Part II. Improving balance and motion

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Oswald Brooks
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1 Part II Improving balance and motion

3 Chapter 6 Heads, shoulders, knees, and toes... and then some Your body moves in complex, three-dimensional ways. The intent of this chapter is to identify how different parts of the body move and coordinate with other parts of the body. This is the first step toward improving your balance and movement potential in technique class. Chapter 6 organizes the major skeletal joints of the body into four categories: 1 Distal : hands/wrists, feet/ankles, and head. 2 Mid-limb : elbows and knees. 3 Proximal : shoulder girdle and hips joints. 4 Torso : pelvis, spine, and ribs. Figure 6.1 Skeletal joints of the body

4 46 Creative Ballet companion website material Let s explore these regions of the body, beginning with the arms and legs. ****************************************** Guided exploration #1: distal, mid-limb, and proximal Hands and feet 1 Bend and extend the many joints in your fingers and toes. Then, widen and narrow them, like the opening and closing of a fan. Spread the toes wide along the fl oor as you perform the fi ve classical positions. 2 Firmly massage the center of both hands and feet. You are touching the metatarsals and tarsals of your feet, and the metacarpals and carpals of your hands. How many bones and bumps can you locate? The tarsals of the feet allow for complex movements important to ballet dancers: they flex and point, and wing (pronate) and sickle (supinate). Explore those movements. 3 Massage your wrists and ankles. Flex and extend both joints. Next, rotate your hands so that your palms face upward (supination), and then downward (pronation). These movements are possible because of two joints: one above the wrist and one below the elbow. These are your radialulnar joints. Explore the movements of these joints as you perform port de bras. Figure 6.2 Ankle and foot

5 Heads, shoulders, knees, and toes... and then some 47 Figure 6.3 Hand, wrist, and forearm Elbows and knees 1 Touch the bumps around the elbows and knees, and trace the circumference of the kneecap (patella). Flex and extend both joints. Notice how they fold and crease in one direction, and then extend in lengthen in the opposite direction as you perform demi and grand plié. 2 Grip or lock the elbows and knees in an extended position while performing a battement tendu with the arms in second position. Locking these joints prevents easeful communication between the proximal and distal joints. Do you feel that? Instead, embody a malleable and supple movement quality in these joints. Allow them to easefully fl ex and extend, like an agile elastic band, as you perform battement fondu en croix. Shoulders and hips 1 Massage your shoulder and hip joints. Notice the density of the muscle tissue surrounding these joints. Both are ball and socket joints. Their round shape means they can really move! They allow the arms and legs to rotate (outward and inward rotation), swing forward and backward

6 48 Creative Ballet companion website material (flexion and extension, i.e. balançoire ), and lift and lower to the side (abduction and adduction, i.e. grand battement à la second ). Explore the many balletic movements these joints make possible! Figure 6.4 Pelvis and Hip Joints 2 Move the shoulder blades (scapulae) : squeeze them together and spread them apart; lift them up toward your ears and press them downward. Pressing your scapulae downward as you lift your arms is important in ballet technique. Embody that. 3 Touch your collarbones (clavicles). The outer edges articulate with the upper arm and the scapulae, and the inner edges touch the Figure 6.5 Clavicle, Scapula, and Shoulder

7 Heads, shoulders, knees, and toes... and then some 49 breastbone (sternum). Did you know your scapulae and collarbones fl y with your arms as you lift and lower them? This enhances the expansion your arms in space during port de bras. To feel this, lie on your back and slide your arms along the floor. Do you feel your scapulae and clavicles moving with your arms? **************************************** The spine connects three large areas of your body: the pelvis, rib cage, and head. It acts as a conduit between these parts, and therefore change in any aspect changes the whole configuration. 1 For example: Perform a grand rond de jambe en de hors. How do the head, ribs, and pelvis change their relationship to one another as the leg moves from devant to à la seconde, and then to derrière? We have yet to fully explore the joints of the torso. So, let s do that now. **************************************** Guided exploration #2: torso Pelvis 1 Sit on a hard surface and shift your weight from right to left on your pelvis. The bony parts pressing into the surface are your sitz bones (ischial tuberosities). They are the feet of the pelvis. Some of your strongest turnout muscles attach here. Stand up and touch your sitz bones as you turnout your legs. Do you feel these muscles contracting? 2 Touch the bony ridge at the top of the pelvis (iliac crest) and follow it forward to the bony points at the front, sometimes called the hip bones or the headlights of the pelvis. Then follow the ridge backward to the bony bumps at the back. This is where the pelvis articulates with the sacrum of the spine. Excessive squeezing of the butt (the gluteus maximus muscles) decreases your mobility in this region of your body. Stand in first position and imagine your pelvis as wide and expansive as elephant ears. Then, squeeze the gluteus maximus to create a narrowing sensation. Play with these contrasting sensations as you perform a battement degagé en croix. 3 Locate your pubic crest. Walk your fingers downward from the navel, along your lower abdominals and past the iliac crest, until you feel another bony ridge: the pubic crest. Your abdominals attach to the pubic crest and the iliac crest. When they contract, they lift these bony areas, which prevents forward tipping of the pelvis during plié and relevé sous-sus.

8 50 Creative Ballet companion website material Figure 6.6 Locate the pubic crest on the lower front of your pelvis Spine and ribs Figure 6.7 The ribs are connected to the spine 1 Lightly tap the top of your head. Lengthen your neck (cervical spine) toward the gentle tapping, as if your head was floating upward in space. Trace downward from the top of the head to the ear canals. Trace a

9 Heads, shoulders, knees, and toes... and then some 51 horizontal circle from the center of the ears to the back of the skull and then forward along the cheekbones to the nose. Did you know that your spine extends all the way up to the center of the ears? 2 Massage the muscles of the neck. Start at the bumps of the spine (spinous processes) and move outward and downward toward the shoulders. Mobilize your cervical spine forward and backward, side to side, and rotate it right and left. 3 Walk your fingers downward along the spinous processes until your reach the level of the lowest rib. The lowest floating rib connects to the lowest vertebra in the middle spine (thoracic spine). Trace each of your ribs as they transverse from the back of your torso to the front. You have 12 pairs of ribs, and guess what? You also have 12 vertebrae in your thoracic spine! Which ribs and vertebrae are the hardest to fi nd with your hands? 4 Walk your fingers downward along the spinous processes of the lower spine (lumbar spine). Continue downward past the iliac crest, along the sacrum and the tail (coccyx). The sacrum joins the right and left side of the pelvis together. This is why your spine moves when you move your pelvis! Explore that. Tip the top of your pelvis forward (sticking your bottom out) and feel how your lumbar spine hyperextends (swayback). Tip the top of your pelvis backward (tucking your pelvis) and feel how your lumbar spine flexes (like a sit up position). Rotate the pelvis to the right and left and feel how the spine also twists. Play around with other movement possibilities! 5 Inhale and exhale, expanding and condensing the back, sides, and front surfaces of your ribs and torso. Continue this easeful breath pattern as you perform large, sweeping port de corps. Fully mobilize the parts of your spine in space, allowing each vertebra to participate in an agile, three-dimensional dance. *********************************** Now that you have explored different regions of the body, you are ready to explore how those regions coordinate with one another. Rudolf Laban recognized: The body acts like an orchestra in which each section is related to any other and is part of the whole. Its various parts can combine in concerted action, or one part may perform alone as a soloist while others accompany. Each action of a particular part of the body has to be understood in relation to the whole. 2 Guided exploration #3 focuses on orchestral relationships in the body with the purpose of strengthening your torso-to-limb relationships and whole body coordination. I use the image of sunrays in this exploration. You may find that

10 52 Creative Ballet companion website material a different image works better for you. Some possibilities include: ribbons/ streamers, starfish, rubber bands, paint strokes, or rivers. *********************************** Guided exploration #3: body connections 3 Imagine your body is the sun with rays of light shooting out in all directions. The light travels through your body from the core, where it is hottest, through each of the limbs, cooling as it travels from the distal edges of the body into space. These rays of light connect different parts of your body: opposite shoulders and hips, elbows and knees, and hands and feet. Figure 6.8 Rays of light emanating in all directions Arms to pelvis 1 Trace a pathway from your left fingers to your sternum, passing along the left elbow, shoulder joint, and clavicle. Keep the right hand on the top of the sternum as you move your left arm through space. Imagine the sunrays emanating from the sternum, through the arm, and out through the fingertips into space. Where are you sending the light? 2 Trace the pathway from the sternum to the pubic crest. Maintain the locating touch at the pubic crest as you move your arm through space.

11 Heads, shoulders, knees, and toes... and then some 53 The ray of light now extends from the fingertips to the pelvis. Perform different port de bras, allowing your torso to expand and condense, twist and untwist. Send warm sunrays from your body into space. 3 Repeat 1 and 2 along the back surfaces of the body. This is best accomplished with a partner. Trace from the fingers to scapulae. Maintain touch on scapulae as you move your arms through space. Then, trace from the scapula to the sacrum/tail location. Maintain touch at the sacrum as you move your arms through space. How does this pathway feel similar to or different than the pathway along the front surfaces of your body? Feet to head 1 Place your hands on the first three toes of both feet. Trace upward along the inner surfaces of the legs to your navel. Then, sweep along the lower ribs to the back of the spine. Continue upward along the spine until you reach the top of your head. Extend your arms upward in space. Inhale and exhale imagining the sunrays warming the whole pathway from feet to head. 2 Trace the downward pathway. Begin at the top of the head, slide down your face to your navel, passing along the upper ribs and sternum. Then, sweep along the lower ribs to the back of the spine and downward to the sacrum/tail location. Continue downward along the hamstrings to the heel bones and finally along the side of the feet to the last two toes. Inhale and exhale imagining the sunrays warming the whole pathway from head to feet. 3 Perform a few different balletic movements. How do these upward and downward pathways enliven your movements? Figure 6.9 Lines of connection during tendu and relevé

12 54 Creative Ballet companion website material Improvisation 1 Explore other pathways of connection in the body. Trace from: one arm to the other arm passing along the clavicles; one foot to the opposite hand passing through the core; the left shoulder to the right hip joint; the left knee to the left elbow. What other connections can you trace in your body? 2 Focus on one of these connections as you explore an exercise at barre or in centre. *********************************** Notes 1 I. Bartenieff (1980, 2002). Body Movement: Coping with the Environment. New York: Routledge, p. x. 2 R. Laban (2011). Mastery of Movement, 4th edn. Alton, UK: Dance Books, p See also Hackney, P. (2002). Making Connections: Total Body Integration Through Bartenieff Fundamentals. New York: Routledge. Hackney discusses arms to tail and feet to head pathways in Chapter 8: Head Tail Connectivity.

Routledge. Moving three-dimensionally. Kinesphere. Chapter 10

Routledge. Moving three-dimensionally. Kinesphere. Chapter 10 Chapter 10 Moving three-dimensionally Kinesphere ************************************************** Hold markers in both hands. Begin to draw imaginary lines in the empty space nearest to your body. Create