September 1, 2017. The Rolf Movement training reached its fifth day.
As yesterday (see “To Encourage Bodily Awareness: Slowly, Carefully, Into Words“), it began with an Embodiment session, also serving as a review of session 5.
In advance, the General Goals, Regional Goals (goals for the body part), Structural Goals (goals for the body’s structure), and Functional Goals (goals for the body’s function) of each session (in this case, 4–7) were distributed as printouts. Pierpaola Volpones’s (hereafter Paola) thinking on each session is summarized clearly on a single sheet of A4.
Sessions 5 and 6 were the hardest to understand in the Basic Training, and I retain a memory of carrying them out with the teacher’s help when students did exchange sessions with each other in Phase II.
Two years having passed since opening my practice, I think the review of session 5, with experience accumulated, was very useful. Whereas session 4 approaches the adductor side from the sole of the foot to the pelvic floor, session 5, centering on the relationship between the rib cage and the pelvis, is wide-ranging — the pelvic girdle and the shoulder girdle, the vicinity of the viscera within the abdominal and thoracic cavities, and the iliopsoas.
So the Embodiment, too, becomes complex. Following the guidance of Rita Geirola (hereafter Rita), Embodiment was done for about 30 minutes; the pace was slow, with movements such as sitting, walking, and all-fours, but the movement felt dizzying.
Whereas the Rolf Movement movement practices done in session 4 were four, in session 5 there were two. Each time, the practice is done by exchange between students, but this time it proceeded with nearly an hour of time per side — a way of spending time on a par with a full session. This is because, from session 4 on, fittingly called the deep sessions, the approach goes to very profound places, which also takes time.
Before going to the practice, there was an explanation from Paola about Phoric Function.
Phoric means “to carry the weight” — to bear “weight” — a word that Hubert Godard, who had a great influence in the founding period of Rolf Movement, began to use.
As long as the body feels gravity, the body bears “weight.” “Weight” can be felt by the whole body, but once the body begins to move, a bias arises in the “weight.” For example, as when, while walking, there arise parts that feel light and parts that feel heavy.
In this way, “weight” produces a bias; but, as I wrote about in Tonic Function, by the body having two directionalities (the “bias” of weight; see “What Comes into View Through Movement?: Words and Direction“), space (Articulation) is born within the body, and it becomes easier to move.
The two directionalities are:
- The part that stays still = Something stays = Fixed Point (the part that feels weight)
- The part that moves freely = Something moves = Orientation (the part relatively free from weight)
In the movement practice of session 5, we looked centrally at where the Fixed Point is according to the Orientation.
For example:
- When the arm (the shoulder girdle) is moving, is the Fixed Point the scapula? the thoracic vertebrae? the pelvis?
- When the pelvic girdle is moving, is the Fixed Point the lumbar vertebrae? the sit bones? the sacrum? or the knee? the sole of the foot?
- When doing thoracic breathing, is the Fixed Point the thoracic vertebrae? the cervical vertebrae? the scapula?
- When doing abdominal breathing, is the Fixed Point the sole of the foot? the pelvis? the thoracic vertebrae? the lumbar vertebrae?
And so on.
By being aware of these within movement (or being guided by the Rolfer), the excess force that had entered is released, and the force of the necessary places (the deep muscles) becomes usable — this I could feel keenly as a result after finishing the practice.
Rolf Movement is by no means a substitute for a Rolfing session, but by incorporating movement into a session, it may be called a useful tool for heightening the awareness within the body further. Two days remain. Through practice and feedback from the teachers, I hope to be able to raise the precision of the manual technique and the degree of understanding of sessions further.