Hopkin 1

Esther Hopkin
Dance 363
Kate Monson
December 11, 2014
Efficient and Connected Movement
Movementwhether simple or complexis essential to life. Most people use seemingly
simple movements to complete the essential tasks of every day. They move out of necessity and
do not stop to think about how their movement style or connectedness affects their internal
thoughts and feelings (or vice versa). They rarely stop to think about how efficient their
movement is or what they could physically change to feel different during the day. On the other
hand, a day in the life of a dancer or athlete is full of extremely complex movement, and we are
constantly trying to figure out how to move more proficiently. We are also keenly aware of what
it feels like to have an off day and how that affects our performance. However, we sometimes
are not sure what to do to fix those off days. In my study and observation of people doing
pedestrian movement (walking on crutches) and ballet, I came to find that our inner feelings
and our outer approach to the world are affected by one another; and that all movement can be
more efficient, connected, and meaningful by implementing principles of body patterning.
Although I definitely did not anticipate it, watching people on crutches ended up being a
great manifestation of how Inner Connectivity and Outer Expressivity affect each other.
Movement Therapist Peggy Hackney elucidates, Inner Connectivity and Outer Expressivity are
in a co-creative relationship to each other. And that relationship is always changing (Hackney
36). In essence, our outer world affects our inner being, and our inner view of the world likewise
affects how we interact with it. Being on crutches inherently brings negativity into ones life,

Hopkin 2
and, if one is not careful, that negativity from the outside world can greatly affect the inner
psyche and therefore their movement. For example, after injuring my knee in 2012, I was on
crutches off and on for about a year-and-a-half, and I remember being frustrated with the
situation on a regular basis. The physical negativity and discomfort can be guessed fairly
intuitively: I could not wear certain clothes because they made the crutches chafe my underarms;
my teres muscles were not accustomed to being used so much and were therefore perpetually
sore; the supportive muscles around my hip joints (both the good leg and the bad leg) were tight
the good side from overuse and overcompensation and the other from hiking my hip in order
to not drag my foot.
The mental negativity that comes along with crutches may not be as intuitive for those
who have never experienced them, it is even more detrimental and runs far deeper than the
physical. I could no longer get ready for the day quickly because of seemingly simple things like
not being able to stand on my bad leg while putting on my pants, or taking three times as long to
gather my things into my backpack from around my apartment when I was already running late.
Rushing anywhere was no longer even a possibility, especially in the icy winter. I felt like the
whole world was passing me by while I took a detour road with a ten-mile-an-hour speed limit.
In the first week or so of being on crutches, my reaction to these physical and mental
tensions was to breathe less. As Movement Therapist and Professor Peggy Hackney explains,
breath can be influenced by and is reflective of changes in consciousness, feelings, and
thoughts (Hackney 51). In other words, I allowed those negative feelings and thoughts to affect
my breathing; I cut off my inhale at about the base of my lungs, and I rarely exhaled fully. This
resulted in tension throughout my whole body, especially at the proximal joints.

Hopkin 3
I saw this in those that I observed crutching as well; each of them had extreme tension
in their shoulders, and their whole body exemplified the word downtheir heads were down,
shoulders were hunched, and their overall demeanor was a little Eeyore-esque. I did not
specifically ask them how they got injured or how they felt about it because I was all-too-familiar
with it myself. Something had happened in their outer world to cause the injury, and the injury
had affected nuances in their movement. They were breathing heavily from the exertion of
propelling themselves forward on crutches, but their breath did not extend past the base of their
lungs, and they did not exhale fully either. They were only breathing halfway, and thus their
movement was only halfway efficient.
Thankfully, Hackney sheds some hopeful light on the situation: We can attend to our
breathing and become attuned to changes in our own inner attitude as we go throughout our
day. And we can consciously choose to alter our breathing to affect our feelings, thoughts, and
patterns of moving. (Hackney 51-2). In this case, the person on crutches would be wise to take
an inventory of her breath, notice that it is shallow, and consciously choose to breathe slower and
deeper. Doing so would reverse the process mentioned above. After the injury from the outer
world affects her breathing, movement, and approach to the world, she allows her deep breathing
to relax her and move through the world more smoothly and positively. Although I did not
succeed with that every day, I gradually honed that skill in order to mentally and physically cope
with my injury. I eventually learned to change my breathing when I felt particularly frustrated or
needed to approach a situation more calmly, confidently, and collectedly.
Beyond Breath, some of the other Bartenieff Fundamentals principles that would have
made the crutching more efficient are connecting the Upper and Lower Body through the Dead
Seven Inches and understanding the power of the sacrum in locomotion. First, I could tell which

Hopkin 4
of the people I observed were still fresh crutchers and those who were veterans by how they
connected (or did not connect) their Upper and Lower Body. Crutching requires alternating
bearing your weight on your shoulders and arms (Upper Body) with your legs (Lower Body), but
that does not mean that those two have to work as separate entities. Ideally they are connected
through the torso. As you are only using one half of your lower body, that connection can be
made in part with a Body Half sensibilitywith the good side swinging through as one,
connected whole to bear the bodys weight again.
While Body Half does aid in connecting the Upper and Lower Body while on crutches, I
found through personal experience and observation that an even more important principle is
understanding and using the driving power of the sacrum to propel through space. The beginner
crutchers tended to either trail their pelvis behind them altogether or initially leave it behind and
then swing it through. Those that let their pelvis trail behind traced a scalloped pathway in the air
with their sacrumone over curve followed by another as they attempted to hop along behind
their Upper Body; those that swung through traced a scalloped pathway of consecutive under
curves.
In her video, Discovering Your Expressive Body, Movement Therapist Peggy Hackney
claims that leaving the pelvis behind means that you not effectively mobilized your weight;
[instead,] intend to go forward, and go (Discovering). In other words, these individuals wanted
to move forward, but they were leaving the center of their body (along with their weight-bearing
and mobilizing leg) behind. Hackney continues, Since the lower body contains the center of
weight and all the connections from the torso to the ground, it is the area which must initiate
[propulsion]. Initiating with the upper body [is ineffective] because it does not move from the
weight connection. To move through the space, you must mobilize your lower

Hopkin 5
body (Discovering). We learn from this that a more helpful pathway to trace in the air with the
pelvis when locomotionincluding on crutchesis one continuous, straight line. This would
indicate that the sacrum is initiating the movement rather than being an afterthought.
As illustrated, Bartenieff Fundamentals can be applied to every-day movement (such as
locomoting on crutches), but it is seen possibly even more clearly in a dance setting.
Interestingly enough, Breath is one of the first Patterns of Total Body Connectivity that I noticed
as I watched an intermediate ballet class at Brigham Young UniversityDance 291. As per the
norm in ballet classes, the barre began with a pli combination. Ideally, such a combination is
like one continuous, expressive, fluid motion with one gesture initiating the next. Such
continuity, expressivity, and fluidity can only be achieved if the dancer is letting his or her breath
instigate each portion of the sequence.
As the first Pattern of Total Body Connectivity, Breath is absolutely essential to any
movement, especially if that movement is to be expressive or efficient. Stopping the breath adds
unnecessary tension and forces the muscles to do far more work than needed. Contrastingly,
imagining the breath entering the lungs and spreading through every nook and cranny of the
body all the way to the distal edges enlivens the mind and muscles. With that breath comes
oxygen that every individual cell needs. In that sense, each breath literally gives life. But breath
can be a mental image as wellan image of inhaling positivity and healing thoughts, of wind
rushing through the body to pick up mental or physical tension. It is important to remember that
this enlivening inhale will not help, however, if it is not accompanied by a full exhale. Again, this
exhale is both a literal and a figurative idea: Exhaling the air releases carbon dioxide from the
bodywaste from the cellsand can be used to imagine tension, stress, and negativity leaving
the muscles and mind.

Hopkin 6
Unfortunately, the dancers in 291 performed the motions and recreated the choreographed
shapes of the pli sequence, but there was unnecessary tension in the proximal joints, and the
individual body parts seemed somewhat stiff, disconnected from each other, and lifeless.
First, those who struggled to breathe throughout their whole body did not free up their
proximal joints to allow their breath to flow out to their distal edges. Rather than grounding and
supporting their arms through the latissimus dorsi, they lifted and held them with the deltoids
which then caused problems with their Core-Distal connectivity. They were unable to use the
natural kinetic chain that runs from the palm to the core. There was also extra tension in the hip
flexors which was apparent in the many anterior pelvic tilts I saw. Hackney warned, If there are
points of holding in the body, the movement will be blocked, and a dead spot will
occur (Discovering). Such dead spots were apparent in the dancers that held tension in their
shoulders and hips. The energy in the distal edges did not come from the center, but rather died at
those points of holding. Hackney explains that breathing aids me in becoming more mobile
by enabling me to open spaces in my body (Hackney 54). If breath had been utilized
properly, the rigidity in the proximal joints could have dissipated and opened the pathway to
reconnect the core to the distal edges.
Breath also enlivens movement of any kind. Life was another thing lacking in the class
that I observed. All dancers recreated the shapes from the pli combination accurately, the
movements seemed forced and disconnected for some of the dancers. Certified Laban Movement
Analyst and classically trained ballet dancer Cadence Whittier reveals that many ballet dancers
fall into the pattern of emphasizing only the shape itself. While their positions are clear and
consistent, their transitions between the shapes are elusive (Whittier 127-8). She goes on to say
that this focus on only the still shaping of ballet makes students lack "the subtle changes in

Hopkin 7
breathing that accompany movement, the change[s] in the torso, etc. (129). Thus, the dancers in
the 291 class were so focused on the shapes in the movement rather than the movement itself and
the transitions. They saw, felt, and thus demonstrated the movement as separate shapes rather a
string of fluid and connected gestures.
On the other hand, those dancers that did use their breath tended to naturally add
expression and personal uniqueness to their movement with tilting the head and actually seeing
their surroundings rather than just looking at them. Their breath seemed to connect their whole
body and all the nuances and movements to each other. Instead of performing the movement of
the different body parts as separate gestures that happened to be simultaneous, each body part
was connected to the other to create one fluid motion. They also seemed to be thinking less about
the sequence and simply allowing it to happen.
Observing the difference between the students who used their breath and those who did
not made me realize how important it is to explain how breath can enliven movement to students
at every level. Once a dancer understands the power of breath, he can use the traditional
beginning pli sequence in a ballet class to unify his breath with his movement. For instance, in
my experience, when I take the time to tune into my breath, it feels almost innate to inhale as the
hand extends before coming through fifth low and first during the customary two demis and a
grande sequence; to exhale each time I bend my legs and inhale as I straighten them; to inhale
and extend the gesturing arm before exhaling into a port de corps. If the dancer is in tune with
his breathing, he can use this time to reconnect to his breath patterning and center his body, mind
and attitude.
Another part of class that strongly demonstrated aspects of Bartenieff Fundamentals was
the battement sequence. The teacher generally does battements at barre, but the day that I

Hopkin 8
observed, she chose to bring the combination into the center. It turned out to reveal that the
dancers had been relying on the barre for much of their stability because they kept stiffening up
in an effort to keep their balance.
The first principle to address with these students would be finding greater Core-Distal
connectivity. As I watched them that day, it seemed almost as if their center was surprised by the
sudden surge of energy at their distal edges as they shot it into the air. If the students imagined
energy shooting from their core out through the limbs, their center would not be able to be
surprised; it would be aware that it sent the energy out through the foot, and thus the whole body
would be able to adjust as needed.
I also noted the stabilizing power that a Cross-Lateral connection can have. Because the
students are used to holding onto the barre, stabilizing one side of their body and mobilizing the
other, their brains have organized battement movement into a Body Half sensibility. However,
moving into the center and leaving the barre behind automatically makes movement more
complex and thus requires the most complex pattern in the basic developmental sequence
Cross Lateral (Hackney 177). Hackney suggests that cross-laterality, in fact, builds on CoreDistal patterning. Students who do not have true Cross-Lateral connections [may feel that
their] limbs [are] separate from [their] corein contra-lateral movements (Hackney 179). In other
words, if these dancers in 291 had felt the diagonal graining of the torsoif they had felt the
gesturing arm connecting to the moving leg through the shoulder, core, and opposite hip joint
then the movement would become a full-body experience rather than a series of disconnected
movements.
In conclusion, it is obvious that each of us as individuals use movement every day,
whether it be simply to accomplish day-to-day tasks or to express ourselves through dance.

Hopkin 9
Either way, it would benefit every persondancer, athlete, or businessmanto examine how
their movement reflects their inner paradigm (or even their mood that day). Also using somatic
principles to make movement more efficient will aid in feeling more connected, whole, and
complete as an individual.

Hopkin 10
Works Cited
Discovering Your Expressive Body. Dir. Peggy Hackney. Dance Horizon Video, 1981. VHS.
Hackney, Peggy. Making Connections: Total Body Integration Through Bartenieff
Fundamentals. New York: Routledge, 2002. Print.
Whittier, Cadence. Laban Movement Analysis Approach to Classical Ballet Pedagogy. Journal
of Dance Education 6.4 (2006): 124-132. Web.