"I Become differenciated
. . .I am an individual with my own spine
I ground myself in my own sphere through yielding and pushing
. . .I reach and pull, giving attention nto my outer environment
. . .I follow my curiosity and my imagination
. . .enjoying my supportive, flexible, playful, sensuous spine.
. . . All things seem possible."
Hackney, P, 1998. Making connections. 2nd ed. London: Routledge
Hackney begins her chapter on head-tail connectivity, the third stage of the Bartneiff Fundamentals, with this short paragraph which I found a really interesting description of how the spine is more than just a part of the skeleton but a connection to ourselves. The relationship we all have with our spineis individual to us all and it has the ability to not only help us move but become very much reflective to attributes of our personalities contributing to our body language and therefore affecting how others approach us and ulimately how we approach lifes challenges. Hackney goes on to describe how the differences in the spine reflect different traits in ourselves such as curving of the cervical spine forwards can express sadness and laziness, someone whos spine is naturally vertical can be seen as being uptight, tucking under of the lumbar spine is representative of the saying "leaving with their tail between their legs" which means some is embarassed or ashamed of somthing while the opposite of this by someone lifting their lubar spine is seen as fliratious and available. These comparisons seemed fascinating as these are all signs that we subconciously pick up everyday but never think of how we actually read into the emotions of the person, I have never conciously thought before "that persons lumbar spine is lifted, they must be flirtatious" I would have just come to the conclusion that they were flirtatious, now I am going to try and look out for the physical attributes contributing to a personas aura.
On a personal level I can take this on board by considering how I present myself through the use of my spine, as I wrote about in my last blog presentation is key in performance and presenting yourself as being self assured is paramount in the audition process before going on stage, by lifting the cervical spine slightly this is thought to give an impression of confidence. I think by pretending these actions at first this has an effect on your own mood and personality, surely if you pretend for long enough you can convince yourself? Taking a positive approach to a class can open up your movement and I find that I can actually achieve more than if I take a negative approach to a sequence sometimes I can find it hard to switch between these modes of thinking so I am going to start with my spine next time I feel negative, work from the inside of my body to bring postivity out.
In class today we began exploring Hackneys Yield and push patterning which is a method of sending attention inward by grounding yourself by connecting into the whatever contact you have with the floor before actively creating separation as you push out of the movement. It is more about the sensation you feel while executing movement which create subtle changes in quality. "Yield and push patterns also provide the power to "get away," to separate self from other, to establish a personal kinesphere, to become an individual." Hackney, P, 1998. Making connections. 2nd ed. London: Routledge. p90. It is about the movement of the individual and how you can take ownership of your body to create movement that is unique to yourself not in appearance but in sensation within the body.
We practiced Hackneys yield and push pattern from the head and tail, this is a great excercise for becoming in tune with your own body by taking the time to identify with your own spine picking out areas that feel more or less flexible han others, I found that moving through the lumber spine was more difficult for me and initiating from this place in a curled posistion felt unusual as it allowed you to feel each vertebrae engage as it works from the tail up to the head, some times it's easy to take for granted how many vertabrae we have in the spine and how much range of movement we have to explore, this class was an eye opener to the capability of the spine and how much it can curve and twist through movement but still mantain this constant support. In this exercise the head was poured into the floor as we moved through the spine but as well as focusing on the spine it was interesting to feel the weight of the head moving through the floor, pulling the body over but also the shape of the head. You could feel the different bumps and dents as you moved through the floor, reitterating Hackneys point of individuality, the front of our skull is very different to anyone elses in terms of our facial features but the part of our heads that you do notsee often is also individual. Could you recognise someone from the back of their head?
