My School of Work
A movement practice will provide the platform and broad range of material to contend with. In taking part in a movement school like this I’ll aim to teach material that will help you foster a lifelong movement practice that is independent in its own way and truly unique to you as an individual.
The school of work will follow a curriculum based approach in exposing students to what I feel are fundamental practices (listed below) that relate to the field of movement. The teachings will be delivered in an organised, modular and process-based approach in order to present these various systems as a coherent body of knowledge.
The Body (Soma)
We live in a miraculous structure, full of wonder and possibility. The potential it holds needs to be explored in order to live a full life.
With this focal point in our practice and curriculum we will dive into many areas with the ultimate goal of freedom of expression with the body. We will achieve this by opening up the spine, legs and arms to all their subtle yet vast movement capabilities. This base of freedom will allow us to explore the various qualities inherent within the body such as lightness, athleticism, grace, precision, rhythmicity, coordination, adroitness, dexterity, elasticity, speed, power, strength to name but a few. Fields of movement to explore these qualities in application will range from the likes of acrobatics, dance, parkour, capoeira, kung fu, boxing, tai chi, yoga, resistance training and strength & conditioning. These fields offer us a chance to focus on strict parameters in order to develop specific skills. These skills are developed with unification in mind and have been selected for their range of application rather than their utility in one field alone.
Other notable features of this aspect of the school will be in how the material is taught and the tools we use. The environment around us offers various training platforms such as walls, stairs, poles, bars, rails and of course the ground itself. These environments can be explored in various ways with movement at the forefront of the mind which opens up realms of possibility. Just like the environment, various objects and such will be used to expose the body to its unique capacities.
Our relationship to others will also become a source of movement exploration. Another human and partner influences us in many ways and offers another nervous system to use as a sounding board to aid our movement exploration (more will be explained below…).
Altogether, these various tools and platforms help us during the practice to see qualities that are present across all fields of movement. We become less scattered in our mind and body. As we become more fluent in the language of movement we start to unveil parts of ourselves we didn’t know were there that were just waiting for the right stimulus to expose them.
The Mind (Psyche)
Another structure that is equally as miraculous as the body is the mind. But while the practical material for changing and shaping the body is vast, the same can’t be said about the mind.
There are of course many theoretical models of the mind and its inner workings. But rarely are they both understood and applied by an individual. This is the fundamental aim of this subdivision of the practice. We will explore theoretical models of the mind while also working on applying these concepts in order to fully integrate them into ourselves. We will analyse the physiological make-up of this structure and how this relates to its function as well as psychological and philosophical models that further illuminate its inner workings.
The practical material we will explore in relation to the mind will give us an opportunity to observe and direct the change we want to see in ourselves. This aspect cannot be stressed enough as mere comprehension and knowledge of these models will not drive the desired adaptation. Effort and practice is required on our part if we want to fully understand these models of the mind.
The Spirit (Soul)
The body and mind give us an ability to navigate the world on a physical plane but they do not address the metaphysical. What lies beyond all of this is something vast and ineffable.
This aspect of the practice may seem the hardest to grasp and comprehend. My objective here is to present material from some of the various traditions that were concerned with the esoteric and spiritual aspect of life. A comprehensive and robust assessment of these traditions is what’s needed in my eyes to see both the positive and negative aspects of their doctrine. Only then can we put ourselves in a good position to extract the wisdom inherent in their teachings while also avoiding dogmatic, zealous and narrow-minded thinking.
Once again a blend of theory and practical material will be used to explore this subdivision of the practice.