BodySchool 2005 diary

In the summer of 2005 I offered as the first ever BodySchool a one-week retreat workshop in Mutasenkylä near Anttola in the centre of Finland. It is a typical Finnish village with houses thinly spread out over 5km - not many people around - surrounded by beautiful countryside next one of the largest lakes in Finland.

Our studio was the Vanhatupa – the old village community house which has been renovated in the traditional style by Jukka Ristolainen and Saila Reiniö, the organisational hosts who took part in the workshop.

The studio was 6m x 8m - cosy but large enough – there was also a flat grassy area just outside surrounded by outbuildings. And, of course, there was the forest.

We were nine all together, living 10 mins walk from the studio in the grounds of a summer cottage on the lakeside where there are five “Aitta”, basic traditional Finnish windowless wooden chalets with 2-3 single beds in each.

It was a very special place.

Workshop Description:

The forms that we worked with were the Feldenkrais Method, Experiential Anatomy and Authentic Movement together with some simple writing exercises. My intention was to weave these forms together around the central themes of “arriving into physical sensation” and “sourcing our inner physical wisdom to act in life”.

Doing this work in a retreat-style environment that is close to nature and away from daily life enabled us to go deeper into the work more quickly without sacrificing quality or a feeling of safety. My hope was that people would leave feeling relaxed and recuperated, empowered and inspired to access this inner physical wisdom to improve the quality of their daily life - the feedback I got after was very positive.

Below you'll find some notes I made in my diary that I made during the re workshop. The are brief and are just reminders for me of the topics that we covered together with thoughts that occurred to me while teaching. However I thought that by sharing them in this form in combination with some of the pictures would give some idea of what to expect on future BodySchool retreat workshops .

day one

Circle with names and places – discussion of how we perceive earth

Walking and standing

Blanket alongside the spine – the magic roller part 1 (Feldenkrais Awareness Through Movement ATM class – gentle up-down oscillations on a soft uneven surface)

Standing between heaven and earth – awareness of above and below

The way the Chinese word for human is written can also be understood as “between heaven and earth” – in a way to stand is to practice being human. When practicing the stand (from CI) I like to feel the weight and support passing down and up through my bones. I also like to imagine the forces passing through some imaginary centre axis. This image opens me to connect beyond myself, up to heaven and down into the earth. I like to connect beyond. For many years I used somatic work to connect inwardly, now I get more and more interested in how I connect outwardly. It seems to me that wherever there is life in this universe, there will also be gravity (given the life cannot exist in the vacuum of space). Someone once told me of a bumper sticker that went like this: “Gravity isn’t just a good idea. It’s the law!”

Pouring weight and building the ground - inside

Pouring weight and building ground – outside - on grass, rock, wood, sand, gravel

Something I’ve noticed is how when I’m supported by different surfaces my whole self takes on something of the quality of that surface. Think of dancing on concrete floors vs. sprung wooden ones. And then grass. I’m training myself to get more and more sensitive to this.

lunch

discussion of the “felt sense”

experiential anatomy of the feet part 1 - exploring a partners foot - looking for the bones and the articulations – meeting what’s their with curiosity

authentic movement as group with me witnessing

Authentic Movement as moving from the felt sense. I like to introduce it to a new group with a focus on moving and leave the idea of witnessing for later.

extra task - on the walk home - go barefoot - pause somewhere - settle into/move from the felt sense

When we stand and walk, and also when we sit on a chair, we connect to the earth through our feet. Bringing awareness to the feet for me softens my whole self. The more I feel in my feet the more I feel of myself. The more my feet feel the earth, the more I feel the air. I love to go barefoot. To remember the earth. After a few days I can walk on most surfaces without discomfort. Like 24hr free reflexology.

In a recent article in the Journal of Archaeological Science, physical anthropologist Erik Trinkaus proposed that humans first started using shoes some 40,000 and 26,000 years ago. His study of early human feet bones revealed that human small toes became weaker during this time. He attributes this anatomical change to the invention of rugged shoes that reduced our need for strong, flexible toes to grip and balance.

day two

turning around central axis – first we did a Feldenkrais ATM class around this theme then explored it in standing

experiential anatomy of the feet part 2 – landing/steering foot and take-off/pushing foot – having a look at the anatomy books and a skeletal foot – bringing some knowledge to support our curiosity

outside - one partner with closed eyes who is paying attention to their feet is lead by another to explore different surfaces, listening to how their whole self is affected by the surface the stand on

lunch

developmental sequence from single cell to fish

standing articulating the spine - introduction to three planes and directional fields of attention

For me, the basic orientation to the world is inwards and outwards –this connects to breath, eating and digestion. Next, there’s gravity which gives us up and down – most commonly we align our spines to that (when awake and not dancing contact!). We can also bend like a fish to the two sides. And we have our soft belly in front that we like to alternately like to protect and expose by folding and unfolding ourselves. And we like to turn around our imaginary virtual axis, to the left and to the right.

In the Feldenkrais Method, directions are always given relative to ourselves as we stand, no matter what the position: so if you are lying on you back on the ground, above the head means somewhere on the floor above your head and down is in the direction of the feet. Much of the time this is accepted by students without any confusion. It’s like we inhabit two worlds: one is a world in relation to us, a self centred world, and the other is a world in relation to the earth with its up and down, toward and away from the centre of the earth, and the points on the compass.

Some time ago I noticed that when I stood up after an ATM class, I’d often experience the world around me differently. For example, after a one-sided class I’d feel much more aware of what was on one side of me than the other; or maybe another class would leave me with more awareness directed out front or back. I call this directional attention.

authentic movement - split group - silent witnessing

I encourage people to witness themselves witnessing. I like the model: I see, I imagine, that makes me feel. Many years ago, before I had met the form, a journalist friend told me a story he’d edited for a nursing journal. A woman in some institution for mentally disturbed patients had a habit of banging the the table she was sitting at and waving her fists in the air. She was regarded as violent and was give heavy medication to calm her down. A new nurse arrived and developed a special interest in her case. He researched her background more thoroughly and discovered that she used to work in a bakery. She was kneading imaginary bread!

day three

blanket ATMs - magic roller – lying on the back – rolled blanket under the neck, the upper back, and the pelvis – encouraging the back to soften to improve the ability to fold and unfold the whole self in the saggital plane

cycle of energy

An exercise that I borrowed from Bill Palmer, creator of Movement Shiatsu. First there’s the idea that the three planes of movement are broadly related to body part and function. The legs tend to move us along a sagittal plane from A to B; the arms tend to move in the vertical plane and are about relating to each other and our environment; and the head and torso tend to turn around their axis, they are the parts of ourselves which are essential to life, they are our home, we don’t actually move anywhere when we turn through our horizontal plane.

The cycle of energy exercise is this: to see something of interest and walk toward it; we you arrive you reach out to touch it, relate to it, enter into a relationship with it; and when you feel your interest drop, then you close your eyes and sink to the ground; when you feel your desire to rest has been satisfied, you open your eyes, sit up and look around for something that catches your interest: you get to your feet and walk towards it ... and on it goes.

What’s interesting for me is that, once you’ve gone through the cycle a few times, to learn it, people seems quite naturally to settle into a rhythm that is authentic for them. Classic variations I’ve witnessed are that: some people choose things far away and spend more time walking, they seem to like the journey; some people spend a long time relating to a particular thing, then when their interest fades, they quite quickly cycle back to something else which attracts their attention; and others sleep restfully.

lunch

authentic movement in partners

When I went to the SNDO in Amsterdam, I also attended an Authentic Movement class once a week outside the school. When I look back, if I could only have one thing from my time in Amsterdam then that would be it. I think if everyone in the world had a little time each week to received the total non-judgemental attention of another then world peace might be a reality

day four

walk through forest to our studio

frogs legs ATM – connecting the movement of the feet through the hip joints to the spine and the whole self

inside – standing and walking– directional fields of attention

outside – standing and walking – directional fields of attention

A movement joke – see that tree over there? I bet you that, without even breaking into a sweat, I can move it over there (I gesture behind me) – I turn aound 180 degrees (you can also do this with whole countries!

lunch

experiential anatomy of the feet part 3 – linking the bones of the feet to the lower legs – exploring the movements of balance through the feet and lower legs

walked home in partners - holding hands - one eyes open - one eyes closed - attention to the feet - exchanging roles by squeezing hands

day five

Flying ATM – explores the synergy between extension in the fingers and wrist with to full body extension

awareness in hands – first bringing sensation to hands – touching things in the studio to feed the hands with sensation – focus is on self – then using sensation as a window to the world outside – focus on that which is not self

same outside – playing between directing our attention inwards to our selves, letting the touch in, and outwards directing our attention outwards to what we touch

saying goodbye to studio - through touch acknowledging its physicality – turning away from it and putting it behind us

walking home exploring through touch what interests us

lunch

boat to island

arriving at base camp – stand – connecting with heaven and earth

cycle of energy across island

gathering back at base

in partners - taking partner to a place you found in your solo journey - sitting, moving or telling a story there - being witnessed - talking - changing roles

alone again with awareness of group

This was the only session we worked purely outside. The island was a natural container, allowing us to wander off unhindered, except by its rocky edges. We went barefoot. It’s hard to put the sensations in words.