Injury as revelation, part one, Gryokinesis

It happens to us all—the regular body doing its everyday chores, the super body doing its extraordinary 

feats, one day it happens

 Injury.

What do we do? What is an Inveterate Dancer (ID) or an Intrepid Exerciser (IE) to do?

Injuries craft the body as much as exercise. The trick is to let the information come and then to incorporate it into the “healed” body. When we utilize all the body's material, the painful and pleasurable, we gain our truest, fullest moving body. This is the first of several pieces on Pilates and Gyrokinesis, two modalities that show us how we can uncover our own unique body of knowledge: the one that comes from both injury and athletic striving.  

Gyrokinesis

Gyrokinesis founder Juliu Horvath  was an athlete and a dancer who suffered many injuries. For a well written in-depth history check out Kathy Van Patten’s article, history of Julio

 

He studied yoga, acupuncture, and a variety of other disciplines and developed a new way of looking at the body. It all stemmed from what he so eloquently stated, “I want music and poetry in my body, I want to be skillful without struggle.” 

What is so different for IE about Gyrokinesis is that it challenges the body and mind to think and move fluidly through all three dimensions.  See the below video for the opening exercises.

Class is taught in a circle on a stool for beginners.  They start by scooping the body forward and backward and then turn to one leg and dip the head. Then they begin to spiral, to the front, back and side. The breath feeds the fluidity, combining hollowing out breaths and small puffing ones.

As the class progresses you feel your body as a three dimensional tool, building a sense of what is behind you, above you, all around you. You begin to visualize and feel what is inside you and around you.

It is very natural not forced and simply comes upon one