What?
I've been practicing swinging for the past few days. In the first video I am focussing on the back of my feet, using my heels to turn. In the second clip I am trying to use the momentum of a swing to follow through. The third clip is about integrating and having fun.
But the bigger context to this is:
Everything I've been practicing since last summer has to do with getting more into the back of the body. What is in the backside of the body? How can I move from there?
Why!?
Everything we present of ourselves to the world is front-biased. the front side of the body is what we identify with, what we fill with awareness, what we want to show. Dancing too, can have the tendency to be biased towards the front.
For a three dimensional movement I want to fill out the back of the body, rather than the front.
Focusing on the back has given me new possibilities to move. It opens new alignements, new stability, new ways of feeling gravity, release or swing.
Also, I feel different as a person, when I am more in the back than the front, it’s almost like a different dancer-identity.
How:
let the heel and mid-foot do the work, rather then the front of the foot and the toes
activate the back of legs, the hamstrings rather than thighs, specially when changing levels
breathe into the back part of the diaphragm, ribs and lung cavity
using the width of the shoulder blades like wings at the back of the body