Reflecting on October

Since we started back at uni on the 1st October, time has gone so quickly!! This post is to reflect on my practice in Movement Studies 3 over my first month of my last year at Coventry University. 

I began by struggling to get back into moving.  On the first day back, we began by finding connections between the jaw, wrist, ankles and hands with the floor.  I put this down to not having moved in this way over the summer.  As soon as we began moving in a way that opened the spine, everything instantly became familiar again.  I spent my second year investigating finding open spaces in the body. 

I've been really enjoying the Experiential Anatomy classes this term.  I feel like everything we do in these sessions are carried through into all the other Movement Studies classes during the week.  In particular the concept of cellular breathing.  This idea of the entire body breathing and yielding into the floor is something I continue to experience in my moving ever since it was introduced to us. 

At the end of the month, we began looking at the Navel Radiation which I posted about a couple of weeks ago, this is continuing to have an effect on my moving.

The Navel Radiation

In an Experiential Anatomy class earlier this week, we were introduced to the Navel Radiation.  This emphasises the significance of the centre.  The navel is the organising point for a starfish.  It has no brain and no one part of the starfish is more important, each limb is equal.

(image from Google)

This make up of a starfish is the same as a human when they are 8 weeks in utero.  At this point in our development, our life source and nourishment comes from the umbilical cord attached to our navel.  Also as new born babies, none of our 6 limbs (2 arms, 2 legs, head and tail) are more important than another. 

As part of this session, we performed a partner graphic using this concept of navel radiation.  We had to lie on the floor (like a starfish) and our partners had to find our navel and trace along our limbs always maintaining a relationship to centre.  When my partner Alix found my navel, I was quite surprised at where it was, I had pictured it being much higher when I was imagining it.  When my limbs were being traced, I felt a sense on length.  Like they were very long and stretching far away from my navel.  I also found that the way I was breathing made me feel like I was floating in water; very gentle, calming and with an even pace to it.  When we began rolling and extending and contracting around the navel, it felt very natural to me.

Below is a sketch I made in my journal after the partner graphic.