our centre of mass – our belly centre – and the centre of the earth.
On the floor, we invite in an image of our structure as one continuous mesh – within it there are regions of elasticity which pull us together and regions of stiffness that resist compression and create space – fractal in nature, the same pattern repeating from the whole body level all the way down to the cells and molecules.
On hands and knees, we explore creating rounding and arching not from the head and spine, but from the interaction of our skin with the skin of the earth.
…
00:00:00 – Arriving in walking
Noticing how we feel – both the emotional tone and how we sense ourselves to be here – in this place, in this body, on this planet
Remembering we are walking on the earth and through the air
Reading our walking as a changing of shape of our whole inner volume
…
00:03:50 – Standing Explorations and Walking
Listening to ourselves standing – sensing weight and support flowing through our structure – inviting a sense of mystery about what that structure might be
Sensing the region of our belly centre – extending our attention from its centre along the line of gravity that passes though us connecting to the centre of the earth and an imaginary star above – creating common ground
Remembering the air pressing on us from all directions – about one kilogram per square centimetre – a gentle hug that gently holds us together
…
Turning around our centre axis – initiating from the eyes, from the feet, from the belly centre, and then everything together – dissolving the body into the space
…
Playing with the image of support like water, flowing up from the centre of the earth, through us and out through the top of our head – becoming a human fountain
Exploring raising one hand/arm at a time, then both together – shaping the flow of support up and out through our fingertips – sensing the smallest reconfiguration of our hand/arm that produces a weight shift we can sense under our feet
Taking the head away from the axis with our belly centre anchoring us by maintaining its connection to the centre of the earth and the star above
…
Exploring rounding and arching – initiating from our feet by pushing backwards along the skin of the earth through the heels to arch, forwards through the toes to round
Initiating side-bending from the feet then circling the belly centre – letting the arms rise to counterbalance as the circles grow bigger
Sensing how the relationship of the belly centre to the centre of the earth stays constant – as if turning a great granite ball beneath us
…
Stepping with one foot in front – initiating from the soles of the feet to shift ourselves forwards and backwards
Playing with sending out curved lines from our fingertips as well as straight
The belly centre as the centre of our kinesphere – letting our vision shape our attention by watching our hands and then pointing out beyond our kinesphere
…
00:39:45 – Floor work
Sensing our inner volume and how we balance on the earth behind us – allowing our asymmetries to be there
Playing with the image of the breath like a wave through an internal sea
…
Inviting in an image of our structure as one continuous mesh – elastic tissue pulling us together, fields of activity resisting compression and creating space – fractal in nature – mesh nested in mesh all the way down to the molecular level – everything is one fabric – when we move, the cells change shape and the biochemistry changes
…
Floating our belly centre a little towards the sky and sinking it back towards the earth – sensing how our connection with the earth changes – noticing what moves passively and then beginning to activate it – distributing the work throughout ourselves
Exploring creating the same movement from our interface with the earth – accessing the support that flows from the centre of the earth
…
Kneeling – rounding, arching and side-bending – initiating from the lower legs interacting with the skin of the earth – circling the belly centre
…
On hands and knees – moving the belly centre headwards, tail-wards, left and right – imagining the line from the top of the head going all the way around the earth and entering through the tail – the belly centre in orbit
On elbows and knees– sliding the elbows and knees towards each other and away from each other along the skin of the earth – sensing if this rounds or arches us – then trying the opposite coordination – both are available to us
Side-bending from the earth – the elbow and knee on one side coming together, the other side moving apart – initiating the movement from our connection to the earth
Combining rounding and arching with side-bending to circle the belly centre – initiating from the head and spine, from the interaction with the earth, or everything together
…
Shapeshifting our way up to standing without pushing down – floating up and floating down
…
01:12:50 – Returning to standing and walking
Re-tuning our centre axis to the line of gravity
A period of free exploration with music
Sensing the connection with the earth that is invisible – having a sense of something flowing through – surfing the support as it flows up and out through us
Co-creating our experience with where we are – listening is an act of moving our attention outwards – as we move we give information into the space around us
