Day Five: Head-Tail

READING

The first thing that caught my eye in this reading was when it said, "because most people are not actively identified with themselves as 'Body', there is sometimes a certain awe around people who are fully using their bodies, such as dancers and athletes." I had never really thought about it that way before, but it's so true! Even as a dancer myself, when I see an amazing dancer I find myself amazed at how well they can utilize their entire body. And when people see me perform, their comments always mention something about how "they could never move that way." It's just interesting to me that they see the body as something to be tamed and conquered, instead of as their own self, which they should simply work to be united with.

Later on in the chapter is states, "Because the spine is in some sense the bony structural element physically at the individual's core and, hence, core to the nature of the individual, the changes may be thrilling or scary--probably both." I personally think this can apply to changes made throughout the entire body, as I think it all ends up resonating in the spine. I felt it mostly in Core-Distal--changes in the body reflect changes in the being. That's kind of a big deal.

CLASS

Some really cool things we discussed in class today. We mentioned how "my body is me". It's not a separate entity from ourselves. It's evident even just in the way we phrase certain things. For example: "my body/leg/arm is so sore!", instead of saying "I am so sore!". It's almost as if we don't want to take ownership or responsibility for our bodies.

We also talked about "one of the most important things to know as a student of movement." That would be that the head and the tail are in an ever-changing relationship, constantly. Especially in modern dance, people assume that head-tail means a "c-curve". This couldn't be further from the truth! There is so much more movement that can come from this relationship! After all, one of the major concepts behind this Fundamental is "new possibilities". We should be exploring these possibilities! Not limiting ourselves to a still shape!