Today we had our weekly technique class taught by Liz. We are still concentrating on and developing the Bartenieff Fundamentals. In particular today we focused on yield and push.
We began by lying in the foetal position and once settled Liz asked us to suck our thumbs. I felt comfortable. Sucking my thumb is not strange for me as I still do it, even though I am 20! I do it when I am tired or comfortable. Maybe I should grow out of this habit? We had to think of the pathway from the mouth to the anus. Peggy Hackney believed that the digestive system plays a great part in the way we move. An improvisation came from this sensation. 
We moved onto the material we have slowing been developing throughout the weeks using the fundamentals. The floor exercise really allowed me to feel the movement initiating from my tail. My tail yields my head in order to move smoothly around the space. This exercise just eased us in to the sense of yielding and pushing. I really feel I am starting to physically feel that I am applying the fundamentals more and more. I really felt myself yielding and pushing when performing the moving material in the centre of the space. The movement feels more pleasant to perform. I am also thinking about the previous fundamentals we have practiced especially breath. The only thing noticed which I need to correct was that I need to be aware if I am either standing in parallel or turned out, not in between.I watched a video that used some ideas from Body Mind Centring focussing on yielding, pushing, reaching and puling. It gave me an insight on how others move in the way that I am learning to.
I have been advised to think about the fundamentals on a daily basis: getting out of bed, walking and sitting etc. In Peggy Hackney’s book Making Connections: Total Body Integration Through Bartenieff Fundamentals”, Laban says “to pay more attention to human movement- bodily and mentally- which is obviously at the basis of all human activity.” I feel that the fundamentals are not to just applied to dance but to every day activities. I imagine the fundamentals may make daily movement easier.
I was browsing the internet and came along Katelin Carter’s blog. It was interesting to read her views on yielding and pushing.
“Fundamentals remain a constant in dance. Yield and push. Reach and pull. One has to precede the other. You have to yield before you can push. In dance, it is a process of leaning into the ground. Then there is life. You need to be grounded before you can push. If there is no ground, no foundation, there is nothing to reach and pull to. This creates patterns. One needs to know them and to be able to see them. Once this is done, the pattern relates to life, life relates to dance, dance is understood and your life is put into your dance. You breathe it and you connect. The two play hand in hand- this art, turning into an outlet to create and overcome, an outlet to live and be free”Hackney. P (1998) Making Connections: Total Body Integration Through Bartenieff Fundamentals
Wynn, K and Lawrence, M (2001) The Anatomy Coloring Book
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