Thursday, November 28, 2019. My third day since arriving in Munich, and the second day of the training (I wrote about the first day in How Does the Class Proceed? Feedback and the Atmosphere of the Class).
The day opened, as yesterday had, with a short practicum from Rita Geirola (hereafter Rita) on what to attend to when bringing Movement into a session. About an hour of it.
On this second day we brought out a table and sat in a chair, placing both hands on it, parallel. Aware of the floor supporting the feet, and having let the sit bones and the pubis soften, you move one hand gradually toward the far edge of the table. How do you attend to the spine as it moves? The head? The pelvis? Hervé Baunard (hereafter Hervé) advised that holding a single central axis in awareness lets the body move with ease. For someone with scoliosis this movement is demanding, but it also helps.
With practical material like that folded in, the day moved on to four fifty-minute Embodiment presentations. Each person has an hour. In their own way of putting it, one student and two assistants — a group of three — present to the remaining fifteen and the three teachers.
At 4:45 p.m., in the last slot, my turn came. Fourth on the second day. With my two assistants, I led. The content centered on the integration sessions, eight through ten — a class for people who have already completed the ten-session series, or who are working on integration. We explored the relationship between the spine and the limbs.
I began by having each person express, in their own way, the movements of sessions one through ten. Offering the basic keyword for each session, I asked what they had recalled at the time of receiving the series, and the class went on from there.
Session one: breath, relationship, opening the ribs. Session two: the feet, foundation, support. And so on. Since what I was after was each person’s own version, those who had started out standing and walking gradually split off — some lying down on the floor, some working against a wall. In sessions eight, nine, and ten, perhaps because each person does those in their own way, the freedom in how they expressed it was wide, and it was interesting to watch.
There was laughter, and the energy in the room had risen, so I changed the plan. I had everyone come onto all fours, and close to eighteen people moved around the open space, slowly colliding with one another, feeling their way toward a non-verbal exploration of how to bring the limbs and the spine to life. We closed standing, with partner work back to back.
Because the class had come alive, I changed course partway through, and it finished in thirty-five minutes, shorter than planned.
Many said they had enjoyed it. But one person said an unpleasant memory had come back from when they received the ten-session series, and that they had nearly come to tears. It brought home to me that when you hold a class, you offer it while keeping in mind that reactions you did not anticipate will come.
Rita, Hervé, and France Hatt-Arnold each gave their own feedback. How do you lead a class toward its goal? Rita spoke about making the goal clear; France said it is better to tighten where tightening is called for, and that if possible I should take a little time and include a part where each person looks inward.
Three days remain: four presentations on Friday, four on Saturday, two on Sunday, with individual interviews for those who want them on the Saturday and Sunday in between.
Before presenting, I had been coming to class thinking about how to build the thing, so once it was done it had gone by in an instant. There was a good edge of tension to it. Over the last three days I have some working out to do about how to approach the classes, but I am hoping to come away with at least one thing I can use in a yoga class.
Note, August 2026
In this class, one participant said they had nearly come to tears. An unpleasant memory had returned from when they received the ten-session series.
The structure was to have each person express, in their own way, the movements of sessions one through ten. The aim was to explore integration, to look at how the spine and the limbs relate. As a way in, I asked them to go back through their memory of receiving the work. Once you ask someone to go back through a memory, what comes back is not yours to decide.
From that, this article draws a single line: that you should keep in mind that reactions you did not anticipate will come. At the time I wrote nothing beyond it.
Looking now, I think that was precisely what the Part 3 training was about. Holding a Rolf Movement class is less a matter of preparing content than of taking on what happens in the room. What Rita kept returning to in the first half was: who are you teaching? To ask who is in front of you rests on the premise that you do not know what they will carry in with them.
Four years earlier, in Phase III, I had been taught not to touch a client’s story, not to judge, not to point things out. I received it then as a set of prohibitions. What happened here was that it comes out from the other side whether you touch it or not. Prohibition is not enough. What is asked is how you receive what has surfaced.
There is something else I did in this session.
I had spent a month and a half building fifty minutes, and had sent Rita a proposal for it. Partway through, I changed it. Seeing the laughter and the energy rising in the room, I switched to something that had not been in the plan — everyone on all fours, moving through the space. It came to thirty-five minutes.
I dropped what I had prepared, on the strength of what I saw in front of me. In a course that hands over no procedure, I let go of my own.
France’s feedback, though, was that it is better to tighten where tightening is called for, and that I should have taken time for a part where each person looks inward. Riding what the room offered and cutting the thing short, and what fell away in the cutting, sit side by side in the same session.