Dance Techniques 2010

Working Somatically
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bible for generations of dancers and movement experts, and has not been bettered by any
other work on bio-dynamics, anatomy, or kinesiology since. Todd, an American, established
her work at U.S. universities using images, which became an early form of mental
training. She used this strategy herself; she aligned the skeleton as near to the central axis
as possible when learning how to walk again after falling down the stairs.
Metaphoric images are messengers between the planning and the acting parts of the
nervous system. They help coordinate the muscles. Energy is activated through imagination;
the nerves send an impulse to the muscles and no energy is wasted in doing so. A
muscle that has been prepared by thought responds efficiently, which means that a person
does not have to worry about the details in a movement sequence. This strategy is a
source of strength for dancers and athletes, as it is often the prolonged and incorrect use
of ‘flawed designs’ that result in futile action.
Starting in the 1970s, Lulu Sweigard, Barbara Clark, Irene Dowd, and André Bernard
(1925–2003) took Todd’s work in a highly artistic direction and renamed it ideokinesis.
Bernard said that the art is, “to become the image”, i.e., not to interfere with images so
that they can have an effect—“Think it, imagine it, let it happen.” 16 And he recommends
not saving good movements for particular occasions, like dancing, for example, but to
use them in the ‘dance of everyday life’.
Images have to be dynamic, sensory, and unusual—the brain needs a strong impulse
so a person moves in an efficient rather than strained manner. As Bernard puts it, movement
should make the ‘bait’ bite into the ‘fish’ (the nervous system). When you visualize
something, you sense and feel it at the same time. Todd noticed, as did Gindler, Frederick
Matthias, and Gerda Alexander, that motor imagery and focusing on anatomical interactions
cause involuntary changes in muscle tension. Basic knowledge of anatomy and the
mechanics of the body helps visualize nine lines of energy through the skeleton, supports
the balance effect with tactile assistance, and selects the most effective image from the
rich collection available: the head becomes a balloon, the chest a breathing umbrella, the
body a crumpled suit whose creases are smoothed out, while the head of the femur rolls
into the socket like a golf ball into the hole.
The Graham dancer Erick Hawkins introduced his colleague André Bernard to ideokinesis
in the 1950s. While Bernard’s work remained close to that of Todd and Clark, Joan
Skinner (who also danced with Graham) developed her own method called the Skinner
Releasing Technique, which aims at demolishing physical barriers and conventions in
dance, and expands ideas by using animated images from nature in a multidirectional
fashion. Ease, effortlessness, and transparency emerge in a ‘liquefied’ body. These Image
Actions play freely with a large catalogue of movement qualities: “Melting like butter or
wax, floating like dust particles that glow in a ray of sunshine…” 17
Eutony Gerda Alexander
Regulating muscle tone through flexibility became the focus of research in Eutony (in
Greek Eu = good, harmonious, measured; Tonos = tension, tone). Gerda Alexander
(1908–1994) discovered that a balance between rest and activity could lead to efficient
movement, affect the ability to form relationships, and promote personal creativity. As
a rhythmist, two of her teachers were followers of Dalcroze: Otto Blensdorf and Peter
Petersen. Her method was developed in Germany and later, after fleeing from Hitler,
in Scandinavia. Alexander knew that muscle tone, as a regulator of physiology, is controlled,
above all, by the vegetative nervous system. She recognized its influence on the
17 “Schmelzen wie Butter oder Wachs,
schweben wie Staubpartikel, die in einem
Sonnenstrahl leuchten...”: Bruno Stefanoni
in Irene Sieben: “Innere Bilder in Bewegung
setzen.” In: Tanz aktuell, 6 / 1989, p. 13.