The Spring Inside is a lens through which to observe, experience and investigate the body in motion.
My perspective, informed by fascial research and neuroscience, is the fruit of over 30 years of exploration as a dancer, curious human and movement teacher. It harnesses the brilliance of the Pilates apparatus to inform and enliven our raw physicality.
Movement initiates a dance of tensional forces through the body in response to the world around us. Using the Pilates apparatus as both leverage and suspension, we can absorb and transmit these forces globally, shaping a body of 3-dimensional integrity and strength. Having this external feedback from the Pilates apparatus awakens a felt experience of wholeness which, in turn, expands our movement potential. It is a joy to see a client's body “light up” as it harmonizes these connections. This palpable experience is both empowering and instructional.
Moving with the apparatus, we can actively direct the pathway of spring-energy to bring balance to our alignment and naturally fire up the requisite musculature to support efficient and easeful movement and give us the ability to meet the increasing challenges of the work. The sweetness of inhabiting our bodies in this way is that we can stop manipulating, fixing and trying to “get it right,” trusting instead that we evolve by being in relationship to our environment and present to our experience.
Using this lens as I teach focuses my attention on a client’s responsiveness to the apparatus and helps me make decisions from the point of view of the body rather than rules. Instead of giving my clients a laundry list of “to do's,”, I home in on the most potent instruction that will naturally render an enlivening response in the beautiful human I am working with. Addressing the body this way creates agency in clients as they learn that dancing with the apparatus can be a portal into their own strength & understanding.
The Spring Inside, by evolving our perspective & enhancing our movement strategies, creates resilience in our bodies and in our teaching.