nancy wozny

Nature, Grace, Flow & Play

March 8, 2021 by 4dancers

Early 20th Century Dancer Florence Fleming Noyes Takes a Somatic Approach

Noyes Dancer, scarf on rock — Noyes Dancer, Scarf on Rock, Courtesy of the Noyes Archive

by Nancy Wozny

I took the idea of staying home to include the home of my body, and the home of my dance life, which is based in Somatics.

Somatics, defined by Thomas Hanna in the 1970s, translates to an experience of the body from within, and is now an umbrella for an ever growing cluster of disciplines including: the Feldenkrais Method, Alexander Technique, Body-Mind Centering, Continuum Movement, The Franklin Method, and many more. Although we think of somatics as concerned with our inner sensations, it also emcompasses body mechanics, alignment, learning to be a more easeful mover, slowing down, and feeling more.

During my pandemic adventures into the soma-sphere I moved in both directions in time, from studying with the new crop of dancing Feldenkrais teachers to exploring vintage somatic methods, such as Noyes Rhythm, a method, that chances are, you’ve never heard of.

Relax, a few months back, I was right there with you.

It was at a performance of Celebrating Isadora Duncan with Lori Belilove and Sara Mearns at Virtual Jacob’s Pillow Festival on May 27 that reconnected me to my friend Meg Brooker, who had left Texas to become an Associate Professor at Middle Tennessee State University.

I had some questions for Brooker about the Duncan technique after the show. She answered them in a generous email, and also invited me to her Duncan and Noyes Rhythm classes.

I joined both classes. We are well acquainted with Isadora Duncan, as she was generously historicized by scholars and Hollywood. As for Noyes Rhythm founder, Florence Fleming Noyes, not so much; perhaps, not at all. I joined the Noyes Rhythm “recreation” class via Zoom knowing next to nothing.

Within days, I was soaring about in my cramped apartment, inspired by Brooker’s narrative of cloud formation, wistful breezes, unfurling leaves, and other elements of growth and shift in the natural world.

I needed to know more.

Noyes Dancer with flowers — Noyes Dancer with Poppies, Courtesy of the Noyes Archive

Brooker also sent me her writings on Noyes (1871–1928), a leading figure in the free dance movement, often mistaken as a Duncan imitator. She describes Noyes Rhythm as “an early twentieth century somatic practice through which dancers increase the depth of their capacities for experiencing free, joyful, and expressive movement.”

As someone deeply invested in the entire continuum of body-mind based practices, the word “somatic” caught my eye.

Quite the entrepreneur, Noyes founded the Noyes School of Rhythm in 1912 at Carnegie Hall, with branches in major cities throughout the U.S. In 1919, she settled at Shepherd’s Nine in Portland, Connecticut, where one can still today learn, study and explore on the glorious outdoor dance studio.

Brooker, now one of 12 Noyes Rhythm teachers, is bringing this body of work out of its seclusion at Shepherd’s Nine and into her studio at Middle Tennessee University, along with workshops for dance educators and classes for the public.

Noyes, a frequent performer during the Suffrage movement, was brought back into our vision when Brooker recently re-constructed and reconceived Noyes’ Dance of Freedom on her students in honor of the anniversary of the 19th Amendment.

Noyes Rhythm involves two movement experiences: the technique class, and the recreational class, and each of those have their unique structure. Both reveal strong somatic values.

Brooker has served on the Noyes School of Rhythm Foundation Board of Directors, and is currently the Archive Director. She has presented workshops on Noyes for the Dance Studies Association, Society of Dance History Scholars, Congress on Research in Dance, and the Isadora Duncan International Symposium. In addition, she is also a legacy Isadora Duncan dance artist with an international performance background and holds an MFA in Performance as Public Practice from UT Austin and a BA in Theatre Studies from Yale.

I visited with Brooker to get a clearer idea of how Noyes fits into the ever-growing somatics canon.

Meg Brooker dancing — Meg Brooker, Pavalon Floor Reach, Photo by Christopher Graefe

Nancy Wozny: I see somatics as a porous and expansive field, open to new information, even if that information is, well, old! Noyes used the term, “sentiency,” which is much more poetic. What exactly did she mean?

Meg Brooker: When we talk about sentiency in Noyes Rhythm, we are talking about a feeling of aliveness, of interconnectedness, it is innate embodied knowledge.

NW: Aliveness is a close cousin to awareness. Interconnectedness lies at the root of many body/mind based practices, especially in considering how every movement is a movement of our whole body. Are you also talking about the human body in relation to the natural world?

MB: Yes. In Noyes, we study movement and growth in nature. There is a deep intuition and a sense of following, allowing, creating space for unfoldment to happen. We go into the body and follow the body’s movement impulses, and we do it in a playful and joyful way.

NW: Joy doesn’t get talked about enough in somatics! But how does sensing manifest in the work?

MB: We use the term “feel” a lot in our teaching. Feel the moss underneath your feet. Feel the warm sun on your back. (And we teach this work in the summertime outdoors where you really can walk barefooted on moss and stand in the warm sun). There is a huge emphasis on releasing tension, on relaxation and playfulness. The “letting go” of thinking, of mental activity, so that the body is leading and the mind is following. Sentiency is a kinesthetic awareness.

Noyes Dancers outside — Noyes Dancers – Crescent Stretch, Courtesy of the Noyes Archive

NW: I am so glad that we are talking about moving outside, because I’ve done quite a bit of that this past year. It is awakening to be moving while feeling and hearing a breeze, and other textures in our environment. Being in the natural world gives us something to attend to along with our bodies.

MB: We also talk about the “elemental,” meaning feeling the elements. Being outside in nature is important for understanding this– this is an exploration that challenges what is comfortable–mud, cold rain, strong winds are examples of elemental feeling.

NW: Noyes’s former student Valeria Ladd writes in her 1949 book, Rhythm and the Noyes Technique, “It is desirable that the dancer be unconscious of the body as a body; either a heavy body or a light body, it will always be in the way if it is in the thought of the dancer.”

Two things jump out here in terms of somatic thinking: First, it rarely helps to think of a body as an object, which so often happens when we use mirrors. Second, the notion of getting out of your own way is embedded in so many disciplines. There is an underlying premise in somatic methods that we are not so much doing as undoing. Tells us more about how these ideas manifest in Noyes’s work.

MB: In Noyes Rhythm, we are “dropping off the head”– literally! Similar to Duncan technique, we focus on the solar plexus as a center of movement initiation and of coordination, and in Noyes Rhythm we call this high center “the spot.” One thing I often tell students is that while much of their dance training is taught from the musculoskeletal system, these early modern practices prioritized coordination of the nervous system.

NW: Wait, what? Noyes was aware of the operation of the nervous system and its role in sensing movement? Well then, she was way ahead of her time. Say more.

MB: We “follow” the movement in a sequential way, “feeling” the patterning from the nervous system, so there is awareness of movement and sensation through the whole movement pathway, not only at the joints.

NW: So she was aware of the kinetic chain of motion. Impressive!

MB: Yes, she used terms like: letting go, dropping off, allowing, following, not doing.

NW: Juicy words for a somatic denizen. It seems like Noyes had her own hierarchy when it comes to the mechanics of the body though.

MB: Noyes identified the vertical axis, the line over gravity, as the “axis of being” and the horizontal axis, the line underneath the arms when stretched out to the sides, as the “axis of doing.” There is emphasis in the technique of “dropping off” the arms, as well as the head, so that the high center of the body is leading. The arms can get swept up in movement, but they are secondary. Noyes trains dancers to let go of “willful” movement.

We work on breaking and disrupting habitual patterning.

NW: Boom! Noyes Rhythm earns its somatic stripes with that statement. That’s great, but exploration is integral to many somatic disciplines. Is there leeway to find one’s own way?

MB: Yes! The Noyes techniques have both a “physics simile” and a “symbol.” The physics simile is the rote mechanics of the movement, what she might also call mathematics. For students new to the work, it is important to learn these basic patterns or movement pathways.

The symbol is what animates or enlivens the movement pattern. Noyes Rhythm is taught through the symbols or images. This pedagogy encourages newness, freshness. I’m thinking of something an old acting teacher used to say, which is “always for the first time.” There is an aspect of spontaneity and newness that is very important, and the movement is in response to the image.

NW: I want to get to Noyes’s use of images, but first we have to address novelty, a major component of many modalities, including my somatic home, The Feldenkrais Method. Precisely guided exploration is how we find fresh pathways. Can you give us an example of how this manifests in the Noyes work?

MB: Yes, one of my favorite techniques is the spot and radii floor stretch. In this technique, the dancer begins lying on the floor in a long line, with the legs together and the arms outstretched overhead as if the body was the diameter of a circle. The mechanics of the movement are for one arm and leg (the limbs in this exercise are the radii (limbs are also called trailers) to trace an arc towards each other on the floor, and then back to the center line. The “rhythm passes” and is picked up on the other side.

This technique is often taught with the image of a single raindrop plopping into a still pond, and sending arcs of waves widening out toward the shore. The raindrop is felt right at the spot, and, as radii, the arm and leg are imaged as connecting to this spot. The force or weight of the raindrop is the cause and the long arm and leg are released into the arcing pathway as a result of this felt impulse.

Each time this movement happens, it is a new raindrop with a different mass, different force, different momentum. Because the limbs are moving in response to this image impulse, the degree of movement will vary. How far the limbs move is not what is important, feeling the coordination from the image impulse through the movement is key.

NW: I am glad to hear that it doesn’t matter how far the limbs move. Quality over quantity is important here. Since you brought up the raindrop image, let’s move in that direction now. I have recently returned to the work of Mabel Todd, Lulu Swiegard, André Bernard, Eric Franklin, and others who have used imagery in their work. Nature images are central to Noyes. Help us understand her use of imagery.

MB: The vegetation stretch can be helpful to dancers, and it is basically the pattern of a grande ronde de jambe with the image of seaweed stretched out and floating in the waves.

In Noyes technique, the pattern starts with a basic leg fold, in which the dancer softens at the base of the sternum (the “spot” drops) and gently folds at the hip, knee, and ankle of the standing leg, allowing the other leg to release to the front, and then drawing the released leg into a tight fold with flexion at the hip, knee, and ankle and a C-curve in the spine. The sternum lifts (“spot” rises), as both legs lengthen, the standing leg rooted into the earth as the released leg extends away from the center and floats–like a length of outstretched seaweed–around from front to back. The outstretched limb lowers down as the spot drops and that leg takes the weight as the rhythm passes to the other side.

NW: Ah! Seaweed is a marvelous image for motion, but let’s keep this somatic inquiry going. Rest is present in most somatic disciplines and serves multiple functions. We can sense differences, and we can let the work do its work in our neuromuscular organization. How might we experience rest in a Noyes class?

MB: Rests exist in many aspects of Noyes. One difference between Noyes and how other somatic disciplines incorporate rest is that we are not directing the mind to notice the effect of the rest. We are not directing the mind at all. We are cultivating deep embodied awareness and staying in that space, building an endurance for sustained awareness.

NW: So there is an ebb and flow of doing and not doing.

MB: Yes. The Noyes work historically was a “rhythmic” movement practice. Most of the technique exercises have active and passive moments–one side of the body is engaged, lengthening and the other side is resting, passive, and then the “rhythm” transfers and activities the passive parts, allowing the active parts to rest.

NW: Explain how rest is built into the improvisation class structure.

MB: Noyes Rhythm classes have three parts, and each section of the class is separated by a deep rest. Imagine going to a yoga class with two savasanas during the class!

NW: Sign me up!

MB: The first part of the “recreation” (or improvisation) class is a warm up with playful, whole-body movement. In this section of class we shake off, drop off the “personal,” let go of self-consciousness (this was huge for Noyes) and this part of class usually involves connecting to breath, opening the body, and may also include some locomotive and aerobic movement. Imagery may have a deep elemental feeling–rainstorm, volcanic eruption, change of seasons. In the deep rest, there may be imagery of disintegration, dissolving, further letting go, or of being held, safely rocked in the earth. There is music, and the quality of music will also guide the rest. It is a time for un-doing and for doing nothing.

Mara Morris dancing Noyes — Noyes Dancer Mara Morris, Rolling, Photo by Nina Wurtzel

NW: Efficient movement is a common thread in somatic practices. We are often looking for the “just enough” effort when doing any movement, activated muscles as needed to avoid overdoing. Where does Noyes stand on that concept?

MB: Noyes Rhythm absolutely trains efficient movement patterns. Noyes was vigilant about correcting over-efforting in her students. She identified over-efforting with “willfulness.” For Noyes, “willful” movement is straining, recruiting too much muscular force to accomplish an action, and misunderstanding the difference between strength and tension. Her pedagogy emphasizes balanced action. There is nothing rote, mechanical, or externally motivated in the Noyes work.

Noyes also talks about overflow or the 110%. This idea is that there is a letting go, and emptying out that happens (in other practices this is talked about as yielding), and then a filling back up–the movement doesn’t happen until there is overflow–until you have been filled up to 100%, fully enlivened, fully aware, saturated with sentiency, and then the extra 10% is the movement.

NW: It’s in this language that it reminds me that we are looking at a different time in history, and ways of being in our bodies.

MB: Yes, these early moderns, both Duncan and Noyes, were also interested in the relationship between the body and light. Duncan talked about “luminosity of the flesh” and Noyes also talks about an effortless feeling in movement, a feeling of the body disappearing and being moved by the music, what she also calls “leaking over gravity.” If we think about the relationship between light and energy, light and force, and also energy and matter, then this sensation of the body as light seems to result from finding the perfect balance between effort and action to create movement.

NW: I have no idea what leaking over gravity is, but it sounds splendid. I love the idea of emptying and refilling. Sometimes I feel that the dance field is just heading in a “more and more” direction, as in harder, higher, and more extreme.

MB: I know what you mean! I see this tendency to push the body to extremes in my undergraduate dance students. They are so focused on end-gaming the movement, on finding the most extreme form of a shape, and often doing this through over-efforting (they are wonderfully dedicated hard-workers). I incorporate Noyes Rhythm into my teaching of undergraduate dancers. It is a revelation to them to find, to feel, just the right amount of effort for the movement to happen, and to feel the joy and satisfaction of moving with connection through a small range of motion, as well as through a larger range.

NW: Thanks for the segue! I do want to know more about how you bring this work into teaching right now. How do you frame it to have value for today’s students?

MB: This work has so much value for today’s students–from both a general wellness and mental health perspective as well as from a dance technique training perspective. It teaches the importance of deep rest. It teaches the value and simplicity of just being (not always doing). It offers space to experience a huge range of qualities of movement and expression. It enables students to find and feel dynamic alignment and balance and to cultivate integrated, whole-body strength. It also cultivates a space for fun and play! Noyes Rhythm reminds us that the joy of moving is an experience that is always there, always available to us as dancers. It is an empowering and important reminder.

Nancy Wozny, photo by Christopher Duggan

Nancy Wozny is editor in chief of Arts + Culture Texas, reviews editor at Dance Source Houston and a contributor to Pointe Magazine, Dance Teacher and Dance Magazine, where she is also an contributing editor. She has taught and written about Feldenkrais and somatics in dance for two decades.

Flash Feldenkrais for the Busy Dancer: Part II

December 28, 2015 by 4dancers

STREB FORCES at Miller Outdoor Theater in Houston, Texas. Photo by Amitava Sarkar. — STREB FORCES at Miller Outdoor Theater in Houston, Texas.
Photo by Amitava Sarkar.

Aloha! Nancy Wozny, our Somatics specialist on the 4dancers Dance Wellness Panel recently gave us Part I of “Flash Feldenkrais for the Busy Dancer” – here is Part II. This one is focused on what to do after a trauma, like a fall, or a disorienting movement experience (like a hectic, packed rehearsal day!). Thanks again to Nancy, and Happy Holidays to All! – Jan Dunn, Dance Wellness Editor

by Nancy Wozny

I scampered to the edge of my seat to watch Cassandre Joseph fall from a great height as part of the kinetic pyrotechnics of STREB FORCES. She falls (or flies) and crash lands unharmed, as all of the STREB’s super action heroes do during their recent show at Miller Outdoor Theatre in Houston. Part of Elizabeth Streb’s brilliance is her meticulous methodology of falling, flying and crash landing in a way that we feel the visceral excitement of the motion.

Falling, jumping, unusual landings and the like, are all part of the contemporary dance landscape now, as dancers need to be fluid movers on the ground and in the air. Even partnering has evolved to include fabulous eye candy lifts and maneuvers. But there are times when dancers take a tumble when it wasn’t in the choreography. Most often, you stand up without any apparent injury, just feeling little stunned. Whether one sustains injury or not, unintentional forces have entered our systems, and we may feel discombobulated for a while. We’ve taken a blow, and that has an impact whether or not there are any visible scars.

All of this leads us to the continuation of my Flash Feldenkrais for the Busy Dancer. During Part I, we focused on coming back to neutral in the joints. This next lesson addresses how we organize ourselves for action, and is especially aimed to help us regain a neutral organization after a tumble or trauma. Even a minor trip can have somatic repercussions and lead to unnecessary holding patterns. The lesson is also great at just calming us down, and who doesn’t need a little bit of that now and then in the dance biz?

Flash Feldenkrais Lesson #2: Organizing the Spine in Side Lying

When to do this lesson: After any form of trauma or disorientating movement experience.

Why do this lesson: The lesson will help you return to a more neutral organization, calm down, and improve well being, if you feel a bit shaken up from a minor fall or a hectic day of rehearsal. If post injury, check with your doctor first.

What you need to do this lesson: You will need about 20 minutes of uninterrupted time, a soft mat or blanket and a towel to support your head during this lesson.

Remember: Rest between each step and before you fatigue. Do each instruction just a few times. Make the movement as easy as possible.

Rest on your back and notice your contact. Determine your favorite side. You will be lying on that side during the lesson. Turn to the preferred side so that your arms and legs are at a right angle to your torso. Your knees are bent at right angles but your arms will be straight and not bent at the elbows. Your palms rest on top of each other.

Move your top arm forward in the direction of your fingers passed the lower hand and then back to your starting place, remembering to keep the top arm straight. Notice the shape of your back changing and your head rolling toward the floor in front of you. Rest on your side.

Now move your top shoulder backwards in the direction of the floor behind you. Your top hand will glide toward the elbow of your lower arm. Your top shoulder blade moves behind you toward the floor. Turn your head toward the ceiling as you roll backward. Rest on your side.

Combine both movements, so that your top hand is moving forward and back. Feel the movement go through your spine. Your head will also be rolling toward the floor in front of you and toward the ceiling. Rest on your back and notice the contact of the working side.

Return to your preferred side. Move your top knee further forward, so that it passes the lower knee. You should feel the top ribs articulating. It’s a small movement. Make sure to move the knee directly forward in the direction it is already pointing. Think of your knee as a headlight so keep the light going the same direction as you glide the knee forward in space. Rest.

Now move the knee backwards so that the top hip moves toward the floor behind you. Put both of these movements together so that the knee moves forward and backward in space. Rest on your back. Notice how the contact of the working side.

Return to your side. Move the hand and hip forward and backward. Notice the movement of your head. Make the movement as fluid as possible. Rest on your back and notice the difference between your sides.

Repeat the entire lesson on the other side.

Rest on your back and notice your contact. Come to standing and notice your posture.

Remember you can do these lessons any time, whether you’ve taken a tumble or just want to come back to a calm place. Enjoy the lesson and stay tuned for Flash Feldenkrais Part III.

Flash Feldenkrais for the Busy Dancer: Part I

October 29, 2015 by 4dancers

We’re pleased to offer you “Flash Feldenkrais for Dancers” — by Nancy Wozny. Nancy is the Somatics expert on our Dance Wellness Panel — she wrote the article introducing Somatic work, and why it matters for dancers, “A Somatic Update for Dancers” in August of 2014. Nancy is a Feldenkrais practitioner herself, and is sharing her expertise with you in this series of “Flash Feldenkrais” postings — here is the first one. Try it – I think you will like it. Enjoy! – Jan

Jacob's Pillow — B: Brandon Collwes, Molly Griffin, and Brandin Steffensen of Liz Gerring Dance Company in glacier. Photo Christopher Duggan

Note: This is the first in a series of Feldenkrais Awareness Through Movement Lessons that have been streamlined for dancers.

by Nancy Wozny

Watching Liz Gerring’s dancers in glacier this summer at Jacob’s Pillow navigate their way through a glorious feast of highly nuanced movement reminded me of how somatically rich some contemporary dancers’ lives are these days. Because Gerring’s vocabulary is so mind bogglingly detailed, her dancers are neurally nourished with novelty on a daily basis. Gerring’s dancers also move as if each step is a question, embracing an exploratory process, so that each movement feels like an act of discovery. The sheer abundance of specificity not only makes for compelling choreography, but has an added benefit to the dancers, and possibly the viewers as well. Just watching these deft movers made me feel as if I was getting a month-long Feldenkrais retreat thanks to those handy mirror neurons at work.

Sometimes, we forget just how diverse a dancer’s life is when considering the role of Somatics for today’s dancer. Somatics, defined by philosopher Thomas Hanna, is the study of the body as a lived experience. In my first piece for 4dancers, A Somatics Update, I outlined the characteristics of the field, which include cultivating an accurate sense of awareness, the use of non-habitual movement, resting between actions and attention to our habits, to name a few. The Feldenkrais Method, one of many somatic practices, is particularly useful for performing artists, especially dancers because of their complicated movement lives, which includes both repetition and novelty.

Contemporary choreographers and educators regularly look to change the status quo in what they are asking dancers to do. The movement in today’s dance classes and choreography is considerably more varied than it was say 20 years ago. What does all this have to do with Somatics?

You are busy, and all of us dance health folk are always trying to make you busier. Do this! Do that! The list of what a dancer needs to do besides daily technique class to stay healthy seems to grow each year.

I understand the demands of today’s dancer enough to know that anything can be streamlined to fit an artist’s schedule, even the prolific work of Moshe Feldenkrais, who created over 3,000 brilliant Awareness Through Movement lessons. And trust me, each one is a gem. Although it’s always beneficial to do longer and more complicated lessons, especially when you are in recovery mode, it’s possible to receive a benefit from shorter lessons.

Feldenkrais could very well be the father of cross training as well as somatics, as he addressed expanding our habits head on by introducing the role of novelty in movement as a neural refresher.

We also need to keep in mind that Feldenkrais Method and dance share some of the same domain, which includes inventive movement. The average dancer has no shortage of novelty in their lives, as they regularly meet the demands of today’s choreographers who tirelessly look for new ways to put the human body into action.

Maintenance mode doesn’t quite need the same time commitment, especially when you are getting a good amount of somatic diversity in your daily classes and rehearsals. However, a dancer’s time and energy budget is tight, so perhaps a need-to-know approach may be more doable when it comes to maintaining your somatic health.

With all of this in mind, I offer Flash Feldenkrais for the Busy Dancer, streamlined lessons that address common conditions in a dancers’ working life, which sometimes involves an abundance of novelty. That can be discombobulating in its own right. Sometimes, we need to scale back, look to more central organizations, and simply calm the whole system down. And because it’s Feldenkrais, a tiny bit of novelty pops in at the end because we always need a little post Feldenkrais play time.

Flash Feldenkrais Lesson #1: Returning to Neutral

When to do this lesson: When you have been doing a lot of performing or traveling, or both at the same time. Anytime something has thrown you off from your center, this lesson will help reel you in. I find it to be a somatic palate cleanser, and a “returning to your baseline” lesson.

Why do this lesson: You will find a wonderful ease in your limbs afterward. It’s the Feldenkrais equivalent of straightening out your holiday lights when they get all in a jumble.

What do you need to do this lesson: A soft mat or blanket and 15-20 uninterrupted minutes in a quiet room.

Remember: Rest between each step and before you fatigue. Do each instruction just a few times. Make the movement as easy as possible.

Lie on your back with your legs long and your arms by your side. Sense your contact against the ground. Bring your right arm up so that your fingers point to the ceiling and your palm faces your midline. Notice the effort it takes to do this movement.

Bend up your knees and bring your feet to standing. Bring your right arm up again and move your right arm slightly toward and away from your midline. Notice the “sweet spot” when you pass through neutral.

Bring your right arm up again and move it slightly toward your head and then toward your feet. Notice when you pass through neutral.

Bring your right arm up again and move it toward the midline and away, then toward your head, then your feet, always returning to neutral between each movement.

Repeat steps 1-5 with the left arm.

Repeat steps 1-5 steps with both arms at once.

Repeat steps 1-5 with the right leg in the air.

Repeat steps 1-5 with the left leg in the air.

Bring all limbs into the air and spend some time improvising. Play with the limbs moving toward and away from each other in various configurations. This is where the imagination can slip in while you find some new and fun ways of moving your limbs in space.

Rest on your back again. Lift your right arm into the air and notice how easy it is now. Come to sitting, then standing. Walk around and notice your sense of ease and grace.

NEXT UP: Stay tuned for the second installation of Flash Feldenkrais for the Busy Dancer, which will focus on organizing oneself for a shift and cleansing the kinesthetic palate.

Introducing Our Dance Wellness Panel

May 13, 2015 by 4dancers

Aloha to all!

This is a very special post regarding the Dance Wellness segment of 4dancers.org:

In the fall of 2011, Catherine Tully (whom I had never met) contacted me and asked me if I would like to write an article about Dance Medicine and Science – aka Dance Wellness – for her online site, just to introduce readers to that aspect of information in the dance world. I was pleased to do so, and so in January of 2012, we posted that first article. Your response, as readers, was so overwhelmingly positive that Catherine asked me to start a new on-going segment of 4dancers, entitled “Dance Wellness”. I did, and the rest is history. Over the last 3+ years we have posted, 36 articles, written not only by myself but by guest contributors whom I have brought in.

Your eagerness to learn more about this important field has prompted us to take the next step, to continue “spreading the word” online about the many aspects of Dance Wellness, and how all of this information can help dancers to “dance longer, dance stronger”. We are so pleased to announce the 4dancers.org Dance Wellness Panel–a distinguished group of people from the Dance Medicine and Science field, who have agreed to join us in this new endeavor.

Below you will find each of our panel members, along with information about their backgrounds, associations and areas of specialty. We are thrilled to have them on board, and we look forward to sharing more dance wellness information with you in the coming months!

My best to everyone-
Jan

Jan Dunn, MS
Dance Wellness Editor – 4dancers.org

James Garrick, MD., is an orthopedic surgeon and the founder and Medical Director of the Center for Sports Medicine, at St. Francis Memorial Hospital in San Francisco, California. When founded 35 years ago, the Center had the first Dance Medicine department on the West Coast, and had one of only two West Coast Pilates facilities. For forty years he has been one of the leading figures in the dance medicine field, with particular research interests in the epidemiology of dance and sports injuries. His research includes a cost analysis of dancers’ workman’s comp injuries, insurance coverage of independent dance companies in San Francisco Bay area, and injury patterns in young dancers.

Dr. Garrick was physician for San Francisco Ballet Company, founded the clinic for dancers at San Francisco School for the Arts, and is currently on the physician panel for the San Francisco Ballet School. He also founded the Sports Medicine Division at the University of Washington, and is a founding and former board member of the American Orthopedic Society for Sports Medicine. He is a clinical professor in the Department of Pediatrics at the University of California, San Francisco School of Medicine, and serves on the editorial board of several journals. He has authored / co-authored five books, including Ski Conditioning (1978), Peak Condition (1986), and Sports Injuries – Diagnosis and Management (1990), as well as numerous articles for medical journals and book chapters.

Dr. Garrick is a member of American College of Sport Medicine, American Orthopedic Surgeons, American Academy of Orthopedic Surgeons, Performing Arts Medicine Association (PAMA), and International Association for Dance Medicine and Science (IADMS).

Gigi Berardi, PhD has an academic background and performing experience that allow her to combine her interests in the natural and social sciences with her passion for dance, as both critic and writer. Over 300 articles and reviews by Dr. Berardi have appeared in broadcast and print media, including Dance Magazine, Dance International, the Los Angeles Times, the Anchorage Daily News, The Olympian, The Bellingham Herald, LA Style, IDEA Today, LA Reader, LA Weekly, and scientific journals such as Journal of Dance Medicine & Science, Kinesiology and Medicine for Dance, Dance Research Journal, Your Patient and Fitness, and Impulse: The International Journal of Dance Science, Education, and Medicine. She has written as a national advocacy columnist for the Dance Critics Association Newsletter and has served on performing arts panels for the Alaska State Council on the Arts. She currently serves as a contributing editor and writer for and a correspondent for Dance Magazine. She is a founding co-editor of Kinesiology and Medicine for Dance and currently serves as Book Review Editor for Journal of Dance Medicine & Science. Her public radio features (for KSKA, Anchorage) have been recognized by the Society of Professional Journalists. She has served on the Board of Directors of the Dance Critics Association, and is a member of the American Society of Journalists and Authors.

A professor at Western Washington University, she received the university’s Diversity Achievement Award in 2004. Finding Balance: Fitness and Training for a Lifetime in Dance is her fifth book. The completely revised edition appeared in 2005, a seminar on the earlier edition was noted in The New Yorker; both editions had second printings. Her technical training, residencies, and seminars are listed in her resume. In winter, 2000, she was a Fairhaven College Distinguished Teaching Colleague for dance.

Robin Kish, Dance Wellness — Robin Kish, MS, MFA

Robin Kish, MS, MFA, is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Dance at Chapman University. Robin blends her background in dance and science to creative innovative educational programs supporting the development of safe and effective dance training programs.

She has presented research and developed education lectures for the Performing Arts Medicine Association (PAMA) and the International Association of Dance Medicine and Science (IADMS). In 2013 she developed the first online dance kinesiology class for the National Dance Education Organization (NDEO). As a product of the private studio / competition environment she is passionate about bringing dancer wellness and safe teaching practices to the industry.

Moira McCormack, MS, is Head of Physiotherapy at The Royal Ballet Company in London, UK.

After a professional dance career in classical ballet she trained as a dance teacher and then as a Physical Therapist and has worked with dancers for the last 20 years. She teaches anatomy, dance technique and injury prevention internationally, with a main interest in the management of the hypermobile dancer.

Janice Plastino, Dance Wellness — Janice G. Plastino, PhD

Janice G. Plastino, PhD is Emerita Professor from the University of California Irvine (USA) in the Department of Dance. Her book with James Penrod, The Dancer Prepares: Modern Dance for Beginners has been in continual print with revisions since 1970. She has published extensively with papers, journal articles, and several book chapters. She has danced professionally on television, stage, and in dance companies for national and international venues.

Dr. Plastino’s choreography of over 50 works includes 15 years as co-director of Penrod Plastino Movement Theatre, directing opera at Lincoln Center, New York, and creating works at NBC and the BBC television. She is regarded as the founder of the field of Dance Science, and established the first dancer screening / wellness program in an educational setting at UCI in 1982. She introduced the Pilates Method in the UCI Dept. Of Dance in 1983, the first such program in higher education.

She was instrumental in the formation of the National Dance Education Association (NDEO), and a leader during the organization’s early years. She has been a member of Performing Arts Medicine Association (PAMA) since 1989, served on the BOD for four years, and in 2013 was awarded the Dawson Service Award. In 2015, she became the first recipient of the International Association for Dance Medicine’s (IADMS) Dance Educator Award.

Dr. Plastino has reported her findings in dance science to scientific societies and medical associations throughout the United States and abroad. She was an invited guest of the USSR government in 1988 (before détente), observing the Bolshoi and Kirov ballet companies while consulting and lecturing about dance injuries. The Olympic Committee invited her to lecture on dance injuries at the 1984 Olympic Scientific Congress held in Eugene, Oregon and in Seoul, South Korea in 1988. Her pioneering and continuing work in the pre-participation screening of dancers has been lauded by the medical, research and dance communities. Many of her students have established wellness programs at their colleges, universities, private studios, and private practices.

Dr. Plastino is currently adapting her movement theories for use in for the private dance studio. She is most passionate about the private studios having easy access to new research in training methods of the young dancer. Currently she consults on dancer wellness, evaluation of public and private dance programs, gives dancer wellness workshops, and continues to present papers at conferences.

Emma Redding, PhD is Head of Dance Science at Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance.

Emma originally trained as a dancer and performed with the company Tranz Danz, Hungary and for Rosalind Newman, Hong Kong. She teaches contemporary dance technique at Trinity Laban and lectures in physiology alongside her management and research work. She has been Principal Investigator for several large-scale research projects including a 3-year government funded study into dance talent identification and development as well as studies into the physical and mental demands of music playing and the role of mental imagery within creative practice.

She has published her work in academic journals and is a member of the Board of Directors and a Past President of the International Association for Dance Medicine and Science (IADMS). She is also founding Partner of the UK National Institute for Dance Medicine and Science (NIDMS).

Erin Sanchez, MS is the Healthier Dancer Programme Manager (job share) at Dance UK in London, administrates the Rudolf Nureyev Foundation’s Medical Website for healthcare professionals and dancers and manages the Dance Psychology Network.

Erin pursued vocational dance training with American Ballet Theatre, Boston Ballet School and the Alvin Ailey School. She also holds a BA (Hons) in Dance and Sociology from the University of New Mexico and an MSc in Dance Science from Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance in London.

Erin is a registered provider for Safe in Dance International, a member of the International Association for Dance Medicine and Science and holds the qualification in Safe and Effective Dance Practice. She has lectured in dance science and taught dance technique in the United States, UK, Egypt and Malta.

Selina Shah, MD, FACP is a board certified sports medicine and internal medicine physician and the Director of Dance Medicine at the Center for Sports Medicine in San Francisco, CA and Walnut Creek, CA. She has lectured nationally and internationally on various dance medicine topics and has published papers in medical journals and books including her original research on dance injuries in contemporary professional dancers. She is the dance company physician for the San Francisco Ballet School, Liss Fain Dance Company and Diablo Ballet. She is a physician for Berkeley Repertory Theater, Mill’s College, St. Mary’s College, and Northgate High School. She takes care of the performers for Cirque du Soleil and various Broadway productions when they come to the San Francisco Bay Area. She has taken care of several Broadway performers (i.e. American Idiot, South Pacific, Lion King, Book of Mormon, MoTown, and Billy Elliot). She is a team physician for USA Synchronized Swimming, USA Weightlifting, USA Figure Skating and travels with the athletes internationally and nationally. She is also a member of the USA Gymnastics Referral Network. As a former professional Bollywood and salsa dancer, Dr. Shah is passionate about caring for dancers. She continues taking ballet classes weekly and also enjoys running, yoga, Pilates, weightlifting, and plyometric exercise.

Nancy Wozny is editor in chief of Arts + Culture Texas, reviews editor at Dance Source Houston and a contributor to Pointe Magazine, Dance Teacher and Dance Magazine, where she is also a contributing editor. She has taught and written about Feldenkrais and somatics in dance for two decades.

Dance Wellness Contributor Matt Wyon — Matt Wyon, PhD

Matthew Wyon, PhD, is a Professor in Dance Science at the University of Wolverhampton, UK and a Visiting Professor at the ArtEZ, Institute of the Arts, The Netherlands.

At Wolverhampton he is the course leader for the MSc in Dance Science and Director of Studies for a number of dance science and medicine doctoral candidates. He is a founding partner of the National Institute of Dance Medicine and Science, UK.

Prof. Wyon is Vice President of the International Association for Dance Medicine & Science and a past chair of the Research Committee. He has worked with numerous dancers and companies within the UK and Europe as an applied physiologist and strength and conditioning coach.

A Somatic Update For Dancers

August 7, 2014 by 4dancers

Ami Shulman with participants from the 2011 Contemporary Program of The School at Jacob's Pillow; photo Cherylynn Tsushima, courtesy Jacob's Pillow Dance — Ami Shulman with participants from the 2011 Contemporary Program of The School at Jacob’s Pillow; photo Cherylynn Tsushima, courtesy Jacob’s Pillow Dance

Our guest author for this Dance Wellness posting is introducing a topic I have been wanting to bring to our readers–integrating somatic work into dance. Nancy Wozny has long been associated with somatics and dance, and is currently Editor-in-Chief of Arts + Culture Texas, in Houston. She is a Feldenkrais teacher and has taught at Baylor College of Medicine, Texas Women’s University, the Jung Center, and other institutions, and has been a guest lecturer at Rice University since 2005.

Somatics (the term is derived from the Greek word for the living body ‘ Soma”) many years ago was called “The Body Therapies”, and has long been a topic close to my heart. In the 1980’s / early 1990’s, I was Director of the Workshops for Professionals at The American Dance Festival, which included The Body Therapy Workshop–and in that capacity, I had the privilege to learn about and experience many forms of somatic work, and could see their benefits for dancers.

Nancy’s article will be the first in a series of articles I hope to have for you, our readers. This one is meant as a general introduction to the subject, and down the road we will have separate articles on some of the major somatic systems that are being used in dance. We have already talked about some of them – Pilates, for example, and Franklin Method, could be considered to be in this category.

I’m very pleased that Nancy has agreed to write this initial article on a very important topic —Enjoy !

Jan Dunn, MS, Dance Wellness Editor

______________________________________

by Nancy Wozny

“How do you allow the movement to be reversible at any moment?” asks Ami Shulman, while teaching in the contemporary program at the school of Jacob’s Pillow. Shulman, formerly of Compagnie Marie Chouinard and now a Feldenkrais teacher, is part of a new generation of movement educators shaping the dance field one plie at a time.

Somatics has come a long way since I was once introduced by accident as an expert in “somnambulism,” which technically is a sleeping disorder. We do, in fact, become a little sleepy when doing a somatic practice, but that’s not the point.

Much of what makes up the field of somatics was in motion way before the term was coined in 1976 by philosopher Thomas Hanna. Somatics derives from the Greek word for the living body, “soma,” and is the study of the body experienced from within. More simply put, it’s the skill of being able to sense one’s state of being. You would think we wouldn’t need help with that, but due to the habitual nature of our modern lives, we do.

Today, if you mention you attended a Feldenkrais Method or Alexander Technique session, many of your peers will have some idea of what you mean. The years of “Feldenwhat?” and “Alexander who?” are fading. The Alexander Technique even got a mention in Lena Dunham’s popular HBO hit show GIRLS. There’s also a much greater chance that you might run into somatic principles and concepts in your daily life.

Listening to Shulman pepper in instructions with words like “soften,” “feel,” “explore” and “sense,” reminds me of just how fluid the boundary can be between somatics and a dance class. There are a multitude of ways the work surfaces in a movement class. If your dance or yoga teacher starts with a body scan on the floor, that’s somatics. If you have worked with a foam roller with your physical therapist, yep, somatics. (Moshe Feldenkrais was first to use those handy cylinders. Back in the day, they were made from wood.) If you have tried any wobbly balance challenging gadget, yes, that too has its origins in the somatics goal of enlisting a non-habitual environment to elicit new movement. If anyone has asked you to stop and pay attention to what you are actually doing in that moment, boom, somatics.

The idea that we can better pay attention to our actions to control our movement can be traced back to the late 19th-century European Gymnastik movement, which used breath, movement, and touch to direct awareness. François Delsarte, Emile Jaques-Dalcroze and Bess Mensendieck encouraged a kind of inside-out expression that questioned the traditional nature of movement training. They seemed to be saying “the body is the person,” thus joining mind and body in a celebration of the human form.

The American contribution to somatics also deserves mention. Mabel Ellsworth Todd’s classic text, The Thinking Body, introduced dancers to the role of the mind in dance training back in 1937. Her student, Lulu Sweigard (who later taught at Juilliard), developed a process of activating the imagination to affect movement called “ideokinesis.” (from the Greek words for “idea” and “movement”) Irene Dowd, who won the American Dance Festival’s 2014 Balasaraswati/Joy Ann Dewey Beinecke Endowed Chair for Distinguished Teaching award, carried the work even further. Eric Franklin, with the Franklin Method, continues to explore and develop new ways to incorporate imagery and neuroplasticity concepts into dance training.

The American Dance Festival, in Durham, NC, under the leadership of Dean Martha Myers, introduced somatic work to thousands of dancers in the 1980’s and ‘90’s, with The Body Therapy Workshops and by having specific classes and faculty as part of the regular Festival schedule. Myers, while not a somatic practitioner herself, early on recognized the value of this work for dancers, and through her, ADF became one of the seminal places where somatics integrated into dance training. Her 6-part Dance Magazine series “The Body Therapies” (1983) is considered one of the best early sources for learning about the field.

Soon, it seemed people from all over the world, from a variety of disciplines, were exploring the same territory from different entry points. Because dance is a body-centered art from, it has always been ahead of the body/mind game.

In fact, so many of the American somatic pioneers harked from the dance world. Bonnie Bainbridge Cohen (Body-Mind Centering) was first to consider how our developmental structures are mirrored in our movement. The late Emily Conrad (Continuum) considered the primacy of the fluid system. Joan Skinner (Skinner Releasing Technique), Elaine Summers (Kinetic Awareness), Susan Klein (Klein Technique), and Judith Aston (Aston-Patterning) each added their own approaches as well.

Ami Shulman with participants from the 2013 Contemporary Program of The School at Jacob's Pillow; photo Christopher Duggan — Ami Shulman with participants from the 2013 Contemporary Program of The School at Jacob’s Pillow; photo Christopher Duggan

And then we need to consider all the somatic smoothies going in dance, yoga, Pilates and fitness classes. The material is out there and people are using it, whether they know where its origins are from or not.

So what defines an activity as somatic? Here are some basic guidelines. Know that there are differences between each somatic discipline that may stress one of these principles more than another. While the modalities differ, the goal of living a more complete and embodied life remains central to the somatic domain.

Starting in a neutral place:

Somatics is a subtle process, if we don’t know where we are in the first place, it might be hard to tell that anything is different at the end. We need a baseline to know that change occurred. Most somatic classes begin with some kind of inventory of how a person is operating. It may be as simple as lying on the ground and sensing which parts are heavier.

Slower than slow:

If you have ever listened to someone playing a familiar song on the piano so slowly that you forget what song it is, you will know exactly why we move so slowly in a somatic class. When we move slowly, it gives us the time to pay attention, and our habits are less likely to commandeer the train of our body and take over. We get a fresh start and a better chance for improvement. Keep in mind, things aren’t always slow; that would be too habitual.

Using images:

When Shulman asks her students to use their feet like a tongue, suddenly the quality in the room shifts as they consider the contact of their body against the floor. Many somatic practitioners have used visual images to evoke certain ideas, direction or quality of movement. The mind/body card has been since backed up with mirror neuron theory concerning the power of thinking yourself through a movement.

Reflection:

Whether its Emily Conrad’s open attention, or Alexander’s inhibition, or Feldenkrais’ many rests, there is always the pause that matters. Somewhere in the process, you will stop what you are doing. Somatics enlist a discontinuous process, and the pauses are built into the lessons. In Feldenkrais, the pause is when the work does its work.

Habit:

Somatics practitioners talk a lot about habit. The first thing to know is that we need habits. Life would be a huge bore and a chore without them. We would spend all day trying to figure out how to tie our shoes. Habit is not the bad guy. But not having enough habits, or using the wrong habit to accomplish a certain action, can lead us into trouble.

Non-habitual movement:

If you find yourself doing the same thing week after week, it’s not somatics. We like to change it up on planet soma, so there is very little repetition. Most often you are doing movements that you have never done before, which will feel awkward and sometimes, even annoying. Dancers don’t like to be beginners, but they should give it a try more often. When you do a movement that is new to you, it’s hard to bring old habits to the floor, because you don’t have any.

Exploration rather than accomplishment:

This is a tough one for dancers, who are used to getting somewhere, and generally speaking, the faster the better. The “there” of somatics is not one place, but many places. Lessons are designed for you to explore through. You navigate a constrained playground set up by the lesson or practitioner.

Feel rather than see:

When I was a young dancer, moving away from the mirror meant I basically disappeared. I had no idea where I was in space without my BFF, the mirror. I was constantly getting lost on stage because of this over reliance on my reflection. In a somatic experience, the mirror should and will be covered. You will be sensing yourself from the inside. This is a skill, and a rather handy one at that. As mirrors do not follow us around in our lives, I suggest you learn it well. (Editors’ note: Do you remember from the Sally Radell articles on mirrors? – I gave you Master Limon Teacher Betty Jones’ favorite quote: “mirrors put you outside of your body, not in it”!)

Ami Shulman with participants from the Contemporary Program of The School at Jacob's Pillow; photo Em Watson, courtesy Jacob's Pillow Dance — Ami Shulman with participants from the Contemporary Program of The School at Jacob’s Pillow; photo Em Watson, courtesy Jacob’s Pillow Dance

How does somatics fit in with a dancer’s overall training regime?

In my day, some dancers went off the deep end of the somatic pool and forgot that they needed daily training to keep up their technique. This is the contradiction we need to embrace in any kind of elite training. It takes hard work to make a dancer, with tons of repetition and time in the classroom. Somatics doesn’t replace training, it augments it, preventing the strict training regimes necessary in dance from becoming injurious. It helps spread the neurological load, so we move with more of ourselves in terms of effort. We don’t build strength in a somatics activity, we gain easier access to our strength. Just like a diet, we need and crave variety, and a chance to reboot our system so that we are operating in the most optimal way. That’s what somatics offers.

Do I have to go to a dedicated somatics class?

These days, a somatic experience can be slipped into just about any kind of movement class. There are ballet teachers who have been known to bring in a little somatics between tendus and grande battements. As I said earlier, the material is out there and being used in all kinds of innovative ways. You would be hard pressed to find a physical therapist not using some somatic principles in their work. A dedicated class is terrific for injury prevention and deep learning, but know there are many ways to access this wealth of knowledge.

What will seem downright weird to newbies?

Honestly, just about everything. You will think you are wasting your time on the ground sensing yourself when you could be stretching. Your teacher may not be a dancer or even look remotely like a dancer. I remember thinking during one of my early Feldenkrais classes that the movement was ugly. You will wonder how these simple movements will help you. You might doubt everything. All of this or some of this will probably happen. Carry on anyway. It will be worth it in the long run.

So why add this to your already jammed back training regime?

A few reasons: you will have a longer career, you will gain skills that will stay with you way beyond your dance career, and finally, you will simply be more graceful to watch, whether you are fetching water or doing a 32 fouettes.

Nancy Wozny picked up the somatics cause when she was 22 and never put it down. She has taught Feldenkrais classes to a broad range of individuals and has taught at Baylor College of Medicine, Texas Women’s University, Rice University, the Jung Center and other institutions. Her stories on dance and somatics can be found in Dance Magazine, Dance Teacher and Pointe. Currently, she is editor in chief of Arts + Culture Texas, based in Houston, TX.

Flash Feldenkrais Lesson #2: Organizing the Spine in Side Lying

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