Before I did Pilates I…Book Review week II

Last week I talked about two contemporaries of Joseph Pilates that informed the way I teach movement.  This week the book review continues with three books that accompanied me around New York City many years ago.  They were a large part of my life when I was becoming a Certified Movement Analyst by the Laban/Bartenieff Institute of Movement Studies (LIMS).  These books were part of my consciousness when I was becoming acclimated to the subway system in New York City.  They followed me as a dancer in a small children’s dance and storytelling company. They went with me to two day-jobs, and several babysitting gigs.  These books followed me between China Town, the Upper East Side, Union Square, and Harlem.  One of the best parts of my time in New York was being followed around by ideas from Peggy Hackney’s Making Connections: Total Body Integration through Bartenieff Fundamentals, Irene Dowd’s Taking Root To Fly,  and Bonnie Bainbridge Cohen’s Sensing, Feeling, and Action.  I learned the importance of the Patterns of Total Body Connectivity, how to view the foot as an explorer of the earth, and how to move from the floor to standing with efficiency and power. 

And it was at this time that I learned how to teach movement.  Since then, I have done many Pilates trainings, several of which were absolutely wonderful, but I sincerely believe that my work as a Pilates Instructor is informed by learning to teach movement not exercise!  When a person is teaching movement, then the method of movement that she is teaching becomes moot…It is the way the movement patterns are communicated, the way that every movement is seen as something the whole body is doing rather than something the knee is doing.  It is the way the breath is incorporated.  I remember when I first learned Pilates, my frame was the Bartenieff Fundamentals, and I would find myself thinking what a great way to teach the head tail connection, or what a fabulous way to strengthen the heel-sitz bone connection.  I teach Pilates, but the depth of my teaching is shaped by many other ideas as well. 

Making Connections: Total Body Integration through Bartenieff Fundamentals, by Peggy Hackney was released when I was in the Laban/Bartenieff certification program.  I remember excitedly ordering this book (which to a starving artist was not cheap).  I was so excited to read the clarity in the language.  Peggy Hackney’s ideas are complex, but her explanations are simple and easy to digest, which is quite different from the traditional Laban Movement Analysis literature.  At the beginning she writes about her mentor Irmgard Bartenieff, and the story can bring tears to your eyes.  She creates a context for her work with Irmgard, and she talks about movement with both passion and empathy for the stories that bodies tell.  I still use this book at the University of Hartford.  I have the first edition and the binding is worn, but I refer to it constantly both in my teaching and my writing.  

Taking Root to Fly by Irene Dowd is an anatomy book, but there is nothing traditional about it.  In this book our feet are roots and our movement is flight. It accurately describes the body with metaphor and imagery.  Irene takes her descriptions of anatomy out of the industrial age and back to nature.  She describes anatomy in relationship to movement in a nuanced way.  The knee joint becomes more than a simple hinge seen on a doorframe, Irene explains the three dimensional movement of the knee.   Irene taught me how to see the body without judgment.  Movement patterns are not right or wrong, they are strategies, and if you want to create change in the body, you must first decipher the purpose of the strategy you want to change.  In movement there is no right or wrong…

Sensing, Feeling, and Action is a collection of articles by Bonnie Bainbridge Cohen.  From this book, I learned developmental patterns; I learned that when we think about movement we must also think about the movement of the circulatory system, the digestive system, and the nervous system. Our bones and muscles are just the beginning of movement.  How do our organs react to abdominal strengthening exercises?  How do muscular imbalances affect digestion?  For the purposes of categorization we have named individual systems as if they are separate from each other, but are they?  Have anatomy books that separate the body into individual parts led us astray? What happens when you put the individual systems back together?  I believe it was at this time in my life that I learned and fell in love with the word Gestalt: the whole is not a sum of its individual parts.  Bonnie’s book explores this idea with creativity and great clarity.

There you have it!  Why do I see the world the way that I do? Well certainly I can’t contribute my entire worldview and expertise to three books, (which is why next week I am going to talk about a few more) but it is always interesting to think about a time in your life when a few books are important and what effect they have on your view of the earth along with the life that lives here.  Next week it’s all about fascia with the work of Tom Myers on the forefront …I’ve taken a course from him and I love his work…be prepared next week we’re talking about fascia fascia fascia!!!  

Thanks for reading

Katrina Hawley C.M.A, R.S.M.E

Co-Director of The Pilates Studio  

If any of these books sound like must haves please feel free to visit The Pilates Studio’s Amazon Store!