Sondra Fraleigh Talks about Her Work in Somatics
03/18/2010 - By Sondra Fraleigh
Sondra Fraleigh photographed by her student Franc Chamberlain
Sondra Fraleigh explains the basic principles behind her teaching at the Eastwest Somatics Institute for Dance and Somatic Studies
Sondra Fraleigh Talks about her Work in Somatics
Through my Eastwest Somatics Institute for Dance and Movement Studies, I have developed unique thematic workshops for the seven levels of work in the certification program, endorsed by ISMETA. All workshops teach the basics of SHIN SOMATICS, the term I have registered as a trademark to identify my work. Shin Somatics Workshops can be taken in any order. “Dancing Down the Bones,” is a good example of a workshop that includes most of the basic elements I teach. As the title suggests, we focus on the human skeleton and its connectivity. Through intuitive dances we evolve from water to land, from amoebic form to bilateral movement and the ability to gesture, make sounds, speak, sing, dance, and represent the outside world symbolically in movement. The bones in their interactions with the joints and muscles, and the marvels of all the bodily systems, allow us to wiggle, to crawl, to point, to stand, to walk, and to dance. Five key yoga postures can be experienced out of this exploration and taken back into it. In other words, there is an organic way of attaining the yoga postures that includes the body’s watery constitution and its bones. There are a variety of movement patterns that can be developed from these explorations, and it is also possible to improvise and to choreograph with the patterns. At some point, we make the patterns the basis for integrated bodywork.
I like to pay special attention to the basic function of walking in all of my workshops – how to develop a feeling for walking through the psoas muscle, and to come into walking through the warrior postures in yoga, since the psoas is strongly engaged in the warrior poses.
We also learn what I call Teaching Through Touch in Shin Somatics Workshops. It derives from somatic, yogic, explorations. Teaching Through Touch is based on movement patterning, and follows lines of lest resistance in the client/student’s movement whether on the table, or in upright motion. There is an emphasis on five core anatomical elements that guide the lessons, including the iliopsoas muscle in relation to the spine, pelvis, and legs, balancing the muscles of the trunk and legs in walking, the muscles of the pelvic floor in relation to the head and sacrum, the hips and lumbar spine in relation to the six external rotators of the hip, and rooting the head and limbs through the spine. Integrative bodywork skills continue to be developed along side intuitive dance and movement pattern lessons in all of the workshops.
I find that my study and teaching of kinesiology for dance has greatly aided my ability to mediate a somatic level of learning and communication. At some point, it doesn’t really matter whether you know the names of the bones, and the origin and insertion of the muscles, when you are fully involved in the movement and paying attention to the feeling tones, but it is very important for those who teach and work with the body to know what it happening technically as well as intuitively.
Never far from the surface of movement is the expressive complexity of the human organism. In all of our work, we pay attention to what is being expressed in ourselves and in those we work with. We learn how to notice this expressive level and to hold presence for it without interpreting or judging. This is applied work in effective communication that I have studied with Selwa Said (strongly influenced by Carl Rogers), a wonderful mentor in non-invasive expression and extraordinary relationships who teaches from a wheelchair. My work called Holding Presence is concerned with expression and communication at a non-verbal somatic level. There are also ways to bring this somatic presence very simply to words, and to let the words resonate as part of the process of working with a student/client without undertaking “talk therapy.” The latter is not part of my purpose. We learn to work at a somatic level of awareness and communication, primarily, but we also need to be effective with language.
Intuitive Dance, Teaching Through Touch, Core Movement Patterning, all come into play in working with groups and with individual students. I have developed a process called Framing Potentials that includes observational skills and the framing of movement potentials. I substitute these terms for “diagnosis,” since “finding out what is wrong with people” is not we do, and “solving movement problems,” because of the negative implied, is not what we do either. Interesting how language makes so much difference in how we actually understand a process and carry it into practice. Other hands-on techniques I have developed are Not-Fixing, Clearing, and Covering. The fist implies that: underlying difficulty and pain, there is a basic harmony or wholeness that can be accessed if we trust the body’s wisdom, the second is a protocol for balancing the body and bringing greater lightness and length, the last brings comfort and a state of rest. As part of intuitive dance, or guided movement practice at Eastwest, Being Seen and Looking Out are developmental strategies to remind us of the human need to be seen, and to be seen in a positive way. They come paired in a reciprocal way to refer us to ourselves, as also toward the natural and social environment in which we play a part. Dancing is a perfect vehicle in which to practice Being Seen and Looking Out.
The workshops at Eastwest are thematic, and they all carry out the fundamental practices. They can be taken in any order, and some might be repeated or omitted, according to availability. Workshop themes (titles) include: Dancing Down the Bones, Seven Core Lessons in Somatic Kinesiology, Healing Dances & Integrative Bodywork, Meditation in Motion, Butoh & Bodywork, Expression & Myth, Intrinsic Dance, Teaching Somatics. These are basic themes that cover the territory of our work, and they come up on all of the workshops. Students who repeat a workshop theme will be more advanced the second time. With each level of study, students become more aware of the depth of material and are more skilled. After level five, students function as mentors for beginners in the workshops.
Students of Eastwest will take various paths in their use of somatic work. Some will lead women’s and men’s groups using the processes and skills we practice, some will work with the elderly, and some will help individual clients to move more effectively to overcome pain. Several will integrate somatics into their work with dance and the other arts, some want to teach children, and others will carry movement and touch into their work in somatic psychology. I also have students who specialize in communications. Most of my students have college degrees, or will have in the future.
As of now, the field of somatic studies seems dependent on a background of studies in other areas. Not that the field lacks completeness, but for those who want to build a career around somatics practices of embodiment, a liberal education in the arts, humanities, or social sciences is desirable. A full education adds richness to the life and character of practitioners. Too bad so much of education defeats rather than enhances life. We can do a great deal to change this through the educational outlook of somatics. This is also one of our great tasks. Learning can be pleasurable and bring joy. It doesn’t have to ruin the body; even such a seemingly small matter as learning how to use the breath in stressful situations can make a big difference.
The Principles that Guide my work
SHIN, center, heart, spirit, origins, tree trunk
Patience
Objectivity
Nearness
Distance
Not Fixing
Not Judging
Not Interpreting
Not Knowing
Not Doing
Listening
Waiting
Accepting
Allowing
Presentness
Softness
Silence
Gentleness
Clarity
Craziness
Amazement
Wonder
Love
Kindness
Disappearance
Reappearance
Vision
Sense
Phrasing
Rhythm
Form
Pattern
Perception
Play
Music
Poetry
Darkness
Luminosity
Compassion
