Scene 3 - Resonance
This blog post was writtend by Robert Ryan, movement teacher and owner of ‘Chapters of Movement’, a website where he collects his stories and thoughts on movement exploration.
Robert also happen to be one of our B2R Internship Alumni from Season 2. Here is one of his stories in and around the B2R Internship. We hope you’ll enjoy as much as we did.
““Ah the creative process is the same secret in science as it is in art.
They are all the same absolutely.””
I was mindlessly scrolling Instagram feeds on a particularly cold February evening last year. Another dark cresting wave of Covid was soon to come crashing upon us. Scanning social media could be a diversion from the constant barrage of heavy news about the virus.
But not this night.
My thumb hovered above the screen as an intriguing Kodachrome-esque video clip played out. I watched as dance and movement instructor Samantha Emmanuel worked with an elderly client. He was coping with Parkinson’s Disease, and was sitting on the edge of a table. The teacher and student stood two meters apart facing one another. Arms reaching overhead they began a partial descent as they hinged at the waist. Purposely rounding their backs they gently folded their frames only to find extension in their spines as they rose to stand with arms extended. This graceful flow was repeated several more times.
Their movement was deliberate, the pace slow, relaxed, and beautiful in its simplicity.
Apparently at this moment, during this sequence, the student had no need of looking for movement cues. He trusted his body in motion. He had been here before.
Yet how did he manage his tremors, curve his spine and then find the strength to elegantly, effortlessly, lift his upper body to standing?
I understood that Parkinson’s is a neurological disease. Someone in our family had developed classic PD. symptoms that included hand tremors, limb and trunk stiffness, and impaired balance.
What had this elder been taught about back body awareness?
I replayed the clip, finding the quality of their movement intriguing. I experimented with the pattern of movement for myself. It resonated with me.
I needed to know more, then pressed ‘save’.
Weeks later another video peaked my curiosity for similar reasons. A Welsh chiropractor and rehabilitation lecturer at the University of South Wales, Luke Davies, was competing in a Strongman competition. In one event he is seen bear-hugging a large heavy concrete ball only to lift it from one wooden platform to another. How was that even possible? Strength training of course, but it was executed with a flexed spine that seemed to conform to the shape of the ball.
In that single event Luke was shredding a long-held myth that a rigid spine was necessary to lift heavy stuff.
I only wished I had seen this a decade earlier when my back pain flareups were a thing.
Something clicked as I replayed his lifting technique. I needed to know more about how this might be translated into my daily mobility requirements and the ‘better balance’ curriculum that I was preparing for seniors my age.
I saved this second recording.
As fate would have it, I would learn of a collaborative project that Luke and Samantha were about to launch. It promised to blend Luke’s clinical-based approach to aches and pains with Samantha’s mindful, non-linear movement work (oeuvre).The twelve-week online Internship program would be called Back 2 Roots (B2R). It would consist of a supporting cast of guest speakers and a skilled B2R team. Now this sounded promising! Yet how would this unique pairing of science and art align themselves?
I would only know the answer to that if I did some light homework about what the team were bringing with them into the program.
Both Sam and Luke work in rehabilitation. They provide unique approaches to folks suffering with limited mobility and pain. As well, each have their own stories of debilitating injury and months of subsequent rehab.
They also incorporate their passion for the outdoors. Luke’s forays into cold water swimming and hiking the windswept Welsh Cambrian terrain have undoubtedly given rise to a thirst for a more robust understanding of physical endurance and enjoyment of the natural world.
Samantha finds inspiration from the French countryside or any number of European landscapes that she has traversed. It glows within her artwork and infuses her eloquent use of imagery as she teaches.
I needed no more evidence about how the contours of the B2R program would prove invaluable to my personal practice and my role as a movement coach. I enrolled in the course and completed the Internship a few weeks ago.
The experience has been a ‘game-changer.’ It was a fascinating online laboratory for learning about how the complexities of pain could best be viewed and managed through a bio-psycho-social prism.
My back discomfort from a decade ago, your tender tennis elbow, or another’s tormenting tendonitis, although complex experiences of pain, can be better understood. In fact one might just find that pain may not equal harm in the process.
If only given 15 seconds to deliver a succinct elevator pitch about how the Internship has resonated with me, I might say:
“The Back 2 Roots Internship offers a vast, wild invitation to explore the latest in pain neuroscience findings. It proposes a research-supported alternative approach to the study of pain, infused with mindful practices of novel, non-linear movement as a means of managing pain. The program encourages a *pedagogy of interiority that has the potential to awaken playful, imaginal and fearless human movement.”
*pedagogy of interiority was a term used by Irish poet and writer John O’Donahue to describe an inner awareness of beauty
Robert Ryan,
Movement Teacher, B2R Alumni
Robert Ryan is a movement teacher and owner of ‘Chapters of Movement’, a website where he collects his stories and thoughts on movement exploration. Robert also happen to be one of our B2R Internship Alumni from Season 2. We have very much enjoyed his participation and he has been a real asset to the programme with his enthusiastic engagement and shared experiences. Here is one of his stories in and around the B2R Internship. We hope you’ll enjoy as much as we did.
You can learn more about him through his website www.chaptersofmovement.com or via his instagram profile @chaptersofmovement.
If you would like to learn more about our B2R Internship click on the button below!
