Our Dynamic Alignment

Our human bodies are designed for our alignment to be dynamic. This means when we move a part the whole adjusts and/or when the  whole of us moves,  the relationships among the parts adjust accordingly. We are designed synergistically to optimize our efficiency. This is fundamental to the harmony of human movement. Of course, due to behavioral patterns, such as sitting for long durations at a computer or in a car,  this dynamic capacity is frequently diminished.  But reconnecting to our inherent embodied dynamism is possible and can support self-care and well-being. The Laban/Bartenieff Movement System facilitates this process.

In the Laban/Bartenieff Movement System (LBMS) a large part of the explication of the body’s actions is from the perspective and framework of Bartenieff Fundamentals (BF), named for Irmgard Bartenieff. This perspective promotes awareness of movement to optimize function and expression. Bartenieff Fundamental Principles (BFPs)  are  specific concepts that support awareness to enhance and enrich our movement. BFPs  are not movement themselves but rather motifs to focus attention on the process of moving or to explore the experience of moving in order to gain and deepen awareness of movements possibilities. What follows is an explanation of the Bartenieff Fundamental Principle of Dynamic Alignment

Defining the terms:

What is a Principle?

  • A principle is a foundational idea that serves as the foundation for a system (in this case the BF part of LBMS)
  • A principle is a concept that is a guide for action

What is Dynamic ?

  • characterized by constant change, activity, or progress
  • relating to forces producing motion

What is Alignment ?

  • arrangement in appropriate relative positions
  • a position of agreement or alliance

In LBMS the BFP of Dynamic Alignment focuses on the synergy of the part/whole relationship of the form and function of our body.  Dynamic Alignment supports fulfilling the intent of our action.  This principle  recognizes that a change in a part creates a change in the whole.

All the BFPs support movement awareness,  and through awareness expanded movement possibility.

The science of human physiology reveals how the body is an interconnected system. And like the body itself, the Laban/Bartenieff system for movement analysis is also structed around the interconnectedness of its parts. Therefore, the BF Principle of Dynamic Alignment links to many other parts of the whole of LBMS including the Theme of Mobility/Stability. And in turn this major movement theme can be linked to other BF Principles such as Active Weight Support and Shift and this implies how in different Patterns of Body Organization the neuromuscular patterns of kinetic chains involved in our Body Level Phrasing occur.  Links can be made also to the BF Rhythms and to activation through BF Connections. All these other aspects of BF  – Connections, Rhythms and Patterns of Body Organization,  are all more specific concepts linked to specificity of action.  These other parts of the BF framework can also be addressed individually – perhaps in a later blog post!

Dynamic Alignment recognizes the Space Harmony of human design. This is primary addressed in looking to the skeletal structure of our bony architecture. From this perspective it is often useful to look at the triangles and arches in understanding the Mobile/Stable relationships of parts.

Some examples that illustrate the relationships of the architecture of our bony landmarks to explore in movement:

  • The diamond that can be envisioned from the bony landmarks of pubic symphysis, coccyx and greater trochanters of the femurs.
  • The triangle created from the landmarks of the calcaneus (heel bone)  and 1st and 5th meta-tarsal bones of the foot on medial and lateral (big toe/little toe ) sides
  • The connection between sternum and occipital portion of skull (back of head to breastbone ) – –  as an oblique line useful in accessing the depth of the Center of Levity of our upper body core and experiencing the head/upper spine as a limb and also linked to the Spinal Pattern of Body Organization.

Accessing our body parts and envisioning them as we move supports awareness of the Inner/Outer connection  we have as movers in our environment. And this Theme of Inner/Outer is another major movement theme recognized in the system. This awareness of the Inner/Outer continuum provides a way to map the body experience. And as we know maps create a context to situate our experience by providing references.  In LBMS Rudolf Laban famously mapped the personal space of our movement. Likewise, his protégé Irmgard Bartenieff provided ways to map the body’s organization. Together their work provides movers access to a comprehensive reference map for the observation and experience of human movement. This is the basis of the Laban/Bartenieff Movement System.

There are countless examples that can be used to explore the dynamism of our body’s part/whole synergy to awaken sensations and gain new awareness of our movement potential through the content and container of our moving form.  It should also be noted that while the focus in this post is on the Body Component of LBMS,  the other movement components – Effort, Space and Shape  also contribute to the experience of our human dynamism  – – this perhaps can be food for a future blog post…

Let’s Be Honest: The Online Environment in the Context of the Movement Experience

KStudd May 8, 2020

Teaching online – specifically offering somatic experiences for students that are intended primarily as somatic practice, is problematic on multiple levels. This needs further discussion I believe.

In this discussion I am not addressing classes that are not primarily focused on creating a somatic awareness and experience. For example, a dance class that has a different foregrounded intent (although clearly of course, can be framed as a somatic experience.) I also acknowledge that there are classes and courses that are very well suited to online education.

It is rather the plethora of online movement offerings and the trend to switching from the embodied classroom experience to the virtual environment due to the current situation that I want us to address more deeply and reflect on. This is the purpose of this missive.

The somatic educational experience is generally focused on awareness of an individual’s sensations and this in turn can often be a trigger for feelings and thoughts. This process involves awakening or deepening conscious awareness of emotions or thinking patterns. Indeed, this can be a fundamental goal of the experience – i.e. a deeper access to one’s Inner experience and bringing it into conscious awareness in order to better understand it or to find other possibilities etc.

In a real time /real space educational environment – what I will call the embodied classroom – vs the virtual classroom, the teacher or facilitator of the experience can, and should, and generally does monitor the situation. In other words, they “read the room”, or in LBMS parlance – read the Dynamosphere. The teacher can go back and forth between Direct attention and Indirect attention in the environment of the embodied classroom. This facilitates the Rhythm of Individual and Group and Self and Other that is dynamically in play. The teacher also has ways that they are self-monitoring (more about this later). In this way they monitor the whole – the group as well as individuals within the group and themselves.

This brings me to what has become (at least for me) a huge concern regarding the efficacy and responsibility – and do I dare mention it – the ethics – of online teaching that need more attention than I have generally seen deeply discussed.

I will address this from a story of my own experience – so a bit of heuristic research if you will in this subject matter.

I recently was a participant in an online somatic education type of class. The instructor was working from the embodied metaphors of our organs to engage the participants inner experience (NB this was not a BMC class as the experience was framed as a Fundamental Principle of Core Support). Engaging through an embodiment of metaphor was how I understood the essence of the experience of what was being suggested that we participants explore. We were directed to explore activating our movement from the heart. As soon as I began to engage with this experience, I immediately realized that my heart was frozen – immobile and I felt that I was a “heartless” person. I felt that the only movement available to mobilize from this place was in the action of Retreating and Enclosing. A sadness overwhelmed me, and tears streamed down my face… I hope you can appreciate the vulnerability that I choose to reveal here and why I think this is important to do here.

Now I am not a newbie in experiencing how my own activation of the movement of self can be very revealing and take one to a very deep place. So, I had experience and understanding of this somatic emotional release/response. But what if I did not? What about those with a history of depression that such an experience triggers? Just as I am often disturbed when I see that someone leads a breathing exercise without any real recognition of what it can potentially trigger (yet another topic for further discussion) I find myself questioning what do we teachers need to articulate when we engage in leading these experiences. Particularly when we cannot actually be fully present, but only can be partially present such as in the context of online somatic experience classes.

The teacher of this class had no way to actually observe that this was my response. And this reality made me reflect upon my own teaching experiences in the classroom when I have observed that a student was “being moved” in this way or had shut down or walked away or given some other sign that I observed – such as leaving the room, stopping participation or crying, etc.

In such situations I make a decision about how or if to connect to the individual. I may choose to simply be a witness and hold the space, or I may inquire if they need some support or assistance. Or I might ask someone else to check in with them. Or I may wait until a break and take them aside or, or, or … The point is that I am in a much better place to make a decision as to what could be supportive of their experience and supportive of the goals of the class that I am leading.

Now just take a moment to reflect on the practice of “muting” the participants in Zoom sessions – a necessary evil? Hmmmm

So, let us be honest – this ability to adequately respond is VERY LIMITED in the virtual classroom setting. Now I am not suggesting that we not have virtual online classes. We should. These they offer many possibilities for helping to connect us and to bridge our alone experience with others.

But let us also REALLY acknowledge the problems and limitations in the online medium in somatic educational interaction. In addition to the somatic emotional response aspect that I illustrated through the example of my personal experience, there are many other aspects of this virtual learning that also need to be addressed. This includes the lack of touch. Those of us who teach embodied practices often facilitate action and connect through intentional touch. This is NOT possible in the virtual classroom. Much more can and needs to be said about this. I am also very distressed at all the articles that I have recently seen as part of the practice of social distancing suggesting that we “do away with the handshake” and instead adopt the bow. Those writing these articles are well meaning but generally, in my estimation, have no real understanding of movement, including the action of touch and so they should not be opining about the significance of actions when they are not experts. We are – and we should make this clear – another topic for long discussion …

Then there is the interrupted phrasing that seems too often happen in the virtual environment of interaction. Sometimes this is due to the technology, but also it is due to a much more impaired ability of the participants to read the signals of interaction through the screen.

There are the aspects of technology that can be frustrating of course – the tech itself can be problematic in poor connections impairing seeing and hearing and the glitchy and unnerving aspects of time when there is a lag or a freeze. These can be minor irritants, or they can be quite more and contribute to stress and stress as we know, is often a process of accumulation. Tech stress is something that cannot be simply dismissed – as it is another “straw” on the proverbial back of the camel.

Many have spoken about Zoom fatigue and how exhausted this type of teaching is. We need to have a much more robust conversation about this phenomenon. Clearly the Exertion/Recuperation is out of balance – let’s use our considerable skills to name why and to share this with the world. I believe that in interacting through the screen there is much less ability to self-regulate by looking away, attending to self, shifting attention from group to individual – all this becomes “out of whack”. – This can be ameliorated perhaps to some extent by better practices. However, the medium itself is NOT conducive to the balance that is much more readily available in the environment of the embodied classroom. And this needs to be emphatically made clear.

I recognize the need and reality of online teaching, but I do think we need a more thoughtful and measured response and approach as I fear that this can become a panacea. Particularly when it is put into practice as an economic response to crisis and not foregrounding the intent of the educational training in somatic practice. There is certainly a great deal of – jumping on the band wagon of accessing band width in promoting education going on I see – and this bears reflection from this community.

A Fundamental Movement Principle: Utilizing Rotation

by Karen Studd, updated Spring 2020

Rotation is both a body action and a larger meta concept (meta in the sense of beyond) constructed from the physical sensorial experience of rotation.

There is something inherently beautiful about rotationspinning, twirling, spiraling twisting, turning, rolling – Ferris Wheels, the Wheel of Fortune – The mind-boggling discovery of the wheel!

Universal Pattern/Individual Experience

Rotation gives us access to the entire world around us. Rotation allows us to change perspectives and supports access to alternative possibilities. Rotation is a universal pattern of movement. The earth rotates on its axis and in its orbit, it revolves around the sun. Children love to spin turning around and around till dizzy. The ballerina, in pirouetting, sublimely expresses the wholeness of the theme of Mobility/Stability through her rotary action. The spatial Vertical Dimension aligned with the pull of gravity and the dancer’s vertical thoroughness are the stable center around which the mobile turning action is performed. This graceful action reflects both the celestial rotation of the heavenly bodies but also how humans indulge in this experience – the same action that the child relishes. And too, this same connection – that of the unique individual human experience to the universal pattern is also reflected in the Sufis whirling dance of devotion.

Rotation creates a circular pathway and the circle is an eternal form; it is endless, having no beginning or ending. The circle is harmonious, the circle creates a safe-haven. On the inside its center is stabile, creating a harmonious balance of inner and outer. In a circle, all points are equal. This is the idea of the Knights of the Round Table. The circle’s center can focus us by becoming the “center of attention”. Rotation connects us both to ourselves as well as to our environment. We “circle our wagons” or we get lost “running in circles” or we get stuck in place and simply “spin our wheels”.

The Shape of Space

To experience rotation is to experience space taking shape. One fundamental shape revealed through rotation is the screw shape form. You may recall that the screw along with the lever, pulley and inclined plane, is one of the basic “simple machines” (and keep in mind that the pulley relies on the wheel shape).

The circle in 3D becomes the sphere, the coil becomes the 3D vortex. A spiral or a twist can change everything or bring us round again. A “twister”, that is a tornado, can bring chaos and destruction. The “windup” can be a powerful preparation before the baseball pitcher releases the ball. The spiral twist of upper body against lower is the key to perfecting the golfers swing.

The Movement of Rotation

With our first full body rotation – when in infancy we turn over- the whole world changes, not only for ourselves providing a new perspective, but also for our caretakers as we are now mobile and will no longer stay put!

Rotation enables us to accommodate by allowing us to wrap ourselves or parts of ourselves around things. It is the cornerstone of our ability to move 3 dimensionally. It allows our form, our body’s shape to accommodate to our environment as we master wrapping our hands around tools or ourselves around another in an embrace.

Rotation is key to our survival as it allows us to scan the full view of our environment. And while we do not have the ability to twist our heads like an owl, we are able to, with access to our entire spine and joints of the pelvis and legs scan 360 degrees.

Our spines rotate, our proximal joints rotate, and embracing the fully rotary action we are endowed with through all our parts, liberates our movement potential. The elderly loose this function if they do not stay in touch with their joints mobility and such tasks as backing up a car where you must rotate head and spine to see become limited. Rotary actions often appear more fluid because they involve a harmonious phrasing of multiple joints, rather than the simpler single joint actions of flexion and extension and of abduction and adduction.

Rotation is connected to fluidity of motion. This link goes to the essence of the nature of fluids – a drop of water adopts a spherical shape. Water, in its fluid form, also adapts to the shape of a container. Shaping expresses a mutual relationship. So while water can take on the shape of a vessel containing it – it can also shapes its containers – think about how rivers shape the canyons through which they run, expressing a mutual relationship of the elements of earth and water, a merging of contents and container.

Experience Understanding Metaphor

Our experience of the body’s action(s) of rotation leads to the conceptual understanding of this phenomenon leading to metaphors based in the experience. An abundance of metaphors grow out of this movement experience.

Some images/ideas/metaphors to think of in relation to rotation:  

Play – balls of all sorts in all manner of sports!

Planets – the sun the moon as eternal ongoing cyclic images

Cycles of all sorts from the cycle of life, and the daily and monthly cycles associated with the sun and the moon, to the traditional clock face with the “hands” cycling its “face”.

More Metaphors and the languaging based in the foundational experience of this concept

“Roll with the punches” to address the larger idea of accommodation. Or descriptions of chaotic situations described as “spinning out of control”.

Rotating an image to get a different perspective or rotating around something to see it from differing points of view are common images. We say that we “turn” things over in our minds. The metaphor of “turning something over” conveys a means of smooth transition to the next phase or next person and provides continuity and continuation. Rotation therefore can be seen as an action in support of development and evolution.

We ask students to “turn in” their papers or assignments.

We say that there was a good “turn out” for an event.

We encourage children to “take turns”

The expression, “One good turn deserves another”

We talk about an unexpected “turn of events”

We express confusion as becoming “all turned around”

Use the expression, “Leave no stone unturned”

Refer to a new start as, “Turning things around”

The Laban/Bartenieff Movement System links to the action and concept of  Rotation – a few of the links to the BESS components  (Body, Effort, Space and Shape)  

Now let’s address the LBMS of Rotation – thinking about the connection between rotation in Bartenieff Fundamentals and to the notion of Space Harmony – the body as spatially harmonic in form and function and a part of the Whole!

The concept of rotation from the perspective of the Body includes the anatomical action of joint rotation as well as the more macro construct of, in LBMS terms, the Basic Body Action of Rotation as well as the BFP – the Bartenieff Fundamental Principle of Rotary Support.

Rotation allows us to take in information from the environment (Body and Space) and then to engage, accommodate and to adapt as wanted or needed (Shape). This, in LBMS terms, is the way in which the action of rotation (both anatomical action as well as the more generalized Basic Body Action) supports the Mode of Shaping (Shape). And this connection of rotation to interaction in the environment also links this action to the Space Factor (Effort). Rotation allows us to get a new perspective, specific perspective and/or access a wide perspective. In this way, rotation relates to the senses and Body Action that support Indirect and Direct Space Effort, allowing us to scan our environment or to swivel to hone-in on something. Access to rotary motion also supports finding the full 3Dimensional volume and access to all zones and Directions of the Kinesphere (Space).

Rotation as expressed in both form and function is an aspect Space Harmony. This is well illustrated in the spiral shapes illustrating the Fibonacci sequence as can be found in the spiraled shape of a Nautilus shell. Rotary forms such as the spiral and the helix are also about an efficiency of Space. The form of chromosomes containing our genetic code in the DNA molecules are in the shape of double helixes, a form that allows a lot of information to be contained in a small space – expressing the efficiency of this rotational form.

Like the endless circle there is always more that can be expressed about the phenomena of rotation. And when in doubt one can always rotate!

** this document was initially written at the request of students in a movement analysis training program and was based on a class I taught in 2009 to that group. Most of these ideas /musings have subsequently been included in the text, EveryBody is a Body written by me with my WholeMovement collaborator Laura Cox.

More about BF “Heel Rocks”

Class notes for Karen Studd’s WholeMovement Class Session April 17th 2020

A WholeMovement approach to Bartenieff Fundamental’s traditional “Heel Rock”(s) – starting from the basics and clarifying the intent of this action. Then continuing to explore possible variations and linking the action to BF Connections, BF Rhythms and BF Principles and the Basic 6.

What is the “Heel Rock”?

I am (in this document and representing the WholeMovement approach), defining this BF action as:

A repetitive, rhythmic, successive phrase of movement that is generally done through a lower to upper, successive, sequencing linked to the foundational aspects of the human form. The action is standardly performed from a lying supine position. Heel Rocks are based on, and stimulate, our foundational kinetic chains of action.

In other words, the BF Heel Rock (generally speaking), is a phrase of action that is initiated in the lower body and follows through the upper body, synergistically connecting parts to whole. Heel Rocks support and bring awareness to the efficient and harmonic patterns of our whole body’s innate postural actions (through limb/core differentiation and integration). It is linked to our design – i.e. to stand and walk upright. (I stress “generally” as Heel Rocks can, and from my perspective should be, explored in many ways)

What is the idea of Heel Rock?

Why do it?

Why is it significant in the practice of BF?

The “Heel Rock” is used to explore and experience whole body connectivity in order to:

  • prepare
  • recuperate
  • mobilize (activate through directing the internal paths of our flow through our kinetic chains)
  • diagnose (through observation, awareness and/or sensation)
  • intervene (to support change or a shift in emphasis)

How and why it works

The Heel Rock is based in the Vertical Throughness of our Axis of Length

In the Space Harmony of our human design our length is dominate. We are of course 3-Dimensional, but we have mostly length. We are taller than wide or deep. And our length (in our vertical upright stance) is a foundational part of the pattern of our species design in relation to gravity and to the environment. We are defined by our bilateral upright stance to interact with, and to locomote through, the world. The BF Heel Rock action is both based on, as well as supportive of the function and expression of our essential design.

To reiterate: The action of the Heel Rock supports Whole Body Connectivity through the Axis of Length. And awareness of our Axis of Length is a Bartenieff Fundamental Principle.

The human Axis of Length is linked to our spinal column, and as vertebrates the spine defines our midline. In addition, our spine is foundational to the Patterns of Body Organization, starting from the Spinal Pattern and linked to what BF identifies as the Head /Tail Connection. The spine, with its 2 ends (head end and tail end) is also the foundation of our Upper/ Lower aspects of Body and the Upper/Lower Pattern of Organization. And then subsequently the basis of the Body Half (Side/Side) Organization, because the spine as our postural midline, provides the structure to frame how the 2 sides are organized – toward /away from midline through the anatomical actions of adduction and abduction. Furthermore, the spine (and Axis of our Postural Length) is a significant aspect of Cross Lateral Patterning, where the midline (as demarcated by the spine) is crossed. And this culminating contralateral developmental pattern is linked to our walking pattern (and thus back to the essential function and form of our design: our upright stance and bipedal locomotion). This Cross Lateral Pattern is also linked to other ‘crossing the midline activities’ such as the corpus collosum bisecting the right and left sides of our brain…

Spinal design

There is a synergistic relationship of the spines parts which we can experience in several ways.

One way is accessing the Rhythmic interplay between Skull and Sacrum. This is what WholeMovement identifies as the Occipital/Sacral Rhythm. WholeMovement’s perspective of LBMS includes the Occipital/Sacral Rhythm as one of the 3 identified BF Rhythms – the other 2 are the Gleno-Humeral Rhythm and the Ilio-Femoral. ( I can talk about these in another context!) This is NOT the same rhythm as addressed in the Craniosacral Therapy – although of course may be linked to this work. In the Heel Rock action the spinal curves of the lumbar and cervical sections have a reciprocal, inverse response as the wave like action travels through the torso along the Axis of Length.

WM defines Rhythms as: foundational actions expressing the Mobile/Stable, limb-core proportional relationships. (NB The spine in humans serves as both “limb” and “core” – core as the central midline and the container of the spinal cord content, but also because of the two ends, head and tail, considered in another sense as limbs (2 of the 6 limbs we identify in core limb relationships.)

So in LBMS and more specifically the Bartenieff Fundamental aspect of the system, “Heel Rock” is directly linked to these concepts of BF:

  • PrincipleAxis of Length (one of the BF Principles as explicated by WholeMovement)
  • Rhythm – Occipital/Sacral (one of 3 BF Rhythms that WM identifies)
  • Connection – Head-Tail
  • Pattern of Body Organization – Spinal

In LBMS all the BESS Components are connected so now let’s considering Heel Rocks in relation to all BESS Components

Heel Rock Link to Shape Component

Shape in Heel Rock can be addressed through the Convex/Concave relationship of the spinal curves and foundational spinal actions of our developmental progression and foundational postural actions. The Convex/Concave aspect of Shape, is a foundation of the Body Space intersection. It can also be viewed as the basis of our patterns of Basic Body Actions in postural Condensing and Expanding (Body Component) and the explication of the 3 dimensions of Space (Space Component). The length of our spine creating up-down, while dividing us bilaterally and creating side-sidedness and in the action of spinal flexion/extension exposing or protecting our “front” and “back” (anterior/posterior) surfaces, is the foundation of our relationship to the world. Remember that the Shape Component is, in essence, the Body Space relationship. So the 3 dimensions of Space as we define them come from the experience of relationship of our form’s design – in its function and expression in the environment.

Heel Rock Link to Basic 6

The link to the Basic 6 is in that it supports each of these actions as the Axis of Length is a support for all these actions. In addition, these actions can be also experienced by adding the “rock” into the Basic 6 actions themselves, and by bringing the foundational spinal action more dramatically into the awareness of the mover and supporting an emphasis on mobilization.

Heel Rock Link to Effort

The Heel Rock sets the stage for Effort to emerge as it activates foundational Flowsensing and Weightsensing as precursors to Effort. The Heel Rock actions also sets the stage for time expression, due to its rhythmic nature.

Heel Rock Link to the Space Component

Access to Space starts from the expression of the Inner Space of the Body and directing the internal flow through the Innersphere. This then can be the beginning in defining our access to the Space of our Kinesphere in preparation to engage with the world around us.  OF interest perhaps for some of you if we analyze the Space of the Heel Rock action it can be best understood as the Space of the Dodecahedral Sagittal Plan and not the Sagittal Plan that we associate with the Icosahedron. There is, as you may know, a dual relationship between the 2 forms – Dodecahedron and the Icosahedron. This relationship is something that in the WM approach we are beginning to explicate more fully in addressing the Body Space relationship of Space Harmony and the human form.