The mouthing pattern

This was a very intimate process with deep emotional connections that we are perhaps only aware of at a subliminal level.

 I thought I would turn away from the stroking, guiding hand next to the mouth, finding it too personal and invasive. However, I actually found it more comforting to go towards the touch, and felt a sense of loss when this warm contact was taken away.

 The effect that this seemingly simple pattern has on my movement is amazing! It is a similar feeling to moving with an awareness of my head to tail connection, but it is altogether more relaxed, softer, less rigid. This pattern is useful in reminding us that the spine is not the only centre line through the body. We actually have a much more fluid and soft central column of support which is also constantly active at an unconscious level as we move through our day.

Naval radiation pattern

 - Equality between the limbs - no one part of the 'starfish' is more important than another.
 - Integration  through the centre.
 - Sense of energy in movement and proprioception. Connectivity to the whole self.

How can this movement pattern offer integration between the centre and periphery, the core and distal movement?

The most important point I find it helpful to remember is that this is not a one-way flow of energy. It is an exchange, a conversation between my core, through my six limbs out into my environment, just as much as it is about receiving information and feedback from my external environment and bringing this back in through my limbs to my centre.

A moving and witnessing experience

Class exercise with Polly Hudson:
Hands on touch, partner provides pressure into the muscles and combing down the limbs.
Moving and partner witnessing
Both moving
Witnessing partner moves in response


Became very aware through hands on and beginning of moving of my volume and 3D presence in the space.

Folding, hugging and condensing, comfort and warmth.

Working in this class with a male dancer has given me a freshening of perspective. He has a different way of holding his body. Different structure. Different strengths. It has refreshed my perspectives in both moving and witnessing.

An example of documentation

Documentation of work by Richard Long. Taking something from one place to another and then swapping and replacing. Displacement and replacement. A sharing. http://www.richardlong.org/

BMC class reflections

Reflections from Naval radiation pattern exercise. 'The unfurling wings of a dragonfly'

BMC links

"Touch is the other side of movement. Movement is the other side of touch. They are the shadow of each other" - Bonnie Bainbridge Cohen

http://www.bodymindcentering.com/blogs/touch-and-movement

http://www.heacademy.ac.uk/assets/Documents/disciplines/ddm/HEADDM-Bannon(2012)RelationalEthics.pdf

Tate Modern visit

Reflections and questions from our group visit to the Tate.

 THE TANKS

 What is live performance art? Does it have to even be seen live to be called live art?

 Suzanne Lacy: The Crystal Quilt
- Women, over the age of 60. Speaking about what old age means to them, their expectations and perspectives.
 - This work asked the question; Does art really challenge perspectives? Does it really change how people live their lives? Their attitudes towards the elderly?

 Liz Rhodes: Light Music
- Two projectors facing each other. I could have stayed with this work a lot longer! The audience had the choice and ability to move and interact with the light and projections.
- This asked the question; Am I the audience or am I the performer in this work?

 Sung Hwan Kim
 - Video and performance art installation.
 - The use of story-telling, myths and legends, the use of humour and an intriguing simplicity yet extraordinary depth to his work.
 - collecting and collaging encounters, sounds, sculptures and images to create his work.

 Throughout the rest of the gallery, the works that I found most intriguing or stimulating were the sculptures or 3D images or the multi-media pieces. In relation to our plans for FMP we began to think about what it would mean to interact with the art work. Drawing movement through inspiration and finding and then crossing that line between viewer and performer. Putting the body on display in the exhibition.

  What is the role of documenting when creating our FMP?

Naval Radiation Pattern

THE STARFISH

Human development. While in utero we are sustained and nourished by the umbilical cord. This of course feeds directly into our naval. Even once born, infants still have this intuitive and instinctual habit of curling around the naval and instigating movement from the centre of the body. As we grow and develop we tend to lose this connection.

Lying on our fronts, sinking and relaxing into the floor. Our parter witnesses our breathing and then places a hand where they see the breath as being most present. Then they find the position of the naval as if it was a bolt going through the core of the body and out into the floor. They then begin to trace and  warm the tissues up the back and along the arms and then the legs, and then tracing up to he tip of the skull and down to the tail.

This was a fantastic image both to give and receive. First as a receiver, I felt really grounded by the connection to my naval and therefore my centre. The use of hands-on from my partner felt like energy pathways along each of my limbs and along the length of my spine. For me personally it began to feel less like a starfish and more like the wings of a dragonfly unfurling on my back, the veins of the wings reflecting the veins of my own body. Perhaps similar to the wings of a dragonfly, the energy I felt along my limbs felt fragile and yet strong at the same time. Moving with this awareness made me realise the full length of my limbs in the space and the connection of my head to my tail.

  

Cellular breathing

I love the image of the cells breathing. I still find it fascinating how many different functioning organelles can be packed into one cell. Our dense build-up.

Lying or sitting still, focusing on the breath in and out of the body and trying to have a sense of each individual cell of the body also condensing and expanding to their own rhythm. For me, it gives a real sense of volume and our 3D self.

When we then start to roll and shift, I had the image of the weight or fluid or some kind of mass pouring between the cells, influenced by gravity and a desire to melt into the floor.