Tuesday, October 17, 2017. To take on the Rolf Movement training in Munich, Germany, once again, I headed to Frankfurt on Asiana Airlines via Seoul.
This time, in order to meet the Advanced Rolfer Takami Kamata again in Frankfurt, I stayed in Frankfurt on October 18, 23, and 24. On the night of October 18 and from October 19 to 22, I plan to stay in Munich (I plan to touch on the Frankfurt stay separately).
On the night of October 18, I boarded the ICE express connecting Frankfurt and Munich. Late at night on October 18, I arrived at Munich Central Station.
October 19, the weather clear and fine. With perfect weather, a high temperature of around 20 degrees, and the autumn leaves beautiful at this time of year, I took on the eighth day of Rolf Movement.
This time it started with us presenting an Embodiment program ourselves. This is because the homework had been to build up, ourselves, the Embodiment exercise that had been done at the start of the workshop over the seven days so far.
Splitting into two groups of eight, we each carried out the Embodiment we had worked on, from the 10-minute program each had made. I proceeded slowly, centering on an exercise from session 5 for heightening awareness of the iliopsoas, which links the upper body and the lower body. As a result of doing it quietly and carefully, partly owing to the atmosphere of the place, I got the impression that the body became organized — and the 10 minutes passed in a flash.
At the stage of writing this post, the schedule of the ninth day (October 20) has ended, so I’d like to touch on the eighth day (October 19) and the ninth day (October 20) of the Rolf Movement workshop.
Over the two days, they were devoted to a review of the basic knowledge of session 8 (the eighth day) and session 9 (the ninth day), and to the introduction and practice of the manual technique — how to incorporate the relevant bodily movement into a session.
At the start of the workshop, Pierpaola Volpones’s (hereafter Paola) procedure sheets for sessions 8–10 were distributed at the outset. The material is summarized clearly on a single sheet of A4. Because the procedures for sessions 8 and 9, which are surprisingly easy to lose sight of, are summarized concisely and with clear purpose from Paola’s perspective, it was good not to get confused during the practice of the manual technique.
In fact, the class had 16 participants (one was absent due to illness and could not attend from partway through). Among them, one of the Dutch participants is a viola player. Before the class on the ninth day (October 20) began, there was a live performance on the instrument. And just before the class ended, a live performance was given again, and there was an opportunity to observe how the sound changes before and after the practice of the manual technique, and what change there was in the use of the body.
The live performance was three pieces, about five minutes. Doing body observation before the class began, force was in the shoulders and fingers, in a state as if the feet were not on the ground. Through the Rolf Movement manual technique — the movement of session 9, the connection from the fingertips to the spine and the vicinity of the rib cage — the playing was done with the feet on the ground. Including the quality of the sound, it changed into playing that moves the heart.
Before, when I learned the Alexander Technique, I experienced that merely being aware of the relationship between the head and the spine produces a change in the quality of instrumental playing; once again, I could understand well that such a thing occurs in Rolfing too.
Session 8 is organizing the connection between the Shoulder Girdle and the Pelvic Girdle. Session 9 focuses on organizing from the extremities (the fingertips of the limbs) toward the center, and the practice was carried out with the awareness of an “integration session” = “connecting the whole.”
As things I noticed:
- How to feel the connection of the upper body and the lower body from the extremities of the upper and lower limbs (the fingertips and toes) toward the center (the middle of the body)?
- Where is the part where force is in (in English, Holding), and how to loosen the Holding?
In the practice of the manual technique, awareness using the breath, expanding the body’s sensation using the five senses (smell and touch), and touching the body in order to bring awareness to where force is in the body, and so on, are incorporated; the movements are simple but very delicate. By asking the Instructor about unclear points, I got the impression that my understanding of the technique and of sessions developed further.
Each single Rolf Movement movement is simple, but what is important is body awareness. The aim is not to have the client — the receiving side — memorize the movement, but to have them understand that there are options in the body’s movement. To give a change to the body’s awareness takes time and needs to be done slowly. At a fast pace, movement happens by thinking with the brain, the body’s habit comes out, and a change in the body’s awareness is not prompted (see “To Encourage Bodily Awareness: Slowly, Carefully, Into Words“)”).
So, rather than accurate movement — which part to direct awareness to? Where is the origin = the Fixed Point within the movement? Where is the place moving within the body? Phoric Function and the Fixed Point become important (see “Where to Pay Attention in Movement? — Phoric Function and Fixed Point“). Where is the restriction (Holding) between the Fixed Point and the movement? How to provide support in order to release it? Each became clear, step by step.
Two days remain. The tenth day is devoted to a review of session 10, and on the eleventh day, exchange sessions between Rolfers are done, and an opportunity to use the techniques so far is given. I’d like to learn over the last two days as well, while enjoying it.