Moving Toward Life. Anna Halprin

of the human race at sometime in their lives are affected by low back pain or injury.

      Your spinal column is also central for the integrity and consciousness of your pelvic region. Through the use of your pelvis, hips and thighs, the balancing of parts, mobilization of weight bearing, shifting directions, and lifting takes place. The pelvic area has long been considered by the Chinese to be the body center, a holy and spiritual center, and visualized as the color red, symbolizing energy.

       Differences in Bodies

      Although our similarities are obvious, our differences are many and need to be taken into account, in terms of self-expectations and for deriving the most personal benefits. There are general differences that have to do with racial and cultural customs as well as age, occupation and sex. These differences have hardly been tapped as a source of study. Anthropological and sociological information would make valuable resource material for artists and educators. Racial and cultural differences I have noticed within the multi-racial community at the Dancers’ Workshop are that people of Asian ancestry tend to have flat-looking backs and a strong earth grounding. The Black members of our community tend to have short strap muscles and a sharp curve in the lower back, with enormous fluidity in the spinal column and pelvic region. (I carefully use the word “tend” to indicate a tendency rather than a stereotype.) Architects who lean over drafting boards have a tendency towards hunched shoulders, and people who are under continuous pressure tend to have forward heads and tension in the neck. I have danced with children for twenty years and was amazed to observe that youngsters tend to be just as tight and have similar postural problems as oldsters, and the people fifty years and over very often are as capable in movement as those twenty years and under. (T’ai Chi masters reach their ultimate perfection between eighty and ninety years of age.) Although men tend to be tight in the hip joints, with practice they can loosen up. Women are sometimes open around the hips but just as often are as closed as the men. Shorter people and children have an ease with gravity that taller people with long limbs may have to develop. Wiry types tend to be fast and darting in movements. We have all noticed that obese people can be light as a feather.

      Differences are fascinating and can be appreciated and valued as positive ways of enriching movement with unique experiences and styles. Preconceptions of how one is supposed to move based on a preconceived belief system rather than true understanding, leads to conformity, uniformity and blind acceptance of arbitrary aesthetics. This type of prejudice is repressive to creative growth.

      We can learn from each other’s differences. We can broaden our range of movement, strengthen our weaknesses, and create a wide variety of new ways to move that open up exciting possiblities. I recommend you understand your body and move in accordance with your own self-image, and then you can learn from other styles, such as ballet, T’ai Chi, Flamenco, belly-dancing, modern dance, etc.

      I have often had the experience of starting out to teach a group of participants a particular skill by using a preselected movement. Then I observe different people with different body types and ethnic and cultural patternings. I observe the many structural variations that are equally valid to achieve the same skill. This diversity is always exciting to me and I treasure each person’s input as a truly creative and enriching experience.

      In doing any movement you need to study your own body by paying attention to the physical sensations evoked by your movement. Use yourself as your own model. If you notice that you have a sway back (lordosis), emphasize the movements that are based on flexion and avoid the back bends or the hyperextension. Hyper-extension will only reinforce lordosis; flexion will stretch those tight short muscles that reinforce an arch in the lower back.

      If you have a sunken chest, then emphasize the movements that contract the upper back and expand your chest. A forward head needs to lengthen and the muscles in the back of the neck need to stretch. Notice if one shoulder is higher than the other, or one hip down or up. As you move, try to make the necessary accommodations. Since each person is unique it is impossible to predict what you will need to do to adapt a series of movements to your particular body type and personal posture preferences. Study yourself in the mirror; have a friend take side view and frontal photographs of you. Try to get in tune with your body image as it is now and how you would like to alter it.

      SOME PREPARATIONS FOR MOVEMENT RITUAL

      It is helpful to set aside a specific time every day to do movement just as you set time aside for eating and sleeping and bathing. You are taking care of your body in the same sense.

      The first thing in the morning and before you retire in the evening is a good schedule, although each of you needs to determine your own natural rhythm.

      Arrange a place, a physical environment that is aesthetically pleasing, comfortable, private, and conducive to your concentration. The air should be fresh. It is especially invigorating to move outdoors. The feel of the sun or a cool breeze can add sensual pleasure. The light will affect your eyes and mood. The size of space will influence your sense of body scale. Your physical environment does have an effect on you, whether you are conscious of it or not. Create environments to move in that have a positive effect.

      The use of sound plays a part in the environment you work in. Sometimes you might want to use quiet music or simply be aware of sounds in your environment that are already there. There are always the sounds of your breathing, and your body as it moves. Sensitize yourself to the sensory stimuli in your environment. Select ways to use stimuli to create a scene for performing your movements deeply and with pleasure.

      What you wear also affects how you feel in your movements. Avoid wearing tights and leotards because you think that is the uniform to move in. Try moving without any body covering or with baggy sweatpants and shirt, or a loose-fitting wraparound. Try different body coverings until you find what works best for you.

       Transition Ritual

      A transitional ritual can be used to begin Movement Ritual I or can be used as a way of discovering what you need from the day ahead of you. Allow the energy you feel from this transition ritual to carry over to your daily tasks ahead.

      It is a process of shifting your attention away from external stimuli toward internal body awareness. You can use your mind to perceive kinesthetic sensations within your body, rather than being influenced by any moral or aesthetic preconceptions as to how you ought to look or feel. This ritual is a process for quieting the mind, letting go of muscles, and neutralizing your feeling states. It is a process of self-caring, or bringing yourself to a receptive attitude, and of opening and heightening your own self-awareness. This process allows you to concentrate without effort and awakens your energy.

      This is accomplished by closing your eyes, relaxing all over, giving in to gravity, softening your body resistance, releasing inner preoccupations and voiding the mind.

      You also need to get in touch with your breath rhythms and appreciate how your breath operates of its own accord following your own natural rhythms.

      Begin this movement by sitting with your body comfortably balanced, knees raised, your elbows resting on your knees, your head dropped into your hands, your feet firmly touching the ground and leaning forward at your hips, allowing your back to be open and rounded.

      Palming. While you are in this position, cover your eyeballs with the hollow of your palms, using the rim of your palm like the rim of a cup that contains the heat of your hands and brings your palm’s energy into your eyes while keeping light out. Relax your eyes, let go of your face muscles, attend to your breath. Whenever you relax, let go. Breathe out, drop your jaw and let your lips part and hang loosely. Now drop your shoulders and breathe into your back, expanding and widening your back. Breathe out and sink into your pelvis, allowing yourself to feel your weight moving into the ground.

      Massage your face. Bring your awareness to your face and your scalp. Use your hands as though they are fine sculptor’s tools. Press your fingertips into your scalp and