Awareness

Envision Festival

Envision Festival

A few weeks ago, I made my way to Costa Rica for Envision Festival. I honestly had no idea what I was in for. I hadn’t heard of most of the DJs, was not familiar with the movement teachers or lecturers, and I didn’t know anyone attending.  I knew I would be in a tent, but didn’t think much what that would mean logistically.

I quickly discovered that I had all the wrong clothes (What I had was way too hot. Pants? No. I basically should have planned for bikinis+decorations). It took about 10 minutes to realize I would be dirtier and sweatier than I’ve ever been in my life. I don’t mean dirty in a “I’ve been exercising all day” way—I was legitimately rolling and stomping in dirt from dawn till midnight. More often than not, the shower was out of water when I found an opportunity to try. But everyone else was just as dirty, and it was great.

#SNOWFLOW

#SNOWFLOW

It's winter here in the Northern Hemisphere. This means people don't spend as much time outside. But, regardless of season, being outside is an important part of avoiding the winter blues, a.k.a., "SAD" (seasonal affective disorder). You know how winter can be de-motivating and glum? You don't want to move because you're cold, or it's dark?

During daylight, GO OUTSIDE. I'm using all caps not to yell, but to state my enthusiasm over this incredibly simple principle that most of us have forgotten.

I find that a few minutes outside leaves me focused and de-stressed. My postural muscles wake up. As a result, I work more effectively when I go back inside. 

Passé Rock

Passé Rock

Each day during the Floor Flow® Teacher Training we start with a class. On the second day of a recent training, we built a little combo that included this move, the passe rock. In this video, you can see how I explained the details as we all moved together. Once this piece was solid, we combined it with some other pieces—and made a looping sequence. I do my best to keep people moving as they learn something. Sure, sometimes I need to ask everyone to pause and watch to really capture the details—but I really love to find ways to teach sequences, inch by inch, while keeping people moving. This way you'll have time to let go of extra tension and follow your breath--rather than stress about remembering things.

Mirror Flow

Mirror Flow

I had just finished seven days of all-day teaching. After so much energy output, I always feel like I need to move for myself to recharge and reset. Becoming a couch vegetable does not work for me. I need foam roller time, floor time or nature time.

We were in a uniquely black dance studio and Ken put his camera on a tripod. We took turns doing some easy, full-song freestyles. He told me that the footage was super dark (which surprised me since the overhead lights were on), and that I was almost always in the far side of the frame (which is typical of me)

,

INSIDER Travel Feature on Visit to City Museum, St. Louis, MO, USA

,
INSIDER Travel Feature on Visit to City Museum, St. Louis, MO, USA

If I could gather everyone I know, and share one place with them, it would be the City Museum, St Louis, MO. I would take you there because it's a model for how art, play, learning, and challenge can convene in a single place. This place shows how the comforts and conveniences of our structures and systems have ruined our fitness and creativity. There are interactive exhibits of 50s nostalgia, a big ol' bug collection, a massive cave network, a tree climbing/crawling network, huge multi-story slides, urban archeology zones, epic contemporary sculptures, rooms that are self-playing instruments, human hamster tunnels and so much more. There is a circus school INSIDE where the kids get the chance to perform several times a day. At City Museum, the artists have run wild with what seems like little concern for 'safety' (I'm not talking about legitimate dangers, but the type of fear that conditions parents, leaders, and law enforcement to tell us not to climb, explore, and challenge convention). In no other museum have I laughed, sweated, cried, and used every possible primal pattern just to get around.

I want airports with open spaces and monkey bars, floor seating options in all restaurants and places like the city museum all over the world.

,

City Museum, St. Louis, MO

,
City Museum, St. Louis, MO

The best museum in the world hosts countless physical challenges. From climbing to crawling, and sliding to balance challenges, the City Museum, St Louis, MO is one of my favorite places in the entire world. Really. It is an interactive art exhibit/fantasy world with 50's memorabilia and insect collections. It's housed in a giant repurposed old building that forces you to explore numerous primal movement patterns just to get around. IT IS THE BEST.

, ,

F.R.E.E. Intro to Flowbility™ Class on Qinetic's New App!

, ,
F.R.E.E. Intro to Flowbility™ Class on Qinetic's New App!

I filmed a 30-minute "Intro to Flowbility™" class and some tips last week for Qinetic. The class is already up on their new app and it's F.R.E.E. Check it out here: https://appsto.re/us/R0aZ_.i

For the video seen here: I believe functional warm-ups can be creative and fun. Try the exercise seen on this tip. Remember to move slowly; try holding the most distant position for three full seconds then make a smooth transition to your next hand or foot placement.

Do you Flow or do you NO?

Flow Movement Marlo Fisken

I’ve been asked many times what one needs to do to be a fluid mover. In response, I often ask, “Well, what is fluidity to you?” Some think of improvisation. Most say seamless, never stopping motion. Almost no one says “control over weight-transfer,” though this is a major element of flow. Movement can be dynamic, have pauses, and even staccato elements but still be "in flow" -- it’s how you change between elements. Definition aside, fluidity is mostly determined by 1) experience, and 2) what is or isn’t going on in your head.  

WHAT STOPS US FROM FLOWING?

  • Lack of familiarity with the movements/rhythms/goal

  • Lack of comfort/confidence

  • Mental disposition/personality

  • Results rather than process oriented mindset

  • Negative, questioning self-talk, fear

  • Anything that you allow to stop yourself

For many people, the very process of "tuning in" turns up the volume of the voice of resistance. The voice of resistance? It’s not a political movement, it’s the "nah-ah" voice in your head. If you are asked to pay attention to your sensations either in stillness or in movement and then have a little internal dialogue of“I don’t like this,"  “I don’t know what to do,” or “I look stupid,” then you are dealing with resistance. It may show up as self-doubt, self-judgment, or a straight-up NO/Negative-Nancy attitude.

Grumpy Cat

Resistance may also appear as bodily tension, restrained breath, wandering thoughts (such as “I need to respond to that email”), and even fatigue. For some, being asked to take time to quiet their mind and focus on their breath makes their heart race -- they become tense as they think of every possible reason they need to leave the room.

Being present in your body (i.e., your life) can quickly reveal anxiety, which is ultimately a fear of uncertainty, or a fear of losing something that has been held onto.

Reality Check: 

We all will experience negative internal dialogue while moving -- some less than others -- but it happens. While it is easy to look at a proficient mover and assume they never have self-doubt, this is not true at all. The trained "flow-er" knows how to turn negative thoughts into a breath so deep that the thought can no longer be heard. Remember, proficiency requires practice. A great mover will still be a beginner when doing something new. New situations inherently create uneasiness; it’s how you handle it that matters.

Stress and anxiety happen when you anticipate a negative outcome, like this puppy below, scared at first to go down a set of stairs:

Puppy Stairs Flow Movement

Anxiety and flowing do not mesh. 

When you fully commit your attention to your movement session, there is no such thing as a negative outcome. You will learn something about yourself 100% of the time. If you are scared of learning something you don’t like, the beautiful thing is we can’t change it until we are aware of it. Remember, if you feel on the verge of a breakdown, you are also on the verge of a breakthrough.

Look at this little flow master, no anxiety here:

Puppy Flow Movement

The above blog is an excerpt from the forthcoming Floor Flow® Level 1 Teacher Training manual.  The trainings launch this June in the United States, with international dates pending.  More info HERE.

Featured
Catch This!
Catch This!

“I don’t do balls,” I used to say.

Like many other dancers I knew growing up, I formed an identity around being a dancer with no interest in activities involving balls, pucks, paddles, etc. (unless I was dancing with it).

In high school, I almost failed P.E. class because I flat-out refused to participate in any sports activity. As a result, in later years, whenever someone would throw me a ball I’d duck away rather than catch it, or if I did attempt a catch, it would be in a stiff and panicky state. It was embarrassing.

Ki’ilani (seen in the video) changed my relationship with catching. She loves balls more than anyone I’ve ever met. Every trip to a large store includes a visit to the sports aisle to feel balls. She even keeps a ball in her pocket for comfort tossing. One of our quarantine activities has been ‘dance catch.’

Learning Online
Learning Online

Have you ever bought any digital tutorials or courses? Or saved videos on Instagram, Facebook, or YouTube?
Chances are you grabbed them because wanted to remember and LEARN the material.

But, did work through them?

How has it been integrating what you learned into your dancing/living/teaching?

Or, are the videos collecting digital dust...waiting for you to give them a chance?

If you have gathered materials, especially if you PAID for those materials, but haven’t given them the attention you intended, how about getting out your calendar RIGHT NOW and booking yourself some self-learning time?

Cross Knee Swivel & Supine Sticky Foot Twists
Cross Knee Swivel & Supine Sticky Foot Twists
The Return of the FM YouTube Channel!
The Return of the FM YouTube Channel!
Free Spinal Wave Upgrade!
Free Spinal Wave Upgrade!
Why Attention to Contact is for Everyone
Why Attention to Contact is for Everyone

If you look at any beginner movement class, you'll see widely-varying degrees of bodily awareness. However, regardless of how someone moves, with a little bit of cueing, anyone can feel if they are in contact with the floor or not.

You don’t need skill or imagination to sense your contact with the floor. You may not be paying attention to it most of the time, but it doesn't require anatomical awareness to grasp what 'weight-bearing' is or to notice which of your parts have the most pressure.

Weight bearing is a constant thing (unless you are temporarily airborne, space traveling, or swimming, you are bearing weight, somehow).

Yet, the details of rolling contacts are rarely zeroed in on outside of higher-level movement environments. But...they could be.

Three Books That are Currently Inspiring My Teaching
Three Books That are Currently Inspiring My Teaching

The first is called ‘Bodyfulness’ by Boulder author Christine Caldwell. It’s swelling with information for or anyone who’s ready to look at the how and why of how they move. The author founded the Somatic Counseling program at Naropa University and has been in practice for more than thirty years.

She says:

“The body isn’t a thing we have but an experience we are. Bodyfulness is about working toward our potential as a whole human animal that breathes as well as thinks, moves as well as sits still, takes action as well as considers, and exists not because it thinks but because it dances, stretches, bounces, gazes, focuses, and attunes to others.“

Less Choreography, More Dance
Less Choreography, More Dance

Have you been to a dance class that was supposed to be beginner-appropriate or all-levels, but the class progressed in a way that made you want to disappear?

Maybe you had fun the first few minutes when the sequence was short, but then the instructor moved on, and on, and on. With rapidly dwindling confidence, you were left stumbling in the wake of an ever-growing sequence. Perhaps physically you could have done it all, but you needed more time to really 'get it'. It was just too much to remember.

I've been there. In classes and in auditions, I've been there.

You can only stumble around, a count behind everyone else, for so long before you want to shrivel into the corner and become unseen.

When you’re new to a style or form (or even just with a new teacher), learning a lengthy complex piece of choreography (maybe alongside people much younger or more skilled than you) is daunting and often
disheartening. Based on what I've observed, the amount of choreography delivered in many dance classes leaves a LOT of people behind.

In my opinion, if you are still trying to remember the choreo during the last minutes of class, you're missing out on the joy of dancing, the part where the movement starts to carry you and you can transcend who you were when you arrived.

My message is this:

Pumpkin Flow Giveaway
Pumpkin Flow Giveaway

Pumpkin Flow Giveaway:

If you flow with a gourd of your choice between now and Nov 5, I’ll send you a code for $5 off any event or video. 

How:

  1. Get busy with you pumpkin and catch it on video.

  2. Post at least 15 seconds on FB or IG and tag #pumpkinflow and @flowmovement 

  3. Send us a message on either platform with the link to your video and we will send you your discount code. 

The Group Fitness Class Experience
The Group Fitness Class Experience

Yesterday, I witnessed a group movement experience that I was SO glad I was not a part of.

After a month away and a week of living the truck driver life, I got a month-long pass to a nearby gym. It’s primarily a rock-climbing gym, but they have a weight room upstairs.

This particular gym runs some group conditioning classes inside of the weight room. While I was gleefully doing irreverent things on the back extension bench, a voice came over the loudspeaker letting everyone know that “Body Blast with Mr. Blasty Blast” [ok, not his real name] was starting soon. I thought, “Oh nice, I’ll get to see if I would ever want to join the class.” Consensus:

OH NO, I WILL NOT FUCKING EVER. (Unless you pay me. I’d consider it if money were involved.)