Movement is AKinesthetic

Teaching rather than treating ; I sit below where I

stand ; High on the psoas, low on the crura ; Let

go of the spine, to let go of the heels ; Speaking in

the language of imagery ; Let your legs go as high

as your tail can remain long ; Pupils rather than pa-

tients ; Deepen the spaces between the vertebrae

; Each one — teach one ; Ideas need to ripen ;

Lessons rather than treatments ; The teachers have

the best of this ; Don’t fold the non-folding half ;

Hold your bones loosely ; Take from the past, to un-

derstand the present, and prepare for the future ;

Prevention while the matter is small ; Movement is

like a well spring ; You don’t hold anything, every-

thing is in flux ;

First you think

it, then you see

it, then you for-

get it, and then

it happens ;

Teaching crumbs

of knowledge ;

Let go of the

o ld ; How can

a person be-

come physically

educated, unless

they know where

their bones are?

; Teach good

judgment in the

use of the body

; You can’t get

rhythm into the lesson if it is too conscious ; People

can only take in a l itt le at a time ; My body is my

lab and I don’t have to walk to it or pay rent ; The

object of the work is to teach kinesthetic awareness

; Scholarship in the science of movement can do

much, but imagination and perception can do more

; Images wear out very quickly ; With study, the

anatomy picture opens up and becomes an active

representation helping you to know the body better

; The rhythm of slow movement releases muscles

to make new patterns ; Touch can be exploited

toward others if used unwisely. It needs to be kept

impersonal ; We can grow old or we can grow up,

the choice is ours to make ; The reader should be

able to f ind himself in what is written or drawn ;

Bone angles seem to be more vivid to the imagina-

tion in shift ing the balance which affects the

muscles ; No matter where you are … gravity is

always passing through you. It takes a straight path

to the center of the earth. Our main task is to align

the body with this direct path of gravity ;

The Life andWorksof Barbara Clark

AKinestheticLegacy

A K

INEST

HET

ICLEG

AC

YThe Life and W

orks of Barbara ClarkMATT

REV

ISED ED

ITIO

N

ISBN 1-881914-25-9

A Kinesthetic LegacyThe Life and Works of Barbara Clark

REVISED EDITION

By Pamela Matt

A Kinesthetic Legacy presents the biography and writings of Barbara Clark, who devoted herlife to the preservation and refinement of Mabelelsworth todd’s educational system.PART ONE: DO THOU THY WORK recountsClark’s biography beginning with the events thatled to her study with todd in the 1920s. thechapters proceed through the story of heradaptation of todd’s method for infants and young children, and a discussion of her career as a teacher of “mind-body integration” forperforming artists. PART TWO: WRITINGS ON MIND-BODYINTEGRATION presents the teachers’ guides andbody alignment manuals that Clark created,including the recently discovered two-yearcurriculum she developed for her student andréBernard in the 1950s. this edition includes a new Index, relating Clark’s lessons to todd’seducational theory, and enhanced colorreproductions of the anatomical plates that served as the cornerstones of her teaching.

About the Author

pamela Matt was a graduate student indance when she met Barbara Clark in 1971.as Clark’s assistant in the last decade of herlife, Matt facilitated the publication of herthird body alignment manual, assembledher unpublished writings, and organized hernotes on the history of Mabel todd’s“work.” When Clark passed away in 1982,Matt became the custodian of her papers.

Matt shared her interpretation of Clark’sapproach with dancers thoughout hertwenty-five-year teaching career in theDepartment of Dance at arizona StateUniversity. In 2005, she launchedwww.ideokinesis.com, as an onlineintroduction to the discipline Mabel toddcreated. Currently, she directs the thinkingBody Institute (https://thinkingbody.org),which aims to preserve historical materialsrelated to todd’s educational premise,promote global exchange, and advanceunderstanding of the field.

FOOT AWARENESS

In a side view, the foot is seen as hollowedout in the center, like the hand.

Picture of foot – Side View

Barbara Clark and Pamela Matt – 1973

Spal

teho

lz-S

pann

er

By Pamela Matt

REVISED EDITION9 781881 914259

90000>ISBN 978-1-881914-25-9

Copyrighted Material


TABLE OF CONTENTS

Preface and Acknowledgments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . iv

PART ONE: DO THOU THY WORK . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1Introduction to Part One . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3The Early Years . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11The Children’s Teaching . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27Drawing, Dance and New York . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43Writing in Pictures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57Epilogue . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .79Appendix A: Lesson Notes from Todd’s Boston Studio . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83Appendix B: Tom McEvoy Lessons . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95Appendix C: Structural Hygiene for the Preschool Child . . . . . . . . . . . 101Appendix D: Posture Plays . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103Notes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 122References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125

PART TWO: WRITINGS ON MIND-BODY INTEGRATION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 127Introduction to Part Two . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129Technique for Movement Lessons . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 139Drama Tree Lessons . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 183The Children’s Book . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 263Let’s Enjoy Sitting – Standing – Walking . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 277How To Live In Your Axis – Your Vertical Line . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 311Body Proportion Needs Depth . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 339The Body Is Round – Use All the Radii . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 377Index for Part Two . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 415



PREFACE AND ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

A Kinesthetic Legacy: The Life and Works of Barbara Clark is a guide to the person-al and professional journey of a largely unrecognized pioneer of somatic movementeducation. Miss Clark’s career represents a vital connection between the philosophyand methods developed by her teacher, Mabel Elsworth Todd at the beginning ofthe twentieth century, and the revolutionary contributions of her students to danceeducation in the postmodern era.

PART ONE: DO THOU THY WORK, features four significant stages inBarbara Clark’s biography. The Introduction to Part One recounts the story of myrelationship with Miss Clark in the 1970s, which informed the development of thecontent of the chapters. Clark also composed many vignettes on noteworthy aspectsof her personal history and career as a teacher throughout her life. She frequentlyrepeated those stories when we were together, and her notes and commentaryalways included memorable phrases that painted colorful pictures of her past.These personal expressions became central components of the biography, allowingher voice to be present throughout the story of her life. Unfortunately, it wasimpossible to supply proper bibliographic citations for Clark’s quotations becauseeven her written materials were assembled informally without attention to dates,locations, or the names of her sources. Thus, unless otherwise noted, the readershould assume that all quoted material attributed to Miss Clark was gathered fromher voluminous personal papers or remembered from our many conversationsbetween 1971 and 1977.

PART TWO: WRITINGS ON MIND-BODY INTEGRATION presents the previous-ly published and unpublished monographs that Miss Clark created to preserve herunique interpretation of Todd’s “work.” The Introduction to Part Two describesdevelopments that shaped the updated version of her writings, including the additionof a recently discovered two-year curriculum for teachers she created in the late1950s. In editing this curriculum, I used the procedures for making changes to heroriginal manuscripts that I developed when assisting her as an editor in the 1970s. Icorrected grammar and clarified the instructions she wrote while retaining theunique wording of the original descriptions of her imagery and other crucial ele-ments of her teaching style. In the interest of preserving the readability of herlessons, I did not bring my alterations of her original manuscripts to the reader’sattention with explanatory notes. Readers who would like to view the unedited ver-sions of Clark’s writings will find them in her digital archive, which is associatedwith the website https://thinkingbody.org. Finally, to further the understanding ofthe relationship between Miss Clark’s educational materials and her teacher’sapproach, I added a content-based index, correlating her lessons with elements ofMabel Todd’s theory.



TheEarlyYears



A LETTER WRITTEN ON THE EVENT OF Barbara Clark’s birth in 1889, included thisverse:

Do thou thy workIt shall succeedIn thine or in another’s dayAnd if thou fail the victor’s meadThou shalt receive the toiler’s pay.

Barbara often said this poem was strangely appropriate to the events of her life.

I was born in Vermont, of parents whose forebearers had lived there sincethe early beginnings of the state. Independence was woven into the warpof my being. My father was Marion Wright Clark, a prominent dairyfarmer, and my mother was Mary Elisa Tracy. We lived with my grand-mother, and my aunts and uncles were always coming and going. I don’tthink of myself as ‘I’ or ‘me.’ I am a product of those people. They putthemselves into me. They loved me, taught me, showed me how to dothings on my own.

When Barbara spoke of her childhood, she referred to herself as “the weak-est of seven children.” From this vantage point, it seems likely that some of thefrailty she remembered was the result of a slight neurological impairment. Initially,Barbara’s parents worried because she was slow to develop. As an infant, she“hopped like a bunny” rather than moving through the usual stages of rolling andcrawling. The family agonized over Barbara’s habit of sucking her tongue, whichcontinued until the age of eight. Barbara also remembered being hypersensitiveto touch as a child. The feeling of a cat rubbing against her legs, an experiencewhich most children find quite pleasurable, was intolerable for her. The rough andtumble play enjoyed so freely by her siblings frightened and bewildered Barbara.Knowing, even at four years of age, that she was somehow different from herbrothers and sisters, Barbara asked her mother, “What makes Philena [a sister]wiggle so much? Mother’s smile as she looked at me seemed to say, ‘I wish youwiggled more.’”

At five years of age, Barbara contracted rheumatic fever. Her joints were soswollen and painful that she was unable to walk for several weeks. At the age ofeight, another illness occurred, which temporarily paralyzed the muscles on the rightside of her body. This episode, which doctors later concluded was a mild case ofpolio, rendered her right leg somewhat shorter than the left. Her coordination wasaffected, and it was apparent to the family that the illness diminished her self-confi-dence. Even the simple task of standing on one leg to put on a pair of pants wasphysically challenging. Keeping up with her brothers and sisters as they worked onthe farm was almost impossible. Her occasional efforts to join the pace of their playmust have been very awkward. Sensing Barbara’s self-consciousness, her siblingsteased and humiliated her. Although she slowly regained normal function in most

12 PART ONE: DO THOU THY WORK



ways, the tendency to pronate and a painful hammertoe persisted into adulthood astroublesome reminders of her childhood afflictions.

Barbara turned to the adults of the family for acceptance and understanding,and they searched for ways of helping her to adapt and improve. Her grandmotherwas especially concerned.

I slept with my grandmother and she would straighten me out in bed atnight, as she was evidently not satisfied with my position. She was veryrelaxed, a deep breather, and I was very tense.

Barbara’s mother was also “interested in teaching me how to conserve my strength,to not attempt too much, to keep my aspirations within my performance level.” Herfather, however, “gave me the opposite slant—to fix my sights as high as I couldreach and then get there some way.” Other relatives offered commentary, as rela-tives will do, which sometimes discouraged Barbara, but also challenged her toimprove. “I can remember Aunt Flora saying, ‘That child will never be able to doanything but wash and wipe silver.’”

Barbara enjoyed the companionship of her elders, making social calls withher mother and grandmother, taking trips to town with her father to conduct thebusiness of the family farm. As she grew older, her parents relied on Barbara tomanage the activities of the younger children. Taking on the role of the “mostgrown-up” of the youngsters, Barbara mimicked mature behavior, espousing thetraditional New England values which would sustain her for the rest of her life.

My parents were extremely practical, and they also had lofty ideals whichthey reached inch by inch. They were not impressed by money or theaccent on get-rich-quick success. There was a lot of teamwork in the fam-ily, making beds, clearing the table and doing dishes, wiping them, andputting them in cupboards. My family was like what was usual inVermont; they only spoke when there was something valuable to say andthere were long silences. They liked to use the quotable sayings from theold English and Ben Franklin like, ‘better to be ready and not go than togo and not be ready,’ or ‘a stitch in time saves nine.’ They were peoplewith common sense.

Barbara’s particular interest in the accounts of the farm kept by her fatherled to her appointment as his secretary. She took pride in this position, enjoyingthe envy of her brothers, who must have also desired responsibility in matters ofimportance on the farm. Barbara loved working closely with her father, and likehim, she became quite serious and a great reader.

I read all that came into the house. I played with the imagery. I wasalways identifying myself with a character in a book I was reading. TheDutch boy with his hand in the dike made a terrific image for me.Prevention, while the matter is small.

The Early Years 13



In 1906, Todd enrolled in the Emerson College of Oratory, intending tobecome a teacher of voice. Through her study there, Todd recognized that problemswith the vocal apparatus in singing and public speaking were the result of poorhabits of posture and general coordination. As she prepared herself to become ateacher of voice and oratory, she became interested in the problems of the worst stu-dents and how their skeletal alignment and basic movement patterning might beimproved.

It was apparent to Todd that a new concept of posture was needed, not onlyfor those individuals practicing oratory but for the public at large. The prevalentview was influenced more by notions of morality than by science. The Victorianidea of associating rigid verticality with the uprightness of one’s spirit was stillprevalent. Physical education reinforced this concept of posture during exerciseclasses that were conducted much like military drills. The liberal thinking of thetwenties did generate a new fashionable body image which proclaimed freedomfrom the Victorian physical concept. Unfortunately, it was only its opposite, anequally self-conscious positioning into a coy, slightly suggestive slouch. As Toddlearned to apply principles of engineering and mechanics to the analysis of postureand movement, she concluded that the condition of mechanical balance of the skele-tal structure, “implies freedom from strains, absence from stress, a readiness foraction, a mobility—the opposite of fixity.”7 Her emphasis on finding “balance”rather than “imposing upon our bodies a fixed position of any part, which we feel tobe the ‘right,’ ‘correct,’ or ‘ideal’ one,” 8 was unusual and separated Todd’s from themost common concepts of ideal posture. Todd argued for a vastly different posturalpremise in which, as she described for Barbara, “you don’t hold anything, every-thing is in flux.”

In discovering a finely tuned, dynamic balance of the structure, one wouldalso be returning to what Todd considered to be a more natural use of the body. Thisaspect of Todd’s approach was very compelling for Barbara. Todd confirmed thatnature provided excellent imagery for movement. Further, she insisted it was criticalto maintain awareness of natural rhythms, as the faster pace of industrialized life inthe twenties threatened to confuse the kinesthetic sense. About this, Barbara wrote:

Mabel Elsworth Todd helped to develop and keep alive the idea that thehuman body is a vertebrate and needs to follow through on its inheritance.The individual was not being given the education necessary in making thechange from the horse-and-buggy era to the more mechanical one.Education for more scientifically designed equipment zoomed ahead, but itdid not catch on too readily to what effect unnatural movement or the lackof movement might have upon the human structure. For instance, youcould go farther and do more in a shorter period of time. It became morefun to ride than to walk. Breathing became shorter and more rapid. Thediaphragm and heart began to get lazy as the legs went on strike. Visionhad to jump fast to observe what was passing before it, instead of movingmore slowly from one object to another.

The Early Years 19



TheChildren’sTeaching



Penciled notes in the margins of Physical Action Records found in Barbara’spapers disclose the facets of a child’s movement behavior, which gave her cause forconcern. Fast, jerky movement, excitability, and the habit of tensing the eyelids inrest indicated generalized neuromuscular tension. She associated shortened quadricepsmuscles with the inability to sit on the heels or squat fully to the floor in play. Tensehamstrings and calf muscles showed up in the tendency to walk on the toes or bouncerapidly up to the balls of the feet after heel strike. She worried that children who lostcontrol or seemed to “flop over” while rolling had not developed strong core muscu-lature. In crawling, “cross patterning,” or using the arms and legs alternately, indicatedfull maturation and confidence in that movement pattern. Barbara hoped to see equaluse of the right and left sides of the body in all of the child’s movements and neutral,rather than outwardly rotated, positioning of the arms and legs. Barbara was also sen-sitive to signs of immature balance, such as bracing the legs in upright positions bylocking the knee joints. Shoulder, arm, hand, or tongue tension as the child hopped orbalanced on one leg also showed that the child was struggling. Often, poor movementperformance was accompanied by extreme talkativeness, fearful or overly excited be-havior, which reinforced Barbara’s instincts about probable deficiencies in the child’shabits of coordination. As part of her role as the school nurse, Barbara took on the responsibility ofhelping the children with poor movement habits to improve. After consulting withtheir parents, Barbara arranged to provide table lessons to those children when theywere at school. The nursery school environment was quite different from the quiet,calm atmosphere of private homes, however, which presented a new set of challenges.

To help the nursery child to improve his movement is a matter that calls forthought and ingenuity. An exercise for the adult, who can think of the benefitto be derived from it, and therefore accepts it gladly, is one thing. But to theyoung child, without future vision, it is most likely to come as an impositionon his good nature and helplessness.

Barbara found that sustaining the interest of nursery school children in the table pro-cedures was particularly challenging. About this, she wrote:

The children of this age are so full of energy that their attention changes rap-idly from one thing to the next. Minute suggestions are all that succeed, butwith lots of repetition, they will stick.

To the child, lying down is very apt to mean a cessation of activity. The av-erage child hates to go to bed or to have a rest. To him, it means restrictionof movement, physically and mentally. Lying on the table for a lesson thenis a reminder of something unpleasant. For most children, it is necessary toform a new association with lying down before asking them to do it.

If the child has seen an older child on the table for a lesson, he will want toimitate him, and this is perhaps the most natural way of all.




Drawing,Dance andNew York



SOON AFTER THE SUCCESS OF the Tunnel Toy, Barbara’s career was interrupted whenthe wife of one of her brothers died in childbirth. Since marriage and having her ownfamily were no longer probable, Barbara took responsibility for the children. With fi-nancial help from her mother, she settled her new family into a tiny bungalow inWellesley, Massachusetts, and retreated from her career into domestic life. If this professional hiatus had to happen, it seemed to Barbara that it was at anideal time. Todd’s teaching at Columbia University was very successful and providedthe opportunity to formally describe her educational goals in The Balancing of Forcesin the Human Being, her syllabus for the course. In 1931, she was offered another uni-versity teaching position at the New School for Social Research. In 1934, followinga radio broadcast, Todd published an educational pamphlet for the public called FirstPrinciples of Body Balance. By the mid-1930s, she was hard at work writing a com-plete exposition of her ideas, which was eagerly anticipated by Barbara and all ofTodd’s studio teachers. When Todd published The Thinking Body in 1937, Barbara was very relieved.Although she was confident as a “teacher of body movement,” she was uncomfortableabout analyzing the work on an intellectual level. Barbara enjoyed reaching peoplethrough imagery and kinesthetic awareness. Explaining the process reminded her ofOberlin College, where scholarly preoccupations drained her energy and tried her pa-tience. Convinced that The Thinking Body thoroughly explained the rationale andmethod of the work, she celebrated the publication of Todd’s classic and became eagerto return to the teaching. In the mid-1940s, just when the children were old enough to need less of hersupervision, Barbara’s attention was drawn homeward again by the needs of her elderlymother. As the maiden sister and a registered nurse, her family expected Barbara tohandle the next major family crisis. Barbara tried to combine teaching with the careof her mother, but it became increasingly difficult. Her brothers and sisters were unableto understand Barbara’s need to remain involved with her career and mocked her ten-dency to overdo as a “teacher of relaxation.” For a time, Barbara attempted to keepeverything going. Gradually, it became evident that her mother would require morecare than she felt able to provide. With sadness, guilt, and the disapproval of most ofthe family, Barbara placed her mother in a nursing home. As her sixtieth birthday drewnear, Barbara was determined to rebuild her professional life. Barbara yearned to get back into the teaching. She also realized she lackedthe energy for working with nursery school children as she had in the past. Searchingfor a new direction, Barbara found the desire to study drawing was also uppermost inher mind. She had experimented with simple drawings as teaching aids while workingin the nursery schools. Barbara was a master of employing the senses of a child in theprocess of kinesthetic learning. As she explored various ways of presenting the im-agery, she found that touching the children, as she told them stories, focused their at-tention on the anatomical locations and internal movements that improved theiralignment. Her use of tactile procedures was limited when working with groups of




children rather than individuals, however. In her work with groups, Barbara waspleased to see how much kinesthetic information could be conveyed to the childrenthrough the simple drawings that she devised. Visual images of various kinds were shown in Todd’s studio to help the pupilsthink of the goals that were the focus of the table teaching. Usually, the pictures camefrom textbooks and depicted some aspect of mechanics or human anatomy. These il-lustrations, which were intended for study by students and professionals in those fields,contained much more information than Barbara needed or desired. Todd and theBoston studio teachers also used fanciful imagery, which was equally troublesome.About this dilemma, Barbara wrote:

Todd studied the science of movement so much that the image of the bodyin mechanical terms was very real to her. Such imagery was unreal and toocomplex for many. In the effort to simplify the imagery for the uninitiated,she and the other teachers made the imagery childish, almost laughable. Isaw the good in the approach but wanted to remake all the imagery. Youcan’t get rhythm into the lesson if it is too conscious. Miss Todd’s lessonswere too conscious, but that was the only way she knew how to do it.

By characterizing Todd’s imagery as “too conscious,” Barbara meant that awell-designed image should speak to kinesthesia on its own, with very little explana-tion. As Barbara ruminated over a new direction for herself in the teaching, she feltshe should take Todd’s imagery in this direction. Without knowing exactly how shewould accomplish it, the desire to learn to draw motivated Barbara to make a new startfor herself in the work. In 1949, Barbara sold her bungalow for $3,000 and moved to New York Cityto study drawing with Mr. Robert Beverly Hale of the Art Students League. Barbarafelt entirely at home in her studies and made friends with other students workingthere. She loved her art classes and immediately recognized parallels between Todd’swork and Mr. Hale’s approach to anatomical drawing.

Miss Todd used her hands in her therapy work to give direction in the stu-dent’s body, and she tried to teach her teachers to do the same. Mr. Haletaught a student to use his own hands in finding the location of parts of hisstructure. Mr. Hale demonstrated how to feel the size of a part, such as anelbow in the palm of your hand. He would trace the rim on the top of thepelvis of his body first on one side and then the other with the thumb andfingers of his hand.

Barbara also studied a life-size wooden model of the pelvis, a small collec-tion of bones, as well as pictures from various anatomy books to refine her under-standing. Then, abstracting the musculoskeletal system into its most basic elements,she honed the forms of the muscles, joints, and bones into visual images. Absorbinghuman anatomy through drawing became a new means of kinesthetic discovery forBarbara. Excited by this process, she began to share some of her experimentationwith Miss Todd.

Drawing, Dance and New York 45



WritingInPictures



Think of the center of the handkerchief fitting around the skull being slightly de-pressed and then rising. Repeat this six times. This will relieve a tight scalp, pres-sure around the head, too great activity in the brain. Think of the center of thehandkerchief at the level of the base of the sternum depressing some and risingagain. Repeat the thought and mental action of the handkerchief over the ilia.

Think of a pocket searchlight that has been turned and penetrates the handkerchiefsover the head and the ribs. See the shaft of light going through the two and pretendthat it passes through with a pleasing warmth. In response to that warmth, the twohandkerchiefs move down and up together very slightly. Let the third handkerchieffeel the penetrating and warming waves. Let the second and third handkerchiefspulse in an even rhythm. Then try to have all three handkerchiefs move evenly ina very slight rhythm. Give the pupil plenty of time to think of this.51

In the late 1960s, Barbara became aware of a resurgence of interest in Todd’s workthrough her interactions with young dancers in New York. The students spoke of their in-terest in the Alexander Technique, Feldenkrais, and other approaches that served to bridgethe gap between mind and body. Barbara’s work with “mind-body integration” was alsocompatible with new trends in the world of contemporary dance.

Many students of Erick Hawkins studied with André, and some of them, like Bon-nie Bainbridge Cohen, also had lessons with Barbara. In an interview with Cohen in 2015,she explained the profound influence André and Barbara had on the development of herapproach called, Body-Mind Centering®. Cohen explained that after completing her train-ing as an occupational therapist in the 1960’s, she began taking dance technique classeswith Erick Hawkins. In 1966, Erick recommended that she have lessons with André, andshe worked with him privately for two years. In this quotation from the interview, Cohenoffered her memories of those learning experiences.

… he [Bernard] really had a profound influence, because I was already an occu-pational therapist and a dancer and developing my own ideas about movement.He had a human pelvis, and in my first lesson, he asked me to hold it. And hesaid, ‘now feel your own.’ I had been studying anatomy since I was sixteen, com-parative anatomy doing dissections of a cat, but it changed my life. We sat, andhe said, ‘now feel your bones.’ I don’t remember much about the other lessons;there was the coat. They don’t stick with me so much. At the time, they did.But I read The Thinking Body. I would say it was like a Bible for five years. Ireally studied that book.52

Cohen also indicated that she met Barbara through a mutual acquaintance who was an ad-ministrator at a hospital where she was working as an occupational therapist.

…and one time, I came back to see her, and Barbara Clark was living in her apart-ment. And so I was in my 20s, and I remember that we were sitting on the floorand she said to me that ‘you are holding in your back’ and she placed her hand.She told me a lot about her history, and I think I went back twice. I knew that shewas Andy’s teacher, and Andy had talked about her and that she had studied withMabel Elsworth Todd. … she did say that the woman that wrote the book ‘Ideoki-nesis’ …that they were very different. She had been a nurse and was kind of qui-etly doing her work and that Sweigard was doing her work in the performing artsschool, Juilliard.53




As the interview ended, Cohen summed up her thoughts about the influence of André andBarbara on the development of her educational approach.

… there was something with André and Barbara that I just loved, there was some-thing there that I was really drawn to. …it was very much subcortical, and thatwas what I was drawn to…not so much looking down on it, but how it comes upfrom there… and they were just masters. They were just masters … and so kind.

I am not sure I would have gone to the extremes that I did without André… thatit was personal. It wasn’t that you have an arm but that you can feel your arm.And so I went into the organs, and all the systems and the subcellular, what ishappening in the cell, and then the embryology and it just keeps going. But itstarted with the sit bones…. 54

Another group of dancers spent more time with Barbara, including Mary Fulker-son, David Woodbury, Danny Lepkoff, and Nancy Topf. These dancers were also exploring“releasing” and “contact improvisation” at that time. Exposure to Barbara’s interpretationof Todd’s ideas gave them new ways of exploring the most fundamental aspects of humanmovement. They learned to sit, stand, and walk efficiently, continually sensing their rela-tionship to gravity. Barbara’s emphasis on the significance of the developmental movementpatterns of the baby encouraged their fascination with rolling, creeping, crawling, squatting,falling, and getting up. Her manuals guided their imaginative contemplation of specificfeatures of skeletal balance that deepened their kinesthetic awareness. Barbara’s ideas also prompted them to consider developing alternative ways of ed-ucating dancers. Nancy Topf recalled her realization about the shortcomings of her previ-ous dance training that occurred after her first lesson with Barbara.

Barbara placed a heel bone in my hand. I had been a student of dance since I was4-years old. Barbara asked how did I think this bone went into my body. I real-ized I had absolutely no idea. This made me aware of the deep sense of ignoranceI was working with as I was struggling to become a dancer. It felt like a real injuryto my psyche and my educational process, which I was destined to improve andheal through my work. 55

After Barbara left New York City, Topf remained in touch with her through correspondencefor several years. Gradually, she formulated an approach to dance education derived fromlearning experiences with Barbara called Topf Technique/Dynamic Anatomy®. Mary Fulkerson was also profoundly influenced by her acquaintance with Barbaraand her study of the first and second manuals. In an interview conducted after the per-formance of her work “Dark Coming” at the Dartington Festival in Devon, England, Fulk-erson described the place of Barbara’s work on the development of her teaching.

She (Barbara Clark) is the ‘standing, walking, running’ person, helping people todo daily actions better. This doesn’t relate directly to the dance world but ofcourse it is basic and fundamental to whatever needs doing. I’ve tried to takewhat she has offered me and put it into a framework dealing with imaginationand conceptualization of choreographic ideas, bringing easy actions into a dance

Writing in Pictures 75



TechniqueFor MovementLessons



RIB FULCRUM AWARENESSTeaching Materials: Picture of thorax

Picture of thoracic vertebra with ribs

Demonstration 1:(Show pictures of the thorax and thoracic vertebra with ribs.)

In these lessons, we have changed the habit of holding weight in the upper part of the spine byallowing it to pass down into the lower part of the spine. This lengthening action can take placemore easily if we also sense the deep rib fulcrums on the sides of the vertebral bodies.

There are twelve ribs on each side of the spine. The head of each rib should be centeredin its socket on the side of the spinal column. These articulations are in the sides of the vertebralbodies and intervertebral discs, almost two inches deeper than the surface of the body. The ribsare paired, right and left. The weight of each pair should be centered equally in their sockets inthe column. This helps to keep the spine straight, rather than veering to either side.

Thoracic Vertebra with Ribs

Technique for Movement Lessons 153

SPAL

TEHO

LZ-SPANN

ER

Axis of Rotation

Vertebral Body

Head of Rib

Sternum



Practice Movement A:In standing, review The Dance Plié and The Psoas Walk.

Practice Movement B:Lying on the right side, review Relaxing the Shoulder Pull on the Spine and Expanding theTemporalis Muscle.

Practice Movement C: Centering the Ribs at the Spinal FulcrumsThe teacher begins with the first rib on the pupil’s upper left side. The teacher places the tip ofthe thumb or a fingertip of the right hand lightly over the area of the spinal fulcrum of the rib.The fulcrum is on the side of the vertebral body, deep to the teacher’s touch. The teacher canonly indicate the location by touching to the left of the spinous process.

Imagery: The pupil visualizes the center of the head of the rib meeting the center of its spinal fulcrum, about two inches deeper than where he feels the teacher’s touch.

The teacher continues this process for each of the twelve ribs from the top to the bottomof the thorax. The teacher should stand toward the pupil’s feet to give something of a diagonalthrust, upward and inward. The teacher numbers the ribs aloud, one through twelve, as he worksat each level. This will help to give a better sense of location for each of the ribs, making it easi-er for the pupil to practice by himself.

The teacher should be careful not to drag his finger from one rib to the next. Touchlightly, feel the response. Pick up the finger from the pupil’s body and place it over the fulcrumof the next rib. For the average adult the spacing between each fulcrum is about an inch.

Practice Movement D:The pupil changes to the left side and repeats Practice Movements B and C.

Practice Movement E:Review Rolling the Body a Quarter-Turn to the Side and Getting Off the Table.

Demonstration 2: Present a picture showing a well-aligned back.

154 PART TWO: WRITINGS ON MIND-BODY INTEGRATION



LENGTHENING THE SPINETeaching Materials: Picture of ligamentum sacrotuberosum

Demonstration:(Show picture of ligamentum sacrotubero-sum.)

The ligamentum sacrotuberosum, aids inanchoring the weight from the spine to thepelvic area. The two parts of this ligamentbegin on the sides of the sacrum and unite toinsert into the ischium. A side view of theligament would show its diagonal path mov-ing forward from the sacrum toward theischia.

The axis of the body should be cen-tered between the ischia. However, if thespinal curves are overly contracted, theischia will be held up in the back. As thepupil learns to give the muscles around thespine greater length, the ischia will dropunder the center of the body. This helps tocenter the thighs in their sockets above theischia.

Practice Movement A:Review Sitting to Standing, Standing to Sitting and The Dance Plié.

Practice Movement B: Lying on the right side, review Centering Ribs at the Spinal Fulcrums, Circling the Ischia,Lengthening the Biceps Femoris, Aligning the Toes, Metatarsophalangeal Joints and Circling theCenter of the Foot.

Practice Movement C: Lengthening the Ligamentum SacrotuberosumWith the pupil lying on the right side, the teacher touches the mid-sacral area, a tiny bit to the leftof center. The pupil will visualize lengthening the ligamentum sacrotuberosum from the left sideof the sacrum toward the left ischium. The direction is downward and slightly forward.

Practice Movement D:Lying on the right side, review Breathing Along the Sides of the Spine.

Lying on the left side, review Practice Movements B, C, and D.


Ligamentum Sacrotuberosum

LigamentumSacrotuberosum SP

ALTEHO

LZ-SPANN

ER



DramaTree Lessons




INTRODUCTION

IN THE LATE 1950’S, shortly after Barbara Clarkwrote the Technique for Movement Lessons, shecreated a more extensive teachers’ manual con-sisting of sixty-seven lesson plans organized intofive terms of study. She made the manual forAndré Bernard to use in conducting lessons forgroups of pre-professional students at “DramaTree,” an acting school in New York City. Theoriginal teaching manual Clark developed for theclasses was discovered in a review of Bernard’spapers several years after his death in 2003.Various “teaching materials” were listed for usein the conduct of each lesson. The materialsincluded large “charts” that featured Clark’s sim-plified drawings of human anatomy, abstractdesigns, and directional pathways for the stu-dents to picture as imagery. The teacher placedthe charts at the front of the studio and referredto them frequently during the lesson. Many ofthe drawings were shown to the students severaltimes in the course of the two-year curriculum torefresh and enhance their kinesthetic awarenessof numerous aspects of improved body balance. The manuscript found in Bernard’s papersdid not include the illustrations Clark used forthe oversized charts. Fortunately, a few yearsafter the publication of the first edition of AKinesthetic Legacy, a colleague donated twenty-four black and white photographs of the charts tothe Thinking Body Institute. The next three pagespresent the digital scans of the original pictures.Please refer to those pages when reviewing thecharts listed in the teaching materials at thebeginning of each lesson. The headings shown in the texts of the les-sons refer to categories of activity repeated in order throughout the curriculum. At the beginningof most lessons, a period of “sense memory”

allowed the students to review the imagery and as-pects of kinesthetic awareness introduced in pre-vious classes. Typically, the second heading wasthe name of the focus of the new learning experi-ence for that lesson, followed by detailed instruc-tions for the teacher. The instructions includedelementary aspects of anatomy and kinesiologytranslated into imagery to enhance kinestheticawareness. The students used touch to locateanatomical landmarks, explore joint actions, andobserve the activity of muscles. Directions forpicturing the imagery in pedestrian movementsfollowed the introductory material. The third heading, called “pre dance move-ment,” referred to the portion of the class thatallowed students to apply their learning. Theystarted by resting on their backs and practicingmovements designed to optimize the coordina-tion of the feet and legs as they pictured the asso-ciated imagery. The movement repertoire grewto include arm movements, rolling, crawling,standing, walking, small pliés, kicks, skips, andjumps as the lessons continued. “Improvisationwith the dynamics of movement,” was the stu-dents’ opportunity to express their learning cre-atively. Often the classes ended with a “begin-ning projection,” which was a period of quietreflection followed by suggestions for applyingthe class learning experiences in acting, vocaliz-ing, and stage movement. The edited version of the Drama TreeLessons prepared for this edition of A KinestheticLegacy brings together both the text and thedrawings that Clark created for the acting studioclasses. The curriculum also presents the seedsof the lesson procedures and imagery that Clarkcontinued to refine throughout the balance of herteaching and writing career.



How To Live In Your Axis–Your Vertical Line



BALANCING DOWN THE BACK OF THE CYCLE – THE PLIE

Stand and begin lowering your bodyalong a center line. This is best donethrough a slight sinking of your bodytoward your heels. Return to the stand-ing position and repeat the up and downmovement several times.

Where along the center line are youholding your weight?

The center of weight should not be feltbetween the shoulders. If you feel your-self holding there, let your arms hangfree. Put all your attention into lettingthe body sink through the action of themuscles close to the back of the centerline. Then follow the rhythm of themovement down toward the middle ofyour pelvis.

As you continue to lower and raise yourbody, keep thinking down the back ofyour center line. After a little practice,you will begin to feel the mid-sacral areawhich is the base of the spine. As youbecome aware of this base, you will feelyour thigh heads supporting it. Thissupport comes to your thigh heads fromthe center of your feet through the mid-dle lines of the legs. When you havefound this balance you will feel the cen-ter of weight in the middle of the pelvis.




EXHALATION COUNT STRENGTHENSDOWN THE BACK ACTION

Breathing exercises can be practiced while sitting, standing, lying on the side or on the back. Itis important to get the sitting bone level fixed in your mind as a goal for your usual exhalation.Let’s begin working with your lower back vertebrae in breathing. Then the goal will be closeenough to insure reaching it.

Exercise 1: Gently blow an exhalationthrough your lips. Repeat the exhalation, butthis time do not center your attention on yourlips, cheeks or chest. Instead, imagine theblowing starts from the middle of your firstlumbar vertebra and continues down yourcenter line toward your sitting bone level.Pause and breath easily.

Continue by imagining the breath at the sec-ond lumbar vertebra. Take a gentle blowdown the line from the middle of that bonetoward the sitting bones. Rest again for amoment and continue with the middle of thethird lumbar vertebra, the fourth, and finallythe middle of the fifth lumbar vertebrae asyour goals.

After your practice at each level, return to amore natural breathing pattern for a moment.If you are blowing easily, you will createaction down through your lower back muscles.

Exercise 2: Try yawning and notice how it helps you relax your cheeks, lips and chest. If youtend to yawn wide and shallow, change to yawning narrow and deep. Then, return to the blow-ing exercise. See if you can produce a very slight blow from your lower back as you would anarrow yawn. Humming or vocalizing can also be used to lengthen your exhalation. Combinewith the plié you practiced in the previous lesson.

How To Live In Your Axis – Your Vertical Line 315

1

2

3

4

5



Index for Part TwoIntroduction

THE TYPICAL “INDEX” IS AN alphabetized list of individuals, places, concepts, and events in the backof a book with the page numbers where those words appear. An index serves as an invaluable aid tothe reader in accessing specific information found in a text. Research on areas of interest using anindex often sheds additional light on the author’s discussion and perspectives. Therefore, a carefullyplanned index serves as an alternative means for studying the content of a book.

Since Barbara Clark used a limited vocabulary of terms repeatedly as she directed her read-ers’ exploration of body balance through her writings, a conventional index is not an appropriate toolfor the review of her work. The word “spine,” for example, appears more than five hundred times inPART TWO: WRITINGS ON MIND-BODY INTEGRATION. It is improbable that reviewing all the pageswhere Clark used the term “spine” would yield any significant meaning. Therefore, because of Clark’spivotal role in advancing Mabel Todd’s educational legacy, a “content-based index” was developed toinform readers of the relationship between her lessons and Todd’s original educational system.

Todd’s goals for improving human body alignment were described quite concisely in hercourse syllabus, The Balancing of Forces in the Human Being: Its Application to Postural Patterns,published in 1929. She explained those goals more extensively in her classic text, The Thinking Body(1937) and later in The Hidden You (1954). The Index for Part II of this book places each of Clark’slessons under the components of the two major categories of Todd’s educational system. The firstcategory relates to educational activities that facilitate the kinesthetic awareness of critical “weightbearing points” in the body. The second category features the “adjustments of weight” that are typi-cally needed to bring human body balance into an improved relationship with the force of gravity.

Todd’s “weight bearing points” were the areas in the skeletal structure where the passage ofweight from one bone to another, or to an external supporting surface, should be optimized. Toddemphasized the importance of the thigh joints, talus bones, atlanto-occipital joints, sternoclavicularjoints, and tuberosities of the ischia in her writings and described the significance of several other areasof skeletal weight transfer as well. Clark’s lessons repeatedly introduced the weight bearing points andpresented various strategies for locating them kinesthetically. Her interest in developing newapproaches for cultivating awareness of those critical locations is evident throughout her writings.

Todd’s “adjustments of weight” consisted of specific modifications of the interrelated balanceof the musculoskeletal system that she designed to improve the upright balance of the human struc-ture. She derived those goals from her application of principles of structural engineering to the stabil-ity, balance, and movement of the human body. Todd’s basic educational premise was that the thinkingof these goals in the form of imagery could improve our functioning. Barbara Clark developed learn-ing experiences that facilitated her students’ kinesthetic exploration of Todd’s adjustments of weightas she refined and universalized the imagery.

The content-based Index for Part II that appears on the following pages presents the titles andpage numbers of the lessons in Clark’s writings that relate to Todd’s specific weight bearing pointsand adjustments of weight. Because many of Clark’s lessons pertained to more than one goal, theIndex is representative rather than comprehensive. May this Index be useful to readers as a tool forreviewing Clark’s educational content and understanding the relationship between her writing and the“work” of Mabel Elsworth Todd.



LOCATING THE WEIGHT BEARING POINTSPelvis

General Introduction and Spinal Construction – Resting on the Ischia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 141Thigh Fulcrum Awareness . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 147Awareness of the Ischia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 189Awareness of the Thigh Sockets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 190-91How Do We Sit? Touching the Spots . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 265How Do We Stand? Feeling the Action . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 266Rest as You Sit . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 282-83Standing with a Center Line . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 285Rest as You Stand . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 287Streamline Your Structure in Sitting and Standing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 343

Spine

General Introduction and Spinal Construction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 143Awareness of Lengthening the Spine . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 192Walk Backward and Line Up Your Spine . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 253Your Own Center Line – Tracing It Out . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 269Stand and Walk – Tall . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 275

Knees and Feet

General Introduction and Spinal Construction – Aligning the Toes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 143-44Awareness of the Thigh Sockets – Cloud Ball Image . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 191Awareness of Foot Alignment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 195Awareness of Foot and Ankle Action . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 202How Alive Are Your Feet? Being Alive Means Action in the Joints . . . . . . . . . . . . . 344-47Expand the Axis Path Between Your Foot and Knee Centers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 382

Shoulders and Arms

Shoulder Action – Centering the Sternoclavicular Sockets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 159Sternal Suspension . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 178-79Aligning the Shoulder – Sternal Sockets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 199-200Thinking Up on the Sternocleidomastoid Muscles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 259The Shoulder Blades Steer the Collarbones into Their Sternal Sockets . . . . . . . . . . . . . 323Your Hand Belongs to Your Radial Bone . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 362-63Come Up On Your Radial Bone – Go Down On Your Elbow . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 364-65Center Your Arms in Their Sockets by Letting Your Shoulder Blades Float . . . . . . . . . . 366Allow Space Between Your Shoulder Frame and Ribs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 368-69




Skull and the Spine

Atlanto-Axial Socket . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 157Aligning the Atlanto-Occipital Sockets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 201Sensing the Median Line of the Tongue . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 209Your Own Center Line – Tracing It Out . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 269Your Head Is Part of Your Vertebral Column . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 372-73

Heads of Ribs with Vertebral Bodies

Rib Fulcrum Awareness . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 152-54Circling Axis Aids Spinal Support of the Rib Case . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 225Centering the Ribs in Their Spinal Sockets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 392-93

EXPLORING THE ADJUSTMENTS OF WEIGHTThe width of the spinal curves shall be reduced

as the spinal axis is lengthened downward.

General Introduction – Relaxing the Shoulder Pull on the Spine . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 143Spinal Axis Movement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 162-63Lengthening the Spine . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 174Shoulder Movement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 175Awareness of Lengthening the Spine . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 192Spinal Rhythm Awareness . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 216Placing the Yawn . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 217Sacrum as a Loading Platform . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 218Sense Your Vertebral Spaces with the Spine Train Image . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 230Relating Lengthening the Spine to the Latissimus Dorsi Muscle . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 240Put Support In Before Taking Support Away . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 246-47Extension of the Central Axis with Gravity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 260Extension of the Central Axis – The Reactionary Force . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 261The Cat’s Center Line – Tracing It Out . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 267-68Your Own Center Line – Tracing It Out . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 269-70Your Leg Lines Come from the Center Line . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 271Rest as You Sit . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 282-83The Secret of Breathing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 290-93Circling the Axis – The Horizontal Position . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 298-99More Plié Exercises . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 308-9Exhalation Count Strengthens Down the Back Action . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 315Rhythm Continues Through Your Lower Back and Thighs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 316-17Raising an Arm Begins Along the Side of Your Axis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 324Lower Your Sacrum in the Back to Raise the Front of the Pelvis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 328The Body Cycle – Suggestions for Further Practice . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 336-37

Index for Part Two 417



Don’t Crowd Your Vertebrae – Hold Each Bone Loosely Between the Disks . . . . . . . . 352How Alive is Your Spinal Column? Being Alive Means Action in Its Joints . . . . . . . . . 353The Heels of the Pelvis are Behind the Thigh Sockets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 361Rhythm Flows Easily as You Slide Down Your Spinal Heels on Exhalation . . . . . . . . . 374The Ribs Are Like Fingers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 396Your Sternum is a Mobile Hanging from the Base of the Head . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 397Use Imagery and Sensory Awareness to Check a Quick Temper . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 409Integrate Body Action Including the Breath . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 410The Radial Pattern Continues Between Your Pelvis and Ribs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 412

Pelvic muscles shall be balanced to lengthen the outward

rotators and produce slight adduction and inward rotation of the femur.

Thigh Action . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 155-56Shoulder Action – Circling the Ischia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 159Thigh Movement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 160-61Axes of Thigh Movement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 177Awareness of the Psoas Muscles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 193-94Awareness of Lower Leg Relaxation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 197Aligning Thigh Sockets – Circling the Ischia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 199Awareness of Ease of Thigh Movement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 205Climbing Stairs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 210Psoas Awareness in the Kick . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 213The Adductor Magnus Muscle Aids the Psoas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 233Arm Pits and Thigh Pits . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 239Flexing the Ankle with Action Through the Psoas Muscle . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 243Activate the Psoas with See Saw Ankle Action . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 254Eye Sockets and Thigh Sockets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 262Walking from Your Axis is a Game . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 288-89Sitting Down and Getting Up . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 294More Sitting and Standing Exercises . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 300-1More Sitting Down – Getting Up Exercises . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 304-5Walking into Yourself – Action in the Psoas Muscles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 319Balancing the Body Alternately on the Top of Either Thigh . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 329The Thigh Heads Swing In and Up as the Knees Bend . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 354The Little Trochanters are More Important Than the Large . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 355Balance Your Body on the Tops of Your Thigh Heads – Walk High . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 360The Heels of the Pelvis are Behind the Thigh Sockets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 361The Pelvis Wheels Down the Back in the Dance Plié . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 388The Adductors Act as the Lower End of the Psoas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 391Integrate Body Action Including the Breath . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 410




Documents

Movement is AKinesthetic