De-Centering

How can one be authentic in one’s movement explorations, responding to internal impulses, staying present to one’s stories whilst retaining a state of objectivity? De-centering from our own emotions with sensitivity and awareness can enable the mover to become more fully present to one’s bodily sensations, falling into the space of the unknown. In such a space, magic happens as the body finds new pathways from the emotional subtext of the mover, particularly when experiencing a cathartic release. De-centering as a movement resource also helps us to be in a real experience when multi-narratives and truths exist. Determining how to live and move with ourselves in these multi-narratives becomes a key question in movement therapy. Can I express my happiness with the knowledge that it has difficulty emerging through the body? How can I track this process of getting it out? For tracking becomes a important tool here in shaping the development of the movement and releasing the emotion that lay beneath it.
De-centering also enables the mover to witness her / his own material with fresh eyes, gathering further resources to transcend beyond the movement pattern and open the body vocabulary, enabling one to become more embodied. My own de-centering experience materialized today as I experienced a thread of multi narratives whilst working with a movement exploration between the arms and pelvis. Working with the floor, my arms making large and forceful spiraling movements  allowed me to travel through space in a way that I didn’t believe possible for my body. What started as a fervent action simmered gently into slow, sustained movements, inviting me into a space of quietness. As the fight between the left and right and the pelvis and arms dissipated, I felt a sense of acceptance and surrender to my body and my multi narratives - my belief patterns circling through and out of me and my energy carrying me forwards…

Puppet on my Strings...

Working with the Pelvis this week threw up some unexpected feelings and emotions. Nervously anticipating the study of this body part, I had geared myself up for a flooding of emotion in this somewhat ‘tender’ spot, yet, what has materialized is a shift in feeling and perspective from earlier movement practices utilizing the pelvis. Working with subtle tilting movements of the pelvis, we explored the range and releasing techniques of the Psoas muscle that crosses the pelvis and attaches to the Femur. What became evident was the range of movement that the pelvis has and how it connects to and affects the mobility of the entire body.  Located in the middle ground between the expression of the upper body and the directional focus of the lower body, the pelvis acts as a kind of container for emotions and feelings of ‘holding on’ or ‘gripping’.  Affirming the somatic viewpoint that the catalyst for change in one’s life is through the body, we explored the full range of the pelvis through a series of hour long scores. Number one: using the pelvis to move through space, paying attention to which movements are repeated and how the rest of the body responds to such movement. Working in groups we wrote aesthetic responses to each mover, sculpting a direct response to how we were affected on three different levels; seeing, feeling and imagining. This is an incredible effective and potent way of delving deep into the material, training one to become highly sensitive and trusting to an immediate response. As one group member wrote of my pelvis work:

                                Twisted lady carefully rocking and rolling

                                her body into reddish blooming...