From worming on our backs to shapeshifting up to standing

In this class we revisit in standing circling the belly centre from the feet, mediating between heaven and earth through the image.

On the floor, we invite in an image of our structure as one continuous fabric – a mesh of elastic tissue that pulls us together and fields of activity that resist compression and create space.

We explore how changing our internal architecture to increase and decrease the pressure between one region of ourselves and the earth causes changes in our whole pattern of connection with the earth.

We add reaching into the air with the arms and legs, head and tail, to roll from side to side with everything organising around the belly centre as we find our way up through hands and knees to standing.

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00:00:00 – Arriving in walking

Noticing how we feel – both the emotional tone and how we sense ourselves to be here – in this place and in this body

Practising reading our walking as a changing of shape of our whole inner volume

00:02:00 – Standing Explorations and Walking

Listening to our standing – sensing weight and support flowing through our structure

Extending our attention from our belly centres along the line of gravity downward and inwards to the centre of the earth and upwards and outwards to an imaginary star above – creating common ground

Remembering the air around us and how the air pressure gives us a gentle hug from all directions

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Exploring raising one hand/arm at a time, then both – locating our belly centre as the centre of our kinesphere

Playing with the image of support like water flowing up from the centre of the earth, through us and out through the top of the head and fingertips – becoming a human fountain – mediating between heaven and earth

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Recapping turning around our axis, rounding and arching, and side-bending from our feet – combining them to create circles

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In taking our head away from the axis, we stay oriented by attending to the connection of our belly centre to the centre of the earth and the star above

With one foot in front, shifting our belly centre towards one foot then the other through initiating with the soles of our feet

Folding and unfolding so the belly centre rises away from and falls towards the centre of the earth – shapeshifting rather than pushing down to lever parts of ourselves up

Moving the belly centre side to side from our feet – sensing how the relationship of the belly centre to the centre of the earth stays constant creating the illusion that we turn the earth beneath us

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00:25:30 – Floor work

Sensing our inner volume and how we balance on the earth behind us

Inviting in an image of our structure as one continuous fabric – a fractal mesh – some regions of which are elastic and pull us together while others are stiffer, resist compression and create space – mesh nested in mesh nested in mesh all the way down to the molecular level – everything connected

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Changing our internal architecture so that pressure increases and decreases behind one shoulder, then the other, then both – sensing how the movement flows through us to effect the pelvis, the heels, the head

Making the shoulders lighter – sensing where the pressure goes as something lifts away from the floor

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Changing the pressure behind the back of our heads – sensing what happens in the chest, the pelvis, the belly centre

Playing with micro movements so small nobody could see them – and also with bigger movements where the head actually lifts

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Changing the pressure behind one heel, then the other, then both – sensing how the movement ripples through us

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Changing the pressure behind one side of the pelvis, then the other, then both – actively involving places that seem to move passively

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Playing with multiple points – combining, for example, the back of the head with one heel, an elbow with the opposite side of the pelvis – channelling our inner worms

Bringing the belly centre a little closer to the earth and a little further away – sensing how this is reflected in changes of pressure – movement – everywhere where we touch the earth

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Arms out to the side – rolling them towards and away from the feet – then stretching the fingertips away from each other and curling them forward into the gesture of an embrace – sensing the support flowing through us and out through the fingertips

Sliding the hands on the floor – above the head, down towards the pelvis – sensing how the functional centre of our hand/arms is our belly centre

Adding the legs – hands and feet stroking the earth – rolling from side to side

Letting the arms and legs float up, reaching out through fingers, toes, heels, head, tail – rolling from side to side and all the way over – everything organising around the belly centre in the pattern of navel radiation

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Finding our way up to sitting without pushing down

On hands and knees – pushing and pulling along the skin of the earth – moving the belly centre in all directions – side-bending from the earth

Shapeshifting our way up to standing – noticing if the movements become lighter the more of ourselves becomes involved

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01:15:00 – Returning to standing and walking

Re-tuning our centre axis to the line of gravity

Letting the hands float up – sensing if something changed in the connection of the hands to the feet and deeper – to the centre of the earth

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Harmonising with the earth and the air – listening into the movement that is there – surfing it

Looking for stillness – in the act of looking, creating movement – putting information out as we receive it

Fifteen minutes of free exploration with music

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Returning to standing and walking – sensing any changes in how we feel present in the place, in our bodies and in the emotional tone of our experience