I once worked with a professional dancer who sometimes performed as part of a troupe. She had come to me as a last resort, recommended by a friend of hers who had a friend who had a friend…
She was having hip issues and it was throwing off her timing. It wasn't exactly painful, but enough to disrupt and distract and she wanted to catch it before it got worse. Being part of a troupe sometimes dancers often take cues from each other.
After talking with her for a while, I worked a little with her hands-on, so to speak. But nothing was coming to me. (I was still pretty much a novice at this time, having worked mostly with Special Needs children and my Mom.) I had her do the movement in question, but very slowly, and to tell me when the problem arose–it didn´t seem to necessarily be a problem of pain, since there was very little, and sometimes none. But her form suffered anyway. I also had her show me some different movements from the same repertoire that were easy.
We talked a little longer and it turned out that this particular repertoire she was doing was one of her favorites and that she had practiced and repeated it a lot. I immediately thought of the sort of habits we sometimes garner that do not serve us well. So I asked her to show me the beginning of the entire movement, the part where she first noticed she had issues. I couldn¨t narrow down anything from that and so I asked her to touch the part of her body where she first felt the issue begin to approach the point before the tension could elicit pain, or the fear of it. It seemed to move around.
I was in a quandary up to this point. Actually, I was in the weeds. I didn't know how to proceed. But I was conscious of the fact that she could move in that same direction with different movements without issues.
It was then I recalled a story told to me by my teacher that seemed similar. It was during a session she once had when working with a famous musician who had come to see her on recommendation. I used this as a sort of blueprint while never forgetting that no matter how much we are the same as humans we can also be very, very different. (Two people can sometimes do the same job in the same way with the same results but go about it differently insofar as the mechanics and thinking are concerned. Different actions and different motives sort of thing, same results. That's why people in all professions are sometimes wrong. (Two dancers could train exactly the same, be very much the same in experience and physique and knowledge, but one dancer might end up with issues concerning a particular move.)
What I did: I had the dancer do the same movement, and only from the very beginning of the movement, but this time turning in the opposite direction–from head to toe–on the painless side. Of course she could do it but it wasn't as smooth or as comfortable as the original movement. We worked with this side for a while; the easy side. I had her do it very slowly and with attention to feeling, as though it were new. I had her think of it as new.
Then I had her start the turn with just her eyes, and to notice what she felt in her neck. She stated that she felt tension in the neck at one point and her head wanted to turn also. At this point I explained to her that the eyes start all movement. It's a common phenomenon.
From a lifetime of moving habitually - when we move the eyes in one direction the head usually follows. They eventually become one thing as the movement progresses down the body–eyes, neck, head, shoulders, etc. I asked her if she was aware at what point in her neck she felt the tension from the head wanting to follow. Because of her profession as a dancer I thought she might probably have more independent flexibility than the average person, so I also had her try to turn the eyes and head in opposite directions simultaneously, while the nose remained forward. No dice! I had her repeat the movement but to slow down from even her first attempt, and to move with as much awareness to what she was feeling as possible. Then again, same speed and time.
We did this for a while and when that became more easy and smooth to one side I had her increase the speed and range of motion just a little. When that was very smooth I had her reverse directions for both parts, the head and eyes.
But I didn't overdo it. This movement can be very frustrating. In most people the head and eyes start to become one piece again very soon when tiredness and frustration set in.
At this point, I worked with her, differentiating–freeing, making independent–the different parts from each other as we went down the body: head and eyes to the left with the shoulders to the right, then head and eyes right, shoulders left, down to the feet. Then we reversed everything on the other side and repeated the movements, never increasing the speed but always trying to increase the awareness, always trying to sense more of what she felt and think less.I never had her move the hip to the problematic side that first day, even though her progress was fast. I just had her try to be more aware of any tension because it can be a sign of impending stretch. (Another topic for another day.) I even had her stop and do some of the movements in her imagination when/if she felt any apprehensions.
We got to where the movement was incredibly small and so I explained to her that if a person was standing close in front of her but could not see the movement it was still a movement as far as the brain was concerned if she felt it. It´s science. Then I had her do the entire movement in her imagination, starting and slowly getting bigger. Same science.
I had her do a cascading movement of the eyes and head going left, then while the shoulder followed to the left, followed by the same-side ribs…etcetera. Slowly, all the way down. Then we differentiated the directions again as I added the other pieces of the movement: the head and eyes in the same direction but the shoulders opposite, but with very small and slow movements again, always with great awareness to what she felt. Then we went back to turning everything on the painless side. We would add a different piece each time, always comparing it with what she felt on both sides after each small, slow movement, and always with much attention to what she now felt physically. I had also instructed her to stop the movement with the separate parts before any tension she felt elsewhere had an opportunity to expand.
Unintentional tension is also a common occurrence with all people. Part of that response is the survival aspect of the brain reacting, such as in the startle reflex, but some is just from habitual movement. After a while, when the movement on the painless side was much smoother than in the beginning, I stopped the lesson. We never did one complete movement on the problem side that first day and I always avoided the hip going to that side.
Before she left that day I instructed her not to do these movements anymore. Not until we could meet again. But I did give her some entirely different movements to do and told her to do them small, subtlety and slowly and with a lot of attention to what she felt. I told her to repeat a single movement many times, moving her attention to what she felt to a different place with each new movement. I also told her to picture the movement in her mind before beginning, making it as perfect and light as she could in her imagination.
The example of the head and eyes being unable to move smoothly in opposite directions is a very small but powerful example of how people lose their original body flexibility. What she felt in the neck when she tried to turn the eyes and the head wanted to follow was because of existing patterns in the brain. When she tried to move them in opposite directions at the same time the brain noticed that something new was taking place, the old patterns were being disrupted, the brain was waking up. This is where change begins, when the brain notices a difference. We always have to keep in mind that it´s the job of the brain to manage everything, not just physical movement, even though in the beginning we do not completely understand exactly what that entails, the scope of the meaning is absolute and started at the beginning of life, in the womb–it´s science–and continued throughout.
An early example: Picture a baby in a crib. Picture all the seemingly irrelevant, tiny little twitching movements the hands, fingers and legs are making. Notice how the movements grow larger in time. Then, one day, when the movement of the arm accidentally brings the tiny little appendages at the end of it into the line of vision: Bingo! The child now has a hand where once was nothing. It was once thought by development child psychologists, that all those little twitching movements were useless. It was actually taught that way. We now know that this is how the neural circuits of the brain connect and form our patterns of movement and thought.
With the dancer, her habitual life patterns had taken over and the original patterns of her fluid movement were gone, now dwelling in the bottom of the brain, in the temporal lobe, where nothing new happens. In order to change this, she had to start creating an awareness in her self/brain wherein she could create new possibilities and experiences the brain could experience. Given the opportunity, the part of the brain where new experiences and feelings are felt the experiences start creating anew, not necessarily identical, but for the same or familiar functions. When this happens it´s like the brain returns that experience to the frontal lobe, where new learning and experiences take place. This is the action of Brain Plasticity in Anat Baniel terminology..
I worked with the dancer for a little over a week. I don't remember how many days/lessons, but never more than around an hour or so for each lesson. We never want to approach a level of fatigue during this process, we want to keep the brain alert to all new possibilities. The issues in her hip were gone and she said that she also felt lighter than before.
I showed her where she could get numerous lessons and to do them forever into the future when she felt any sense of trouble. She could now change and improve throughout her life. She was mentally a very flexible and open person and I never did think that all would not be well. Now, she had an open mind and a plan to continue improving. My goal when working with clients is to eventually never see them again because that is how NeuroMovement is meant to work.
We both had busy schedules and we never saw each other again.
As a Certified Neuromovement Practitioner, I now offer lessons where I work hands on with you to guide and teach you the NeuroMovement methods that worked so well for me.
If you’d like to learn more, please attend my FREE Live Seminar on Jan 28th - Agility & Grace In Aging.
RSVP for the location by contacting me at danny.neuromovement@gmail.com or via WhatsApp +52 434 265 3065
