Bartenieff-Part 1

Today at the beautiful spaces at Art/Spaces 520, my first class in the Bartenieff approach met.  There were 3 of the women that I met last weekend at this class,  as well as five others.  We gathered in an intimate studio with mirrors on one side and a sprung floor.   Corinne Cappelletti, a certified laban movement analyst and her assistant, Rusty, a recent graduate of the program, were our instructors for the weekend.


The day began with a brief getting to know you exercise, where we introduced our selves and changed places with another person in the circle.  At that point we were ready to warm up, using locomotor movement to begin the work of us trusting and working together.


We started with walking, changing speeds and levels followed by a brief time of stillness to gather and regroup.  Next we began backward walking, then lower movement, followed by rolls and stillness. 


Corinne then posed the question for our next segment of exploration, "what is fundamental for you as a mover?  We were given big sheets of newsprint, and started to reflect on the question and shared out after our time of inner reflection.


For me this illustrated perfectly how Bartenieff trained clients to "be active participants" in their rehabilitation.  I sensed how unique this approach must have been at the time she was forming her theory of dynamic alignment and functional anatomy.  Her background in both biology and dance was fundamental in her approach to bring the medical world into the dance world.


In the next segment, we explored her nine principles and Corinne gave us definitions which had been distilled for ease of understanding. The nine principles are:

1. Breath support
2. Core support
3. Dynamic alignment/connectivity
4. Weight shift
5. Initiation/sequencing
6. Spatial intent
7. Effort motivation
8. Rotary factor
9. Developmental patterning (relating to the layered learning of an infant)

breath-amoeba

core distal-starfish

head tail-snake

upper lower-frog

body half-lizard

cross lateral

As  a class we experienced the six developmental patterns first individually and then with a partner.  And finally we talked about Bartenieff's "basic 6" exercises, learned how to execute them and practiced individually.  They are:

1. thigh lift
2. forward pelvi shift
3. lateral pelvic shift
4. body half
5. knee drop
6. arm circle (saving for day 2)

So much more is swirling around in my head that I will leave for processing later.  For now I leave you with a quote from Bartenieff.  One of her "gems".

The essence of movement is change.

There is a dream I have, that I will have the wisdom to keep "changing" and learning my whole life.

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