Rolling around your midline
Marina Collard session


The previous session contained explorations and hands-on work in order to find the centre of the energy in the body, the point,from which it spreads out.

The session I was witnessing, contained the work on rolling around your midline, which was kind of building development in relation to previous week explorations.
Arching the back laying on a side, and then lining elbow-ribs-hip-knee made me notice that one side arching and lining seems somehow clearer than the other. There was a specification in order to achieve different movement quality, that body should curl less, leaving everything more open, and lengthen everything; send, rather than curl. Other specifications were seeking to find the room/space between the pelvic and ribs rather than pushing hips from foot; basically lengthening the front of the thigh, from ribcage-pelvic bone. It is a long long part of the body, from pelvic bone all the way to knee.
After exercise of exploring these instances, and the other rolling exercise, 8 counts phrase followed. It contained of squatting, roling, going into downer dog, walking hands towards feet, rolling up,rising whilst sending hands and shoulder blades down. The exercise was repeated in 1st position.
With the intention of reaching qualities, expanding the movements into beyond the body, there was an exercise in a 2nd position, which was repeated several times in following sessions too, that made the quality change.

Qualities, such as not squashing in, being light, releasing the tensions and letting the energy flow from pelvic, bringing the easiness in movements.

Some other phrase work followed, involving traveling, sequences of steps. Different dinamics, and increased speed made the body react quickly, not to loose the quality. You have to be really aware three dimensionally of your body when doing this exercise.

Technique phrase class with Marina Collard


First term of second year we worked with Marina Collard, developing our movement techniques. One of the first classes we focused on spine and vertebrae. We were trying to find 12th thoratic vertebrae of the spine, in order to initiate movements in a different way and develop awareness of the body, by separating the upper body and lower body from a line of 12th vertebrae.
The warm-up contained hands-on parner graphic. Receiving partner was laying in constructive rest position. Other partner places her hand on the belly to let receive and get used to touch and temperature of the touching body. Then the knees are sent on a side,placing hand on 12th vertebrae; brushing from the back all the way down the leg, then the same action is done through shoulder blades and down the arm to little finger and from the chest all the way down the arm to the thumb; sending back the knees; receiving person being upstanding,holding ribs pulled up in place. brushing down the hips and legs, and then brushing covering only one side of ribs-front, then back and each side of it.
This experience gave me some awareness ,drawing my attention to 12th vertebrae and possible ways of moving this awareness offers. It also felt therapeutic and been warm, gentle, relaxing and releasing the tension in my body as well as kinaesthetically longening my limbs.

When moving, I focused on imaginary filling the space around me. The use of floor as a support to move, the starting point allowing the body to move has been present, up to sensation of flying, which is a very interesting kinaesthetic sense that this kind of work can bring.


This is the drawing I made in my journal after this session:
It talks about downward and upward energy flows from the point of 12thvertebrae.