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Movement for Health and Centering

Springtime on The Meadow at Heartwood in the Hills:

A program of  FREE weekend classes, workshops, and events with Jude Binder.    

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MOVEMENT FOR HEALTH AND CENTERING​

Offered for five Saturday's 

March 18, 2023

April 1, 2023

April 22, 2023

May 13, 2023

May 27, 2023

11:00 AM to 4:30 PM

11:00 am - 1:00 pm

  • Anatomy study and introduction to Movement for Health and Centering material, and vocabulary that will be used in the afternoon Movement Class. We'll study movement mechanics

1:00 - 2:00

  • Lunch and Q & A (Bring your own lunch and we'll provide beverages.)

2:00 - 4:30

  • Movement Class

  • Comfortable clothing, sweat pants and t shirts always work. Barefoot on the dance floor, hair tied back and eyeglass ties highly recommended

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MOVEMENT FOR HEALTH AND CENTERING
Breathe, Center, Balance, Move

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In 1976 I sustained a serious injury to my knee. At the time I had little knowledge
of anatomy. My injury was a wake-up call, as injuries often are. I began to study anatomy
and I was fortunate to be given a copy of “The Thinking Body” by Mabel Elsworth Todd.
This book influenced me tremendously and continues to guide me today. As I read it for
the first time, I began to understand the universal power of gravity and its dominance in
our lives as pedestrians and as dancers. Over the years I have developed a syllabus called
Movement for Health and Centering which is based upon the precepts laid out in Mabel
Todd’s book as well as what I’ve learned in my further studies of anatomy, dance, theatre,
visual arts and woodcarving. I see before me One Big Art, whose principles are universal
and whose design is exquisite and sublime. The Movement for Health and Centering
syllabus informs all of the curricula at Heartwood in the Hills.

KINESTHESIA


The Sensory Experience of Movement


The goal of the Movement for Health and Centering Syllabus is to increase understanding
of the body within. Students are guided toward appreciating the body as beautiful in form
and efficient in engineering. With knowledge of certain basic principles of human
anatomy, it’s possible to recognize and re-pattern the physical habits of daily life that are
responsible for much of our chronic pain and discomfort.
I’m alive inside my body. The more I sense this, the more centered I become. While
centered, I give myself permission to immerse in the moment. Immersed, I’m open to the
potential for spiritual, creative and physical enrichment. I can sense, kinesthetically, that I
am
“…a living body trued to an axis between earth and sky”. (Jennette Lee, in “This Magic Body”)

 

Through a series of activities and exercises we explore the shapes and arrangements of
our bones and compare what we have learned to those of a bird, with the aid of an
articulated human skeleton, a mounted Flicker (Woodpecker) and an assembled Pigeon
skeleton. We study balance with feathers, peripheral vision with group movement, and
string wooden “vertebrae” beads into spines. Then we experience the release of physical
and emotional tension through movement and rhythm. My desire is to share what I
myself have learned: to dance; to breathe; to relax into the wonder of being alive.

Movement for Health and Centering Class Objectives

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The Movement for Health and Centering syllabus is designed to aid students in the
achievement of certain goals:

 

  •  Development of sensitivity to breath, – learning to sense the nourishment of full breathing;

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  •  Development of centering skills through guided imagery and movement; sensing movement from within –the   kinesthetic sense

 

  • Improvement of skeletal alignment through balance study and anatomy study;

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  • Recognition of faulty body habits and movement patterns, and re-education and re-patterning of body habits through movement and analysis;

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  • Lengthening of muscles and other structures that have been shortened by poor alignment and tension, and the toning of those that have been overstretched;

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  • Stimulation of the brain through the use of unaccustomed positions and movement patterns to increase physical and mental potential;

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  • Improvement of co-ordination through the repetition of movement sequences designed for that purpose;

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  • Release of emotional stress and physical tension through slow, lyrical, aerobic and expansive movement

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  • In a non-competitive atmosphere, where the focus is on sensation and healing rather than on performance, to work towards a general upgrading of the body through a series of exercises that “travel” from the top of the head to the feet.

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