Bartenieff Fundamentals: Upper Lower Continued...

We began today improvising with the pelvis and seeing how much it can move through the space. We then explored this same task with a partner holding the other persons' waist so that we could feel the ranges of movement and try to prevent the movement so that the opposite person explores as much as possible. Here you could also feel the large, flat bone of the girdle.

http://anthropologynet.files.wordpress.com/2008/10/female-pelvis.jpg
We then began to look at the pelvic structure on a skeleton and we were able to see where the femur connects to the hip joint. The Articular cartilage (femoral head) at the very top of the femur slots into the hip bone to give a range of circular movement called a ball and socket joint. You can see in the picture on the right, that the femoral head is a ball-like bone that sits into the Ilium, Ischium and Pubis. The ligamentum teres attaches these two bones together which the interruption of the synovial membrane and cartilage, to prevent rubbing and irritation of the two sets of bone. We also looked at the femur, especially the knobbly part at the top of this bone. This is called the greater trochanter and inside of the femur is the lesser trochanter. This is where the major muscles attach to the hip. This is more prominent when you actually feel your own body's hips as it sticks out from the rest of the thigh and hip.
http://etc.usf.edu/clipart/50600/50671/50671_hip_joint_lg.gif

The hip joint is a synovial joint between this and the head of the femur. Flexion, extension, adduction (adding to body; across), abduction (taking away from the body; leg away), medial and lateral rotation and circumduction occurs here. This helps to create a range of movement at and around the hip. Occasionally people don't use this range of movement fully and then it seizes up, therefore they have to compensate with the lower spine (T10- L5).

We placed dots on the most important parts of our pelvis which included:

• Iliac crest.
• Hip joint/Acetabulum.
• Greater trocanter.
• Sitz bones.

With these parts of the body highlighted, it enhanced the movement of them because I breathed into these parts to help them relax and move.

I then laid on my back and placed my feet underneath my sitz bones about an inch apart from each other. Here I began to press and resist into one foot and raise the other leg using the crease of the hip joint and not the use of the gluteals. The act of this is "pushing through the earth" or grounding into the floor through the use of energy through the psoas line and out of the head. This is femoral flexion and lengthening of the spinal column. Peggy Hackney talks about thinking of the hip joint moving through a 'U' shape so that it creates an open space in the joint and there is no congestion. Lengthening out of this will help to create a bigger space between the spine, pelvis and femur and will help to release any tension in the outer leg and back.

Begin engaging the hamstrings towards the sitzbones to return to normal 'standing' position with the feet.

In Peggy Hackneys book 'Making Connections' she mentions the theory of Irmgard Bartenieff and "The Dead Seven Inches". This is important when mobilizing certain parts of the hip joint. This comes from the placement of the thumbs below the hip bones, whilst reaching down with the middle fingers to include the greater trochanter. Letting the thumbs and fingers sweep around the pelvic basin, a wide band of approximately seven-nine inches wide occurs.

We furthered our exploring with lying flat again, relaxing into the floor with our knees up and feet 'standing' again. We explored the sagittal weight shift by resisting and pressing into the floor through the feet, releasing the pelvis off of the floor (leaving an inch gap). I thought about the knees growing long, outwards but relaxing my gluteous maximus and psoas muscle. I would then think about what is connecting with the floor and then distribute the weight between the heels and toes. The connections are between the heels and sitzbones and the ball of the feet and psoas, here you can feel how grounded the feet are in these positions and how the muscles are working. Releasing back to the floor, you decrease the femoral joint and and drop the pelvis down, directly to the floor - REMEMBER DO NOT ROLL DOWN THE SPINE!

Now repeat the releasing of the pelvis from the floor and explore the various ways in which I can move my pelvis. This includes a side to side action (no dipping in the hip joints; as if a pole is going straight through the hip joints), a forward and backward action (shifting weight as above) and a circular motion. Using the breath helped my to centre myself and I could feel myself breathing into certain joints and muscles helping to increase the energy into the movement. Then release the pelvis as stated above.

I have tried some of the shifts in the pelvis as stated in Peggy Hackney's book; Sagittal Propulsion - sitting. I began sitting upright with the weight of my pelvis down into the floor and my feet grounded in parallel position (the arms a down beside the pelvis). Begin yielding and pushing into the floor with my feet and hands to release my pelvis off of the floor shifting my weight forward towards my feet. I could feel the connection between my feet and the floor, my tail reaching to the floor and my heels pressing towards the floor; here you can still sense being grounded. Once I felt this connection I would reverse the action by creasing the femoral joint, using as little muscles as possible.

I then thought about what we had just being doing (the process) and also how the joint move in these explorations, and I applied this to my next phrase. We began with the roll down sequence we do every week as you feel grounded and you can apply the yield and push actions.

I begin by rolling down the spine yielding into the floor until the plie (heels reaching the ground), I then push out of the feet/heels to repositioning on hands and knees. I really try to push forward into this because this was one of my corrections from last weeks lesson. I then release the hips, creasing at the femoral joint, the let the leg go and pull me around to lying onto my back, in an 'X' shape. Here I can feel grounded whilst registering my core-distal action through my limbs. When rolling the head from side to side I could feel the 'reach' and 'pull' action through the top half of my body; opening the rib cage, spinal column, scapular and clavicle. This initiated the rolling to foetal position as the hand pulled the head and body round, and I began reaching and pulling with the hips. The next rolling section was very grounded and relaxed. Here I can feel the limbs reaching out away from the body but still with a sense of connection. I repeat all of this same feeling all the way through with corrections from last week.


Moving onto the next sequence, we performed a rolling phrase, which includes varied focus and the use of the hips and spine. I think about the head-tail connection throughout this whole sequence as it is very important when moving whilst altering the body's shape. Using breath helps to deepen the movement and centre the pelvis towards the ground. Whatever movement I perform in this sequence the pelvis is always heavy towards the floor due to gravity; using gravity to help the movement to be weighty will give a strong impact to my dancing. I tried a different version of this sequence by initiating the movement from my hips/pelvic girdle, to see if I could feel the various ways in which I can move this specific part of my body. I didn't realise how mobile my pelvis is until today as I have never taken this part of my body into consideration before; I have noticed it but not analysed it deeply.

A few mistakes I make within this phrase are:

• Relaxing and crossing in the hip joint at the very beginning.
• Reaching past my maximum when stretching outwards, using my core-distal.
• Releasing the head when moving out of this position so that there so a curve in my spine.
• Trying to leave the head behind to give a sense of twist in the spine when rolling to the other side

When performed the next sequence where we travelled across the room thinking about all of the sections that we have done previously, whilst taking into consideration the movement in the hip joints.

Here I began the sequence with 'gating'. This is where the leg is in parallel and it opens through a sidewards action with the hip joint; no other movement is needed in this action. I concentrated on how the hips could increase my plie's, side to side actions and twists, seeing if they could crease through the use of the joint itself and not the muscles around it.