Vertebral Column: Head-tail connectivity

So today I sat out and watched the class. My ankle this morning has been so tender I could not dance on it. I definitely pushed myself a bit too far in the previous classes this week. I was annoyed that I couldn’t physical dance today, however it was very interesting to sit down an watch a class as I have not don’t this before! We continued to concentrate of the Bartenieff fundamentals. The sequence of the fundamentals are (again to remind myself) as follows:

• Breath
• Core distal connectivity
• Head- tail connectivity
• Upper and lower connectivity
• Body-half connectivity
• Cross-lateral connectivity

Today’s class was concentrating on head- tail connectivity, in technical terms from the neck flexors to the coccyx. The spine is there to support the body and the framework but it is also there to allow movement. Peggy Hackney stated “the spine is not a back bone” it is more internal and fundamental part of the body rather than a hard brittle bone that most people associate bones with. It is alive and a healthy spine is not straight but has curves and movement.

The first task of the class was to partner up and one partner lie down on our backs being completely relaxed. I took part in this as it didn’t involve putting pressure on my ankle.  Lying down you had to allow yourself to give your partner all the weight of your head in their hands. As my partner moved my head for side to side, up and down I found it increasingly more difficult for her to take my weight. In addition, we did the same exercise but with the pelvis. Allowing my pelvis to be easy and relaxed was less demanding than my head. 

I sat aside as Liz asked the other dancers to improvise and move using the head to initiate the movement, then the tail, then both the head and the tail together as if they were in conversation. I found this really interesting to watch as the quality of movement being produced was satisfying to watch. I started to think about my solo in another module and feel this task would be very beneficial to my choreographic process. I intend to ask my dancer to improvise the way she did in this class as I feel material that I could use in my solo would be the product of it. Whilst watching the dancers carry out this task, I could really see that they were thinking the way their spines were moving. I also noticed that a few of them had tension in their necks. I feel this would apply to me also. They just needed to relax just a little more.

The class moved onto the set movement material. The fundamentals from the 3 weeks were taken into consideration: breath, core distal connectivity and head- tail connectivity. I could see that the dancers were really using the fundamentals. The movement quality has progressively improved from week one. This was very noticeable from an outside view! 

 

I am going to take the rest of the week easy in order to give my ankle a break! It was a very interesting class to watch, however next week I without a doubt will be taking part!

Hackney. P (1998) Making Connections: Total Body Integration Through Bartenieff Fundamentals

Wynn, K and Lawrence, M (2001) The Anatomy Coloring Book