Saturday 29 August 2009

pole dancing

In class we were asked to visualise our axis, to help with posture.

I'm supposed to give it colour and texture.

Steely? Rubbery? With bells on? Possibly pink? Something wooden, in light pine and IKEA styling that requires some assembly at home? Perhaps I need one of those aura-seeing people to help me.

After a bit of fidgeting and staring into space, I get a sort of thinnish, silvery, somewhat flexible pole with a brushed metallic sheen. It's not very fancy or original, but it works for me.

I do find that visualisations help.

6 comments:

ghost said...

"If I told you your chakras were rotating clockwise would you think that was a good thing or a bad thing?" ~ Stuart Wilde

My guess is that what's important is that you tell the teacher so they can use it as a reference to explain if you're on the right track or not. I personally like that you have thin and flexible in there.

"Study the teachings of the pine tree, the bamboo, and the plum blossom. The pine is evergreen, firmly rooted, and venerable. The bamboo is strong, resilient, unbreakable. The plum blossom is hardy, fragrant, and elegant."

"Depending on the circumstance, you should be: hard as a diomand, flexible as a willow, smooth-flowing like water, or as empty as space."

The Art of Peace

msHedgehog said...

Hi - No, there was no telling the teacher, it was an imaginative exercise to help the student find a good posture for themselves. If you want to straighten your body around a central line, it helps to imagine where the line is and what it looks like. Chakras, rotating or otherwise - to woowoo for me.

ghost said...

Ah, yes I also find visualising where an axis is in both dancers and it being thin and organic rather than more of a large cylinder is helpful.

Stuart's comment was more along the lines of is the specific content of the visualisation helpful? So say I chose to visualise my axis as stiff and wide and made out of concrete I would then be cheerfully reinforcing that. Whereas if I told the teacher and they then understood that's what I thought my axis was suppposed to be like, they could then offer advice.

Out of interest, whereabouts do you visualise the pole when you are in the beginnings of a backstep (as a follower)? Do you find it moving in and out of parts of your anatomy?

msHedgehog said...

ah, I see what you mean - in this case the instructions and the thing we were doing with them were clear enough that that wasn't a likely problem. But yes, that could happen.

Errmmm ... I had to stand up and take a back step and try it, to work that out. No I don't think so, not exactly. It just moves with me. Or rather - I want to move so that it goes to where I want to go, and then there I'll be, if you see what I mean. But maybe it just doesn't seem like an issue with back steps.

ghost said...

Cool.

"Or rather - I want to move so that it goes to where I want to go, and then there I'll be, if you see what I mean."
Yup that's it. Not a problem, but an interesting thing from my perspective to visualise when leading - and then actually leading the above.

Particularly useful making sure / understanding the axis and the follower don't get taken off in different directions :S

Jo A said...

My yoga teacher uses all sorts of woowoo visualisations. She is constantly feeling the flow of something from the earth to the sky, connecting your tailbone to whatever etc etc. I just hold a polite smile and use the information.