Overhead view of continuous shoulder pivots. This technique is seen in contemporary dance and martial arts under a few different names. I love this movement because the head, arms, pelvis, legs and breath all play a constantly dynamic role. When one body part lags, the fluidity is lost.
“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.’
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?
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.
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.“
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:
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:
Get busy with you pumpkin and catch it on video.
Post at least 15 seconds on FB or IG and tag #pumpkinflow and @flowmovement
Send us a message on either platform with the link to your video and we will send you your discount code.
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.)
This is one of my favorite stretches:
At the bottom of an externally rotated toe-balance squat, with your heels just under your sit bones (1st position grande plié for the ballet speakers), grab onto your knees. Pull your knees outward as you press your knees into your hands. Lengthen your lower back then puff your chest and look upwards. This requires major ankle stability and a lot of upper back activation.
Photo by Pole Ninja Photography.
Hi Friends:
I see so many social media posts of movement journeys accompanied with a flexibility complaint. I’d like to discuss the motives behind these negative comments to gain a more evolved perspective on our capacity for movement.
Comment #1
“This would be good if it wasn’t for my (insert body part)”. Please stop blaming your body parts for your perceived shortcomings. You ARE your movement. Your shoulders have not wronged you. Your hamstrings are not total assholes. Perhaps it’s life-long movement patterns demobilizing parts of you. Perhaps you’ve suffered injury because of how you chose (consciously or not) to use it. Now, you want your body to function in a new or long-forgotten capacity. (Structural deformities and accidents are different, but still, blame doesn’t lead to healthy movement). Blaming your body reveals a detached relationship with…. yourself.
We are training our physique every possible micro-second of our lives. Even if you don’t consider your drive home or screen time to be ‘training’, it actually is. Like a creepily placed Facebook ad, the body (like Facebook) is constantly encoding our patterns. Our breath, positioning, and thoughts, are essentially imprinted in our brains and body tissues for future use. (If this sounds like cray-cray hippy talk, look into the works of Katy Bowman, Jill Miller, Tod Hargrove and Thomas Meyers). Our 90 minute stretch sessions will never override the effects of our lifestyles. Yes, we can see flexibility gains from a few sessions a week, but the power of the other 22.5 hours a day is greater. This is not my opinion; it is science.
Comment #2
“I need to start working on flexibility.” Do you? Do you NEED to? Or do you just feel compelled to say that you need to because you are judging yourself against your own standards? Now, if it is your soul’s desire to be bendier, do it. Flexibility training can be a beautiful, enlightening, awareness-building journey. I’m simply suggesting that, like a retirement plan, you should know what you are really working towards and what you will *actually* come out with in the end.
Most people, (and I mean all humans, not just humans trying to do crazy stuff on a stick in the air) could use more movement in a few locked-up parts, while learning to be more stable in other parts. Heck, we can all use a greater sense of connection between our core and extremities.
So… How much flexibility do we need to be healthy? Hint: it’s not the same as what’s needed for trending shapes, or to be on par with recently post-pubescent Russians (yes, they are amazing).
There are actual measures of healthy ranges of motion in every joint of the body. When we try to get more movement out of a few joints, rather than healthier movement in all joints, we are quite possibly throwing off a delicate balance between desirable movement and ego-driven movement exploitation.
Some of us are wound super tightly, both in body and mind. Some of us have trouble spots, and then there are those who appear to lack the very things that hold us together—the noodle-people, the globally hyper-mobile. What is global hyper-mobility? There are plenty of very trained examples of this in the ballet and rhythmic world because of their “aesthetically desirable” lines. But even lurking among the sedentary exists the globally hyper-mobile. Hyper-mobility is considered a dysfunction, as in… the body not functioning properly.
I, too, look at rhythmic gymnastics videos and say, “Wow, imagine how impressive I would be if I could casually hit my head on the back of my thigh while doing 10 pirouettes.” But, I look at them differently than I once did. I admire, but I also hope that these young movers are being educated. Their later years look expen$ive as they seek answers and relief from the numerous ailments stemming from excessive motion and deteriorated connective tissues.
Real talk, I worked towards crazy range (ROM) for nearly 20 years, and as a result, I suffered some game-changing injuries that taught me some important lessons.
What would flexibility training (and pole/aerial/dance) look like if it emanated from a steadfast commitment to health and movement longevity? Are we willing to look less impressive, not meet industry standards, or get less likes on our social media if it means less pain and a healthier relationship with our bodies?
What if being excellent, and being a role-model, was about committing to performing and sharing movements that enhance health? The endorphin rush from a new trick is amazing, and it has its benefits. But when we sacrifice balance and form— time and time again— for what we WANT to attain, there is a cost.
I do believe it is possible to be amazing without destroying oneself.
Knowing the WHY behind our goals (and statements) is important. The more we know what supports our WHY, the more real a goal becomes. It is more palpable. Most importantly, we will embody our desire in a way that invites the change to come. For our collective health, please make smart choices about the movements you desire. I want to see all of us moving well for decades upon decades to come. Here is a cute and completely unrelated pic of a turtle offering encouragement....
-M
“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.’
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?
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.
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.“
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:
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:
Get busy with you pumpkin and catch it on video.
Post at least 15 seconds on FB or IG and tag #pumpkinflow and @flowmovement
Send us a message on either platform with the link to your video and we will send you your discount code.
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.)
A great New Year requires great tunes. Here is a mac-daddy 33 song playlist to get you step-touching, crawling, sliding, and breathing heavily.
