THE SPINE
A dancers perspective.
Movement experience over the years helped cultivate the relationship between my bodies internal experience and external experience simultaneously. The Follow role in partner dance honed my awareness, receptivity and connection to moving with another person. Not always but often that “flow state” Mr. Mihaly Csikszentmihalyihad speaks of in his book Flow was reached. All disappears but the present moment. Two people connected and creating. Oneness. Bliss.
Two years ago when the pole came back into my life, a hug desire to learn how to flow in that same way was born. Learn so well that eventually the body takes over and creates while I sit in it and watch in wonder.
Fast forward to today I have been on an amazing ride learning, understanding, discovering and integrating all of your amazing teachings and find myself mesmerized by how perfectly the human body is designed. How everything fits so perfectly together and the incredible job the spine has in holding it all together.
For this certification requirement I want to focus on the spine and hone in on 3 key ingredients I found to be incredibly helpful from your teachings for best performance.
Robert Greene writes in his book Mastery that humans live in two worlds. First, there is the outer world of appearances- all of the forms of things that captivate our eye. But hidden from our view is another world - how these things actually function, their anatomy or composition, the parts working together and forming the whole. This second world is not so immediately captivating. It is harder to understand. It is not something visible to the eye, but only to the mind that glimpses the reality. But this "how" of things is just as poetic once we understand it - it contains the secret of life, of how things move and change.
visualizing
“There is an extremely tight link between our visual system and our physiology: once we can actually see ourselves doing the impossible, our chances of pulling it off increase significantly.” – Michael Gervais
It is incredible how imagery shifts perception. The image of the spine use to appear in my head as one of a straight column. The work of Liz Koch whom you mentioned paints a different picture. “The spine is not a column, but a living river”. Mental game changer with so much more room to explore. Learning, understanding and visualizing my spine in this new way helped in exploring and integrating more possibilities.
From Dance Anatomy book:
The skeleton consist of the skull, spinal column, ribs and sacrum. The spine is the center of the skeleton and consists of 33 strong bones called vertebrae which are connected by small fluid filled sacs of tough fibrous cartilage called “discs” which allows for vertebral support as well as small amount of cushioning. These help absorb shock especially when performing jumping and lifting movements. Movement between the vertebrae creates flexibility throughout the spine. The vertebrae are supported by an elaborate system of ligaments.
The spine consist of three main sections of vertebrae; cervical spine (7 vertebrae) connect the thoracic spine (12 vertebrae) connect the lumbar area (5 vertebrae) ending at the sacrum with (5 vertebrae). As we travel down the spine the vertebrae increases in size.
The thoracic vertebrae is connected to the ribs which provide protection for some of our organs. The increasing size of the vertebrate and presence of the ribs attachments limit the flexibility and mobility of this area which is known as the thoracic cage or rib cage.
Learning how to move through our whole spine will create mobility throughout our thoracic region. The lumbar or lower back region is more flexible than the thoracic region. This region carries most of our weight and takes on most of the stress.
2) core
It is very important to understand the anatomy of our center and coordinating the action of the muscles that make up the core. When a movement requires our torso to move off balance the strength of our center keeps the SPINE from collapsing. In addition whenever we need to extend our SPINE while jumping our core musculature must brace our SPINE for protection.
The connection between having a strong healthy core is of most importance for keeping our spine healthy and protected for maximum fluidity.
For dancers it is very important to strengthen the core muscles and apply that strength to our movement. This is learning how to dance from our center.
For spinal support, we need to create effective activation of the trunk muscles, which involves engaging the transverses abdominis, oblique, pelvic floor and multifidus muscles. The core musculature has been given multiple names but carry no significance if we are unable to apply core strength to your dancing.
3) breathing
Breathing plays a considerable role in strengthening the torso. When forcing air out of the lungs, and gently pulling your navel towards your spine you begin applying intra-abdominal pressure, or pressure in the abdominal cavity. Intra-abdominal pressure can play a role in supporting your trunk, which in turn supports your SPINE. You need force exhalation and flattening when you execute a difficult task because it increases intra-abdominal pressure and activates the deep muscles that provide you with SPINE stability. With exercise, the deeper you breathe the more your abdominal muscles will work. Remember to inhale through your nose and use the force exhalation principle to engage the deep stabilizers, securing your spine.
In conclusion understanding how to access all available strength through correct alignment, proper muscle engagement and breathing techniques for best performance was a game changer for me and the students I had the pleasure of teaching.