Please comment on your experience in this class.
For a refresher, here's the braindance described from This_Website.
Breath: take four to five deep breaths through the nose and out the mouth filling the belly, diaphragm, and lungs.
Corresponds with cellular breathing and the first breath of life.
Tactile: With your hands, squeeze strongly each arm, each leg and the torso, back, and head (whole body). Then tap lightly whole body, then slap sharply whole body and then brush smoothly whole body. Explore a variety of other tactile movements such as scratching, rubbing, soft pinching, tapping, etc.
Corresponds with cellular identity, what is our physical dimension.
Core-Distal: Move from the center out, through and beyond the fingers, toes, head, and tail. Then curl back to torso while engaging core muscles. Movement that grows and shrinks, stretches and curls into big "X"s and little "o"s is great!
Corresponds with radial symmetry and our fetal position in the womb and at birth.
Head-Tail: Move the head and tail (lowest part of spine or coccyx) in different directions and pathways. Play with movement that brings head and tail/pelvis together curving forward and backward and side-to-side. Keeping the knees bent helps to release the pelvis. Wiggle the spine like a snake.
Corresponds with fish and the ability to lift the head.
Upper-Lower: Ground the lower half of body by pressing legs into floor with a slight knee bend. Swing arms in different directions and stretch and dance upper body (arms, head, spine) in different ways. Ground upper half by reaching arms out into space with energy as though you were hugging the earth. Dance with lower half - try marching in place, simple knee bends, jumps, leg brushes, and other actions.
Corresponds with amphibian
Body-Side: Make a big X with your body. Dance with the left side of your body while keeping the right side stabile (still). Then keep the left stabile and dance with the right side. With knees and elbows slightly bent like a "W" bring the left half of the body over to meet the right half and vice versa (like a book opening and closing). Follow your thumb with your eyes as it moves right to left and left to right. Do the lizard crawl with arms and legs open to the sides - reach left arm and knee up then right arm and knee up like a lizard crawling up a wall. Move your eyes right to left and left to right (looking at the thumb near your mouth helps) to develop horizontal eye tracking.
Corresponds with lizard and early crawling
Cross-Lateral: Do a parallel standing crawl with knees and hands in front of you. Let your eyes travel up and down looking at one thumb as it reaches high and low for vertical eye tracking. Do a cross-lateral boogie dance finding as many ways of moving cross-laterally as possible such as touching right knee to left elbow, left hand to right foot, right hand to left knee, left hand to right hip, skipping, walking, crawling, etc.
Corresponds with mammals, monkey and humans walking
Vestibular: This pattern may be done at the beginning of the BrainDance. Choose a movement that takes you off balance and makes you dizzy. Vary the movements you do each week. Swing upper body forward and backward and side-to-side. Make sure head is "upside down." Tip, sway, roll, and rock in different directions (any movement that makes you dizzy). Spin 15 seconds one direction, breathe and rest 15 seconds, then spin 15 seconds the other direction. Take three to four deep breaths to center yourself after spinning!
Corresponds with proprioception and our ability to balance
Five Fundamental Actions
Yielding - getting grounded, connecting to the environment
Pushing - creating boundaries, learning to say no
Reaching - exploring, curiosity, desire
Grasping - making connections with new ideas, object and others
Pulling - bringing new things into ones life
21 comments:
I really enjoyed starting class with the brain dance, especially since I had come into class yesterday not feeling fully awake. Doing this exercise with the rays of sunlight seeping into the classroom really seemed to stimulate all of my senses and awaken my body.
Once we started working on the fundamental actions it was easy to see how one action could lead to another, until they were all working together simultaneously. In the article it states that something as simple as standing requires all five fundamental actions and through breaking down each action in class, it was much easier to see how they all work together. The hardest action for me to master was yielding. I could easily let my hands go limp and allow my partner to hold their weight, yet when I tried to stop yielding I accidentally kept lifting my hands completely off of my partners. However, my favorite action by far was the grasping. I felt a sense of unity and serenity when we were grasping the hands of others, especially while making eye contact. It seemed that although I was reaching towards someone I didn’t know; when we grasped each other’s hands we were still somehow connected.
-Emily Stromme
I enjoyed the brain dance and thought about it when reading later the assigned chapter. I found that “Energetic Development: Pathways of Life and Pathways of Movement,” really related to our work on the brain dance and the evolutionary movements. The example given about how infants first move with their spine, then begin to push-up, followed by crawling and then standing made all the areas of evolutionary movements worked on in class relatable. I found myself picturing babies going through these stages of movement development, and I could imagine the energy.
Another thing from the reading about looking at our mothers made me think how my mom is a fidgeter and talks with her hands. This is something I have inherited, either through nature or nurture, and I am now becoming acutely aware of my energy flowing through my endpoints. As for the 5 fundamental actions of yielding, pushing, reaching, grasping, and pulling, my life is at a point right now where relating to these aspects can help me make decisions. I especially liked the examples of yielding to the environment and grasping and pulling things I want. I am planning on applying these ideas to my life as well as my dance.
February 4, 2009
I like dance because it is ultimately a metaphorical paradigm for the life. I know that deeply, when I move my body it allows an inherent connection with nature to arise. I know that the skills I learn in the studio are accessible to me at any time. I know that processes like Authentic Movement and Braindance are used to help unfold our unique, powerful, and evolutionary body. I really appreciate the information and skills that Louis shares with the class. I think that they can be used to help us transcend our individual identity and the grasping and fear that arises out of attempts at a logical understanding of our selves. I feel more clearly than I have before that I am an experiential, feminine learner. I am naturally more masculine, and embody more of those traits, as well as being intellectual and philosophically oriented. Coming to be more fully developed, I see, means embracing the material and feminine and in this way bringing balance to my already dominant traits. I am very grateful for my interest in seeking meaning and metaphor through language, imagery, and movement. Learning about the five fundamental actions implored me to contemplate on my relationship with each of those actions now, at this stage in my life. I think that through the simple sharing of what these actions are and what development entails helps me; I see that I can understand the necessary movements are needed for my emotional, intellectual, spiritual, and physical wellness. This can also be applied to my interpersonal relationships and role in the world. Somatic practice is so powerful for me because it moves energy. I create intellectual spaciousness regularly through meditation, writing, and reflection. Adding to this practice emotion and body is such a powerful tool. I see that the guidance of Louis is letting me experiment with new positive thoughts that can support further evolution, or development. The support and safety I feel in the somatic studio space is immense. I really appreciate being able to listen attentively to my body, with no need to negate or suppress what it is asking of me. I feel safe to let emotions arise; I feel safe to explore the judgements and fears that come up; this safety is such an essential part of the healing and integrating process. I see that as I allow my experiences to take place, that I give them a vastness and compassion they deserve. The braindance let me see areas that I can explore physically that can aid in analogous spiritual explorations. Toward the end of Tuesday, I felt myself become very slow and still. I wanted to feel the mountain. She let me look at her and feel her strength, and in this way I was able to gather courage to just stand with myself and integrate the material.
++aa roesch-knapp
I found the Braindance to be extremely potent and effective. Breath is a common technique I use in and out of my dance to connect, ground, focus and release, it felt like a natural way to emerge into this practice. The component that followed, “tactile,” was so pleasing and enlivened my senses, especially that of touch. With my hands, I squeezed strongly areas of my body that I do not touch often, similarly I patted, slapped and brushed areas that I do not offer sensation often and I felt myself light up! The core-distal (X’s and O’s) felt so natural to me, they are movements that I unconsciously practice during the period between sleep and wake as I am come into morning……..
….. I appreciated how Louis spoke to the necessity of each plane of the Braindance, reflective of the first year of our life and our evolutionary processes during that time. Though we cannot go literally go back to that first year of our life and experience these movements for the first time and experience how they build on one another, as young adults and throughout the rest of our lives we can go back to these movements and reap their benefits.
The five fundamental actions spoke deeply to me on a physical and emotional plane. Yielding, the practice of getting grounded and connecting to the environment is so basic, so necessary for effective functioning in life. I interpreted this action to be more than personal grounding and connection, but essentially sets one up to receive and give to others. Reaching is my dominant action, one that is comfortable and challenging for me. I love to explore, set my curiosity a flame, for my desire is limitless; which keeps me motivated and passionate, though at the same time ever seeking….
Grasping and pulling, making connections with new ideas, object and others and bringing those things into ones life is very fulfilling and intimate. It was both beautiful and intimidating to practice these actions with others in class.
Discovering the depths of my self through movement is enlightening. I respect the wisdom articulated by the masters of Authentic Movement, Braindance and now these the Five Fundamental Actions, we get to tap into the space created through the practice that facilitates healing, creativity, transcendence, openness and love. My connection between the physical and emotional body has never been so strong, it is gift to carry it out of the studio space with me and into the world.
-Lindsey Goldberg
My Brainy Brain Dance -
Before we got to the end of class, there were two things that I really enjoyed. I loved as we were moving through the different orientations of moving - spinal and homogolous and homolateral then contralateral - the parts where we isolated one half of our body and moved the other half. I found it challenging and really fun. I have played with body isolation off and on ever since middle school just because I thought it looked cool. Who knows, I probably saw it in a movie or something.
Then my next favorite part was Yielding. I don't have any problems yielding and letting my entire body weight fall into someone else. So it was a strange realization for me when it dawned on me that not everybody is comfortable enough/trusting enough to totally yield into someone else. But once I realized this - it made total sense.
Then finally, my number one favorite thing we did was at the very end of class. When we combined all the 5 fundamentals and were yielding to the floor, pushing, reaching, grasping and pulling other people. The way we ended up going in two circles was pretty fun. It was also interesting to see and note who was really yielding and pulling and who was just going through the motions.
From the article I thought it was really awesome that we did the exercise that they mention about using a finger to draw or trace something, then use your elbow to do draw or trace the same thing. And in class I noticed the difference in efficiency (the finger being far more efficient and detailed) but I didn't realize the totally different muscular sequences like is mentioned in the article. So it was cool to read that little tid-bit and think of it on simply a muscular level.
~Desirae N. Lexa
The "Energetic Development" reading was interesting, but its content was difficult to conceptualize until experimenting with different physical movements in class. When I read the section about the circulation of energy through our endpoints I still wasn't convinced that those particular body parts had any special significance. However, when we traced our environment and attempted to write our names with our hands, feet, and pelvises, it became utterly clear that these areas due have a much greater degree of coordination and precision. In the first part of class, my body reacted really well to tactile exercises. I didn't realize that I could become so energized and invigorated with such simple movements—and caffeine free! I found it most difficult when we were in the evolutionary fish-like stage, allowing the tops of our heads to lead us. Apparently evolution really does work, as I'm certainly more comfortable leading with my feet.
-C.McCoy
I think this was my favorite session in this class so far. I am not quite sure why, but I think it’s because what we did was so simple, yet relevant in our daily lives. Breathing … that’s second nature to human beings as we all need to breathe if we want to live. I really enjoyed taking deep long breaths in the beginning of the class since I don’t do that very often at all. Moving on to feeling our body, exploring our physical being was fun as well. I literally felt my muscles waking up, and that is not an easy thing for my body to do at 8:30 in the morning! I was awake for the rest of the period and for the rest of the day. I found our exploration of the five fundamental actions to be interesting. I never thought about what these activities actually mean, so I really learned a lot from the Five Fundamental Action article you sent out last week. The first observation that caught my eye is “our ability to yield is the basis for our ability to take effective action in the world” (pg. 65). I am currently in Atlanta, Georgia, representing the University of Washington Foster Business School at the Undergraduate Business School Leadership Conference. Our theme for this year is “resilient leadership”, and all of our speakers so far emphasize the need for each and every one of us to take effective action now, more than ever.
Other observations I found to be very beautiful are the following:
*Pushing: “The power of push allows us to feel empowered” (pg. 67). “As adults, the extent to which we are able to push ourselves reflects our internal sense of support, individuation, confidence, and ability to propel ourselves” (pg. 69).
*Reaching: “Psychologically, reaching manifests curiosity, desire, longing compassion … As adults, our ability to reach allows us to invite others, reach out with compassion, envision a goal” (pg. 69).
The activity that was most meaningful for me was pulling others towards us and looking into their eyes as we were doing it. It was awkward at first, interacting like that with someone I didn’t know at all, but after a while, I started to really like it and had a smile on my face as I was doing it.
- F. Widjaja
Doing the Brain Dance is a really great way to wake up in the morning. It is really nice to take a few deep breaths in the morning because it feels like you are finally able to fully awaken when you can feel the oxygen getting to very corner of your body. Moving the body in relationship to having to halves is fun because so in normal live we are able to use every different part of our body as a different thing, but when we move the top as one part and then bottom as a different part we only have 2 things that we can move. (By the way, homogenous means “the same” so I think in this context it means that the top part of the body is one thing and then bottom is another thing) It was also interesting feeling the contrast of top and bottom vs. right side and left side moving together, moving the dividing line from a horizontal direction to a vertical one, which you cannot bend.
Acting out the motions of yielding, pushing, reaching, grasping and pulling had a really pronoun impact on me. It was like acting out every struggle of a relationship (including friendships, not specifically romantic relationships) that I have ever encountered. I feel like usually what I want from a relationship is to be able to yield to that person and vis-vera, but if the two people don’t want the same things from a relationship there become conflicts and one person is pushing while another is grasping or pulling, there is no room for either of the people to yield to the other. It was just cool to physically instead of mentally experience these feelings.
Joanne
I studied the Brain Dance in a little more depth in another class a couple of years ago, but this little 5 minute warm-up is a good way to get things (the body and mind) moving and awake. I actually started this class feeling not so hot, but a couple minutes after completing the Brain Dance, I was feeling much better. When we learned about this dance before, we never connected it with our own evolution, so this sheds a whole new light on the Brain Dance and what experiences you go through when doing it.
I’ve never really thought of being grounded as an action in itself; I believe thinking of it in this way helps me connect to and better produce the expected outcome of really connecting with the earth. The reaching, grasping, and pulling exercise that ultimately lead to the grand right and left with the entire class was surprisingly awkward. It seemed that when we were told to make eye contact that the task of actually grabbing one another’s hands became more difficult; in other words, when meaning to connect on a deeper level, we nearly lost our connection on the physical level…interesting. Or maybe it was just me.
~Marcee Wickline
I really enjoy the class today. I experienced many activities and action I had ever been try on. Brian dance is a very helpful technique to help me relax and feel much better through my sense of awareness in my body. I can feel as the article says “the energy of life is flowing through us all the time” that it’s really happen.
I really appreciated the five fundamental action practices. Yielding was the first step which is “the least obvious” one. During the experiment I really felt that I contact to the environment like the article said. I also could feel all part of me feet was on the floor and I wasn’t sure whether the way I stand was the right way of standing. Pushing was pretty easy for me to do and I do a lot of pushing when my mind says “no.” I really agree on what the article say that it’s an action that concentrically contracts all the musculature around the pushing limb. The third one is reaching. Reaching makes my muscle relax. I can feel that when I want to reach something, the first action is to release my muscle. I think grasping and pulling was a pretty easy one for me. I can feel the energy through people when I grasp and pull their hands.
Pitchaya N.
I really enjoyed watching and participating in the brain dance and its
five functions. To isolate the different types of movement that as humans
we can participate in and then trace the roots of the movement gives me a
stronger feeling of connection to my body then i felt before. I
especially appreciated the connection to walking and i have since noticed
very strongly where i put my weight when i walk and why, how i stand
still, etc. It is almost like i started unlocking the code to
understanding where and why my body does what it does and it gives me
more comfort in my actions and more awareness when something does not
seem to be right within myself. sometimes i can notice now physically
that there is something wrong before it hits me emotionally, and it
allows me to prepare myself for those moments. mirit
The brain dance was a nice activity to learn about the different physical dimensions and also relating it to evolution. It is amazing to see how are bodies are skillfully structured and efficient. Writing with my knees or elbows was really difficult, and it made me be thankful for having arms, fingers, legs, and toes. I really enjoyed the five fundamental actions and putting all of them together in one activity at the very end. Who would have thought that these five actions would be so important in adult life and how much skipping a step or not fully learning the action as a child could affect us in the future. I am glad my parents did not force me to start walking too soon and that they gave me toys that helped me learn how to yield, push, reach, grasp, and pull on my own and at my own pace. Out of these five actions I really like reaching and pulling, I feel like I get “out of the known and into the new” and this makes me feel good.
Sahar Z.
I found that the brain dance was very interesting! It was fun to go through each of these motions, and afterwards I found myself very awake and alert! It was interesting to feel how my body was developed from early childhood.
The breath portion of the exercise was very effective. It brought my body into a complete alert state.
I also found that the reaching portion was interesting. I felt as though I was reaching for something, yet I couldn't quite grasp it, and if I could grasp it, I didn't know how to. Going through the reaching motion was a unique experience. As I looked around the classroom I pictured all of us as little children crawling around the floor trying to reach for things that we couldn't have. I pictured my little ten month old niece reaching for the lights in the sky and the pictures on the wall and her mommy or other people walking by. This really helped me connect with the thoughts that might be going through her head as she develops into a toddler.
I also found the grasping and pulling motions to be quite interesting. When I was grasping and then pulling people toward myself, it was difficult at first. I did not want to connect with people that I did not know and I wasn't exactly into pulling them close to me. However, when we were in the circle pulling everyone around us toward our bodies, I felt more at ease. The eye contact really helped the process as well.
Overall, I found this exercise to be helpful in the understanding of my own body.
~Melissa Eckstrom
Because of the midterms and all that I was feeling exhausted and tired in the beginning of the class. When I was lying down, I didnot want to stand up. however, as I start to move my body around doing brain dances, I started to forget all of the midterms and stressful work that I had in my mind. It really was a "brain dance" for me. I especially liked to write my names with elbows and knees etc. It was fun and I felt awakened.
I was very engaged into the five fundamental actions (yielding, pushing, reaching, grasping, and pulling). It also was a good opportunity to know people in my class with eye contact. I felt like I reached and pulled all of the people in the class for more than twice. Also it was good to know that baby has to take each steps. If I become a mother of a baby in like 10 years, I will never force my baby to walk and force baby to do my favors. I will just let my baby take each steps and take as much time as they desire.
I had learned about the brain dance before this class. I first learned the brain dance last year in teaching methods through the dance program. I've even taught the brain dance to various dance classes I've taught since then.
However it was really interesting to learn the brain dance this time through a different perspective. I didn't realize how in sync the brain dance was to our evolutionary path as well.
And of course, although each stage or step is the same in the brain dance, every teacher suggests a different way to perform each movement. It was nice to get even more ideas on different ways to perform the same time of movements.
-Lauren Cook
I found the brain dance to be such a revilating experience! I learned that the more distal the extremities are from my body, the more accurate their movements may be. It was difficult to "write" with my knees and elbows and it made me realized how much more control I have over my hands and feet.
I also enjoyed performing the "Five Fundamental Actions" and was curious as to how this exercise was to pan out after reading the article. I liked how we were able to progress through the stages of development with these five actions, as each presented a new and more difficult task but was necessary to perform the next one.
-Hanalore Alupay
Brain dance in today's class was quite a different experience. The whole dance did wake me up. It really gave me an appreciation of my whole body. I was comfortable with most of the steps, except the one corresponding to core-distal. Although if I don't think about fetal position, then core-distal is much better. The reason is just my pre-conceived notion that it might not be a really good experience to hang upside down for nine months (as well as also the new environment after birth).
After reading the article, I understood the five fundamental movements but they weren't intuitively intuitive. However, as we went through the whole exercise in the class with our partners (as well as others) the five fundamental actions seems to make a lot of sense. As much that I can easily remember them and their order without actually memorizing them (I guess that's why they are called fundamental). Moreover, I think that as we practiced all the actions together in the class (ie later), they were a bit faster. My thought process could not catch up with the actual actions of yielding into the ground, pushing myself to bring my hand up, reach for the next person, grasp and pull his/her hand (and then yield/push to move forward) and repeat in circular motion. Finally, I totally agree with the author that "earth is very safe for most people to yield into." [p. 67] I think this is exactly why I feel very much relaxed when I am lying on my back in the starting (of the class).
I really enjoyed the brain dance. It was very refreshing to wake up all of the parts of my body. The movement was minimal but it really woke up my body and sent positive sensations throughout my body. Out of each of the exercises, this stage was my favorite. It involved my whole body and had a positive end result.
Based off of the reading about the fundamentals I felt like each part had a focus and connection to our bodies. Yielding brought us closer to ground and connected us with our surroundings. While pushing and reaching took us around our surroundings to explore. Grasping and pulling brought our surroundings toward us.
-Jasmine Boado
This posting in now closed.
I still cannot believe the intensity of my reactions to the 5 fundamental actions. I'm very satisfied with yeilding, I think because I am a follow (the girl part) when I dance salsa. Pulling was such a happy fulfilling sensation, I think I could sense the people around me having similar experiences with pulling. Looking back, I think going around in a circle, pulling at each other, and sometimes missing was an important emotional ride I went on. There was a distinct difference, satisfaction, with a good pull and connection with another person, while in contrast a missed hand or a feeble tug brought my mood down a little bit with every occurence. I'm glad I experienced this unintended lesson this class.
-Eugenia Prezhdo
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