What is Right?

I'm trying to be a sponge the last couple weeks I'm here. Well, technically I've been working very hard on my sponge action the entire time I've been here, but I just activated my maximum absorption ability. Even though the contemporary teacher we're finishing with kinda sucks. Damn you Teresa, damn you and your spirals!

This is my attempt at an inventory. Those things I've learned that I want to keep with me at all times.

[Feet]

These toed bad boys upon which we tread aren't like other parts of the body. They keep themselves to themselves, do the work they got to but when it comes down to it, there's no hiding the facts of their potential: surprising mobility; critical connections to the rest of the body; the hyper-sensitivity of thousands of bundles of nerves that feel to keep us upright. Feet are the conduits of our weight, our formal gateway into the earth, and specialized routers for all information kinesthetic.

As such, all exercises of standing alignment begin with the feet. Warm-up should invariably involve some massage of the feet, whether manual or against the floor (foot-focused walking). Helpful exercises include breathing through the feet--experiencing the sensation of muscular expansion and growth, then narrowing and lengthening--while walking, thereby opening the spaces between the metatarsals as well as the arch and outside of the foot. Alignment of the hip/knee/ankle joints is achieved primarily through an open foot. Light bouncing through plie can help develop awareness of this connection, after a series of toe moving, supining, and pronating movements have warmed the foot. And finally, the line of the foot as a continuation of the leg is invaluable as extra leverage and extension in balances, while the information from and through the standing foot defines a balance.

Supported correctly, a complete connection from the foot to the tip of the spine can be achieved. This is your individual axis, made vigorous and strong by the energy passed from the ground into the body through the feet by way of reaction to gravity. The shoulder blades and arms fall from this axis when at rest. How much energy (the normal force resulting as a reaction to gravity), and in which manner the energy in relayed to the rest of the body depends entirely on our feet when in a default ambulatory position.

[Thoracic Spine]

A house of tension in my body, which is why it's getting bulleted here. This part of the spine feels to me at times like a no-man's land, the long and barren space between the pelvis and head and their attendant vertebra (lumbar and cervical spine, respectively). But without the cooperation of this connector, you have no spiraling, no back-bend, no deep and open inhales.

And so in warming up, you can activate it by taking spirals on the floor reeeeeeal slow-like. Spread out on your back and take one foot across your body, feel the pelvis start to tip, but don't take the ribcage and head with you until you have to. If you don't release the tension in the thoracic spine you're sunk. Repeat with the arm, which takes the head and ribcage first, but lets you feel the whole region of the thoracic spine opening up before it takes the pelvis with.

For arching, it's all about the sternum. I never could figure how to support my head until a revelation while in bridge a couple of days ago. Feel the sternum, feel the vertebra behind it and let all of them open up to make the chest wide. It's like the collar bones are detaching and shooting out even wider, which helps keeps the back from collapsing in. A bad situation because it brings the shoulder blades in tight and leave the cervical spine tense. You can trust the thoracic spine to carry surprising amounts of weight and energy as long as it is rooted long through the lumbar spine and pelvis. A helpful warm up exercise is that inverted push-up position from yoga. From sitting with legs straight out in front of you, you lean slightly back and place the hands with fingers pointing towards your toes. Push up, see the ceiling, point the toes, and you can feel the whole length of the chest opening up, supported through the thoracic spine.

The thoracic spine functions largely in relation to the shoulder blades and arms. It's space and maneuverability is increased by maintaining distance between the shoulder blades and openness across the chest.

[Opening the Hips]

Flexibility in the legs is largely a project of opening the hips, in all directions. Also, you can't ignore the importance of the lower back and lower abdominals, as they can restrict movement to an equal degree.

The key ingredient in this sort of stretching is breath. The breath has to enter all the way down into the pelvis and lower back in order to active the sensation of length, the meridians traveling from the hip joint all the way down through the feet. Without alignment along these meridians, it's almost impossible for me to feel my knee joint extended. I already spoke about feet, but again, their involvement in extending the line of the leg can completely change the experience of a stretch.

When stretching the adductors and hamstrings, it's really crucial that the superficial hip flexors remain relaxed. You only need to engage the iliapsoas, which goes from the top of the femur all the way back into the lower spine. Because of this it can be really helpful to prepare for stretching with abdominal exercises, slowly lifting and extending the legs from a lying position with careful attention to avoid tension in the superficial hip flexors. I've also found it helpful to do leg lifts while hanging from a pull-up bar to activate the iliapsoas, being very sure to avoid any swinging coming from lack of control in the abdominals.

[Dancing is Fun]

Body knowledge and flexibility and awareness of what is happening when you move are all fantastic things. They inform not only your dance, but all of the movement you undertake through the world. But in the end, dancing is something else. You don't need to know what's happening with your joints and muscles to understand movement dynamics or kinesthetic sensations, and you definitely don't need to have high legs or sweet moves to break it down.

It does take a certain sensitivity, to environment, to your body, to whatever rhythm or music or situation is going on around you. But anybody can get there if they want to. The best dancing I saw all semester was in improv class with a Russian guy in his late thirties, completely untrained from a dance technique perspective, who, failing to relay his concepts in broken english, just started dancing for us. He was in it all the way, like a rock and roller, and that was the important thing to watch--not just the forms or dynamic choices, as instrumental as those may be in creating effect.

Maybe I'll have more notes in the days to come, but in all likelihood I'm occupied by the fact that, in four days time, I'll be on a freakin plane heading into a whirlwind summer followed by a whole lot of what the hell am I going to do. But for sure, more dancing to come.