To my mother and father, Joan and Jules Franklin, for their generous support throughout the years. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Franklin, Eric Dynamic alignment through imagery / Eric Franklin. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 0-87322-475-2 1. Dance—Physiological aspects. 2. Posture. 3. Body image. 4. Mind and body. I. Title. RC1220.D35F73 1996 615.8'2~dc20 95-47857 CIP ISBN: 0-87322-475-2 Copyright © 1996 by Eric Franklin All rights reserved. Except for use in a review, the reproduction or utilization of this work in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including xerography, photocopying, and recording, and in any information storage and retrieval system, is forbidden without the written permission of the publisher. Acquisitions Editor: Judy Patterson Wright; Developmental Editor: Julie Rhoda; Assistant Editors: Susan Moore and Sandra Merz Bott; Editorial Assistants: Jennifer J. 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Box 300 226 Albany North Shore City, Auckland 0064 9 448 1207 e-mail: [email protected] Foreword VI Acknowledgments viii Introduction: How I Came to Use Imagery ix Reinforcing What You Want x Purpose and Will x Using Imagery for Alignment xiii PART I: POSTURE AND DYNAMIC ALIGNMENT 1 Chapter 1: The Roots of Imagery for Alignment 3 Heinrich Kosnick and Mabel Todd 4 Lulu Sweigard and Ideokinesis 5 Barbara Clark 8 Joan Skinner 9 Somatic Disciplines 10 Chapter 2: Postural Models and Dynamic Alignment 13 What Our Posture Reveals 13 Postural Habits 14 In Search of Ideal Posture 15 Chapter 3: Body-Mind Interactions 29 The Brain and Consciousness 31 The Nervous System 32 The Brain 33 The Body's Navigators: The Senses 36 The Developing Mind: The Role of Imagery 37 Chapter 4: Individual Patterns of Habitual Movement 41 Wrong Habits That Feel Right 42 Changing With the Help of Imagery 43 Motivation and Change 44 The Body Image in Alignment 45 Chapter 5: Imagery Categorization 49 Sensory Imagery 49 Direct and Indirect Imagery 51 Abstract and Concrete Imagery 51 Inner and Outer Imagery 52 Chapter 6: General Guidelines Before Imaging 55 Concentration 55 Positions for Anatomical Imagery Work 57 Using Imagery When in Motion 63 Inhibition 63 Mental Practice With Imagery (MPI) 63 Image Narrative, Image Bundles 64 Training Your Ability to Image 64 Imagery Checklist: Am I Ready to Image? 67 PART II: BIOMECHANICAL AND ANATOMICAL PRINCIPLES AND EXERCISES 69 Chapter 7: Location and Direction in the Body 71 The Central Axis 73 Body Geography 74 Joint Movements 77 Chapter 8: Force, Gravity, and Mass 79 Force Vectors 79 Matter and Mass 83 Chapter 9: The Laws of Motion and Force Systems 89 Newton's First Law of Motion: The Law of Inertia 89 Newton's Second Law of Motion: The Law of Acceleration 90 Newton's Third Law of Motion: The Law of Reaction 90 Force Systems 93 Lever Systems 95 Energy Conservation 105 The Ability of Materials to Resist Force 106 Chapter 10: Joint and Muscle Function 109 Joint Types 109 Bones 116 Connective Tissue and Fascia 118 Muscle 119 PART III: ANATOMICAL IMAGERY EXERCISES 129 Chapter 11: The Pelvis, Hip Joint, and Company 131 The Pelvic Arches 131 Pelvic Imbalances 135 The Pelvic Powerhouse 139 The Pelvic Floor 140 The Sitz Bones 144 The Hip Joint 146 The Iliopsoas 151 Chapter 12: The Knee and Lower Leg 157 The Knee 158 The Tibia, Fibula, and Ankle 167 The Foot 173 Chapter 13: The Spine 187 The Functioning Spine 187 Pelvis and Spine 189 The Vertebrae 193 Intervertebral Disks 197 Intervertebral Joints and Ligaments 201 Rib Cage and Spine 202 The Sacrum 206 The Coccyx 208 Organ Support 211 Musculature of the Abdomen and Back 211 Chapter 14: The Shoulders, Arms, and Hands 215 Suspension of the Shoulder Girdle 222 The Glenohumeral Joint 224 The Scapulohumeral Rhythm 224 The Elbow 230 The Wrist and Hand 233 Chapter 15: The Head and Neck 239 Atlas and Axis 244 The Skull 246 The Mandible 247 The Hyoid and Tongue 251 The Eyes 255 The Nose and Mouth 257 Chapter 16: Breathing 259 The Lungs 259 Effortless Breath 261 The Diaphragm 261 Inhalation 261 Exhalation 263 The Skin 265 PART IV: RETURNING TO HOLISTIC ALIGNMENT 267 Chapter 17: Alignment Revisited 269 The Biomechanics of Alignment 269 Processing Dynamic Alignment 270 Chapter 18: Integrating Dynamic Alignment Exercises 277 Alignment in Supine Positions 277 Alignment in Sitting Positions 279 Standing and Walking Alignment 280 Releasing Excess Tension 282 Other Dancers and Your Alignment 287 Continuing Imaging 288 Bibliography 289 Index . 292 About the Author 301 It seems like only yesterday that I was a student at the American Dance Festival (ADF), getting my first in-depth exposure to the use of imagery in dance. That was in 1981, following on the heels of taking Lucy Venable's Movement Funda- mentals class at The Ohio State University, in which I had first encountered Dr. Lulu Sweigard's work and her book Human Movement Potential: Its Ideokinetic Facilitation. The use of imagery in dance intrigued me enough that I pursued a special project encompassing Sweigard's book and the writings of her protege Irene Dowd. Dowd spent several years at The Juilliard School working with Dr. Sweigard, and after Sweigard's death she became the primary catalyst for the continuation and expansion of her work. At ADF in 1981 I took Irene Dowd's Anatomy for Dancers class and was fortunate to be asked to return the next year as Irene's assistant in the class. My work with her was eye-opening in many respects—imagery being one of them. The power of imagery both to change in- appropriate habitual movement patterns and to teach dancers was an inspira- tion to me. I returned home to the small college dance program that I directed in Florida, informed and inspired to develop a new approach to the education of dancers. Each summer until 19911 returned to the American Dance Festival, initially as associate dean and later as coordinator for the Workshops for Professionals. During those years my knowledge and understanding of the scientific aspects of dance, including imagery, continued to expand and grow as I worked with such teachers as Martha Myers (now dean of ADF), Glenna Batson (herself a protege of Irene Dowd), and Betty Jones. Betty, in particular, was instrumental in deep- ening my knowledge, particularly as it applied to the teaching of dance. She had worked for 15 years as Sweigard's assistant at The Juilliard School prior to Dowd, and as a great master teacher she has been responsible for integrating much of Sweigard's imagery work into dance technique throughout the world. It was at ADF in 1991 that I first met Eric Franklin, who had been invited to come from Zurich to teach a class called "Achieving Peak Performance in Dance." Eric's breadth of knowledge and his creativity in imparting this knowledge to the students impressed me immediately. The evolution and culmination of his VI work, as expressed in this volume, Dynamic Alignment Through Imagery, has im- pressed me even further. Eric's genius lies in his ability to synthesize a wealth of information from the diverse fields of anatomy, biomechanics, physiology, phys- ics, the somatic realm (Feldenkrais, Alexander, Body-Mind Centering®, etc.) and the artistic realm. So much is presented here that one reading will not be suffi- cient; it is a book one will return to over and over, either in whole or in part, to relearn and reinforce the information provided. The text is written in clear, con- cise language, easily understandable even without a scientific background. The illustrations are illuminating, provocative, and humorous; above all they clearly convey the ideas. My own work bridges the dance and medical environments. As a dance educa- tor working with students and professionals in both the rehabilitation and con- ditioning arenas, I use imagery frequently to reinforce and integrate concepts. The dozens of examples in this book will be a valuable resource for me to draw upon. For instance, I now can discuss concepts of overall body alignment using two of Eric's images: the head floating up with the body dangling easily from it (see figure 2.2a) and the head as a balloon with the body as a string hanging down from it (see figure 15.4). These images are useful for standing, walking, sitting, sitting down, or getting up. Many of the images in the anatomical sections of this book are especially valu- able for working with patients undergoing rehabilitation. For example, patellar alignment problems are common in both dancers and nondancers. Eric suggests these images to help patients achieve a more symmetrical use of the vastus muscles and correct patellar alignment: (1) the kneecap gliding easily in its well- lubricated groove, like a wet bar of soap slipping in a smooth groove; (2) de- scending in a plie—the kneecap as a small balloon floating upward effortlessly; (3) sand pouring out of the knees as you plie, with each leg's hip socket and knee in the same plane as the second toe and the sand falling downward along this plane; and (4) reins attached to both sides of the patella and reaching upward along the femur, pulling equally. The use of imagery in all areas of human movement has grown and attained a new level of sophistication in the last decade. This book and its companion, Dance Imagery for Technique and Performance, are powerful tools for movement special- ists to use in their work. Eric Franklin has given us a tremendous resource to inform and enrich whatever endeavors we are pursuing in the movement arena. I applaud his efforts and contributions and encourage readers to make full use of this valuable resource. fan Dunn, MS I am most grateful to June Balish, whose intelligent and well-informed advice significantly contributed to both the form and content of this book. I would like to thank Margrit and Ruedi Loosli who relieved me of administrative tasks so I could write. A special thank you goes to Zvi Gotheiner, Martha Myers, Amos Pinhasi, and Cathy Ward for their feedback and input over the last three years. I would like to thank my editors at Human Kinetics, Julie Rhoda and Judy Patterson Wright, for their excellent work on this book. They were always re- sponsive to my questions and generously offered their expert advice and guid- ance. I would like to thank the following choreographers, dance and body therapy teachers, and institutions: Glenna Batson, Andre Bernard, Bonnie Cohen, Irene Dowd, Stephanie Skura, Mark Taylor, the Institute for Movement Imagery Edu- cation, Charles and Stephanie Reinhart and the American Dance Festival. The book's copious illustrations would not have come into being without the help of the gifted artists Sonja Burger and Katharina Hartmann, with whom I was able to create many of the drawings. I am also grateful to photographers Howard Schatz, Mark Skolsky, and Steven Speliotis, and to photographic mod- els June Balish, Felicia Norton, and Mark Taylor. At the Gymnasium Freudenberg (Mountain of Joy), the Swiss Latin preparatory school in Zurich that I attended for six and a half years, I learned many valuable things. My back, however, acquired the skill of stooping over Latin verse for hours on end. The school's rigorous class schedule, which started at 7:10 A.M., was hardly what you might expect in a gymnasium, a place where physical ac- tivity takes place. At the Gymnasium Freudenberg, little emphasis was placed on sports: There was no football team, no track team—or any team for that matter. But I loved to dance, and in the evenings I danced and exercised in the cellar at home, alone or with my brother. When I graduated from school, therefore, my posture was not as bad as it might have been, although it took years to reverse the "Latin-verse effect." When the school put on its first theatrical production, to my surprise I was selected to play the lead. I knew nothing about auditioning, but I had apparently struck the right note. I remember being told that I didn't have to do much to be funny. I wasn't sure what the director meant by this statement until I rolled onto the stage for the first time. We were producing Moliere's Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme, and I played this rather simple-minded, rich bourgeois trying to learn to dance. As I bounced about the stage with great enthusiasm during rehearsal, the fellow playing the dance teacher was very perturbed. His dancing was, of course, sup- posed to look totally superior to mine. Finally, I learned to look clumsy. I believe my trick to achieve this awkwardness was to imagine my legs wiggling like rub- ber and my neck stiff as an oak. (You are welcome to try it.) When I first attended a ballet class, the teacher told me that my back was crooked as a banana. This correction was given in the strict Swiss manner of teaching: First teachers told you how sorry you looked and then they yanked you into the right shape. The remark was delivered with an undertone of "How dare you show up in class with that kind of back." I can still see the outraged look on the teacher's face, which naturally made me feel sad and self-conscious. I wondered how to straighten my back. I was taught the pulling-up method, which seemed to be the standard procedure. My belly button was supposed to stick to my lum- bar spine, my buttocks needed to "tuck under" somehow, and my chin had to recede. The question was how anyone could enjoy dancing in this position. Breath- ing seemed out of the question. My back didn't actually feel like a banana, so I kept trying to imagine what the teacher was seeing. I tried to imagine my back in a position that would justify such a cry of indignation. But this didn't bring me closer to solving the problem. REINFORCING WHAT YOU WANT I now know that I was actually reinforcing the opposite of what I wanted. If you don't want your back to look crooked, you shouldn't focus on it not being "crooked as a banana." Instead you need to replace the image of a banana with that of some- thing straight—a waterspout, for example. Put simply, your mind is a large screen filled with the images you have absorbed throughout the day. It is instructed by these images and the thoughts that accompany them. The problem is that most of your 50,000 or so thoughts, flashing images, notions, and so on, are similar to those of the previous day. As the images and thoughts repeat, they slowly but steadily effect a change in the direction the images suggest. According to Indian Ayurvedic medicine, if you want to know what thoughts you have had in your life so far, you should look at your body (Chopra 1990). To help clarify the connection between thought process and posture, try the following experiment. Sit on a chair in a slumped position and think: "I feel great, fantastic . . . never better. I am having the time of my life." Notice the discrepancy between your pos- ture and your thoughts. Now reposition yourself in a vibrant, upright sitting pos- ture and think: "I feel awful, sad, dejected." Again, your thoughts do not match your posture. In a good posture, it is more difficult, albeit not impossible, to have de- pressing thoughts. Posture reflects thoughts; thoughts mold the physical being. If posture and thought process are intimately connected, then, in a sense, your thoughts are constantly sculpting your posture, changing your alignment. The reverse holds true as well: Your posture influences your thinking. Your thoughts are part of a powerful matrix that influences your posture. The flood of words and images around you affects the way you sit, stand, and walk. Notice how comforting, encouraging words of praise from a parent or trusted teacher can immediately improve your posture: "Good! Well done! Perfect! Beautiful! Excel- lent job!" Conversely, observe the tension stifling all movement in a class being told it's "not good enough." Both the pictures and the words in our minds influence the feelings in our bodies, which in turn feed our thoughts and mental pictures. To create powerful and dynamic alignment, we can use this roundabout cycle to our technical ad- vantage if we fertilize with constructive information and weed out destructive thoughts. PURPOSE AND WILL To accomplish something, you must first have a clear purpose and the will to fulfill it. In dancing, for example, purpose can be reflected in a mental plan for executing a new and difficult dance step with specific imagery to help solve