Throughout this month I have been noticing a few things about my movement and feelings towards it. We have been moving with the influence of the Skeleton and the Organs. Each are very different and therefore my moving will be different when thinking of each. For me the performance quality changes as my attention is shifted according to how I interpret my movement.
I have also been applying the NRP to my movement in different classes, for example in Yoga my practice has been taking my NRP to learn how to control my limbs on the jump back which comes from my core. It can also be applied to Feldenkrais in the exercise where I take my arm backwards and forwards. here the NRP can help control the arm and keep it in line so I don't injure myself.
The fundamental piece of information that I have learnt therefore is that
SOMATIC PRACTISES UNDO HABIT AND EXTEND MOVEMENT CHOICES.
Moving on from the STARFISH we focussed on the SEA SQUIRT.
Here we are now shifting to where the head becomes important in terms of organisation. In the Starfish the focus is in the middle of the Starfish but now the Sea Squirt the head becomes organised at the top of the being. The head becomes a structure in itself and this then connects to the digestive system.
In order to understand our digestive pathways we were given a chewy sweet and I noticed that the TMJ joint is very much in use here. here the muscles grip when chewy which then creates this nodding action when we chew. This stems from when we were a baby and we sense everything through the mouth.
Therefore the Sea Squirt and a Baby both use the head, nose and mouth as another limb almost to reach out into the world and explore.
The digestive system offers a line of support through the body. This can ground us and when I began moving with this in mind I did find it difficult at first as normally I take this system for granted because it requires no conscious effort to do it. My moving was slow and fluid, this is how I imagine the digestive path to be.
Moving on we then looked at the Nervous system. It is important to understand that the Nervous system has two different parts. One that we can consciously control and another that we cannot.
During an exercise in class when I was partnered with Chelsea we were asked to stroke each others face from the jaw line up until the ear. My findings were that I wanted to move towards the movement I was receiving. I then found that this is a routine reflex that new born babies do when offered food. therefore it is a very much inward focus and a self contained unit. I also noticed that I first move away to then go towards. This is again found in babies movement as they want to find a motion and they must go back first to find this. This is seen in dance all the time and I noticed it when I was taking part in a yoga class. In my jump back I needed to move away from the direction to where my feet were going in order to get the motion to send myself backwards.
I also found in this exploration that when I turn my skull it activated the spine in relation to my torso with a tiny spiral happening. Also we learnt that the Cranial Sacral Fluid (CSF) bathes my skull and spinal chord. Its main purpose is to protect these vital structures in our bodies.
Here in this image it shows the direction in which the fluid flows and as you can see it creates an outer layer of protection. We are constantly creating this fluid and we don't even realise.
The next development in our creature timeline is going from the Sea Squirt to the Lancet. Again the Lancet doesn't have a spine however it does have a digestive and nervous systems. The Lancet now becomes much more structured in the sense that it resembles a fish. Though it uses the systems to keep structure rather than a spine.
I have found as the creatures get much more complex I am finding it more difficult to move with a sense of them. For example I found the Starfish a clear shape to move with a sense of. I think moving with the different systems however has enables me to tackle the more complex creatures.
I look forward to the rest of term and to be able to take this knowledge into my movement practice in the new year.
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