MY BODY CARTOGRAPHY
I can’t strengthen a muscle dynamically if my goal is to limit, reject or make invisible the part I need to move. If I hold tension in the muscle, fascia and skin, I’m going to speak and move with that tension. It’s about learning a new way of movement. It’s about inhibiting the movement that’s already engraved on me to give myself more choices. It’s about a pause; an internal preparation of movement. In this Pilates-based series, we will investigate a specific body part which is involved in personal, social, cultural narratives by using body parts to create a portfolio for exploration and movement. The goal is not to build muscle and tension, but to release it.
If Your Spine Could Speak
Emotionally and physically our spine offers us playfulness, sensuousness, support and rigidness. It is our “I-ness” - how we hold ourselves. Our spine, head and tail connects us to our upper and lower body. Limitations in head-tail mobility are impacted and affect limitations in our ability to fully engage (physically and emotionally) to the world. In today’s exploration, we begin in Yoga’s Cat/Cow and then explore different ways of moving our spine and how that movement can facilitate not only shifting of weight, but shifting of levels (from seated to standing).