From NEUSTART KULTUR #Take Care, I have received a funding scholarship for my own research.

Terra Incognita - Unknown Land. A place, a subject, a situation that is unfamiliar to you:

After researching composition and performance work with the 5-Eye practice, I came across the phenomenon of Po Hu in Tai Chi literature. I take this opportunity to focus on this point, Po Hu, to research a new angle.

The least visible and touchable part on our backs is the point between our shoulder blades. In acupuncture, this point is called Po Hu. Po reflects our body's instinctive ability to act immediately, without interference from the intellect. "Hu", meaning "door", explains that this point of the body is the door through which the somatic soul manifests.

A practice will be developed for dancers* to discover and explore this "unknown land". A greater awareness in movement, of self and space is to be generated. Finally, I would like to document and share this.

Introduction

My ballet teacher at the royal ballet school (RBS) in London (1987 - 1990), Miss Valerie Adams used to say to us “I want to see you talking with your backs”. Literally she wanted to sense what we were doing with our backs by watching us from the front of the classroom. She wanted us to communicate to her by using the back. In classical Ballet there are moments for example in an adage where we have the back to the audience during a promenade or through spiraling the spine or using “epaulé”. Here I’m sure she meant that although our face is no more seen by the audience that if the back is what they see, then the back must focus, shine, radiate, like our faces would do if we were looking out to the audience. I remember imagining that my shoulder blades could be cheekbones or even eyebrows and coaching myself to work locally actually “on” my body, but I never remember being aware of a huge sphere of space, a semi-sphere if you like, behind me that was as big as the one in front of me.

Years later and I stand in studios teaching ballet and contemporary. Also researching or choreographing in most studios at the front of the class (where usually there is also a mirror). About 9 years ago I moved into a studio complex with my students and dancers and just by chance and because of the structure of the room, the sound system was installed at the back of the studios. I found myself watching everyone from behind. I was observing their “backspace”. 

One can compare it to the example of all the support that goes on backstage for a performance. The audience see the performance from the front. The excellence, the shine and polish whilst in the background support is being worked on by stage managers, lighting, sound, to name just a few elements. Without all this in the “background” the front would not look so professional which is the same for any company selling any product. Design, marketing, and production are key background roles playing the part in any admired product enticing us to take a closer look.

Just a further thought about how much we connect our past with what is “behind us” and the future in front of us. “Now” being present between back and front, yesterday and tomorrow. Live performance has the magic of “now” as the performer invest themselves to “the moment” every fraction of a second throughout performing should be spent exactly between back and front. To be fully present “now”, we need as much awareness on behind us physically as we have in front of us. 

Above, photographs from an exercise with dancers drawing behind their backs whilst watching movement in front. A translation of the front space into the back space using a very quick and instinctive reaction to what is seen. Using different colors for the left and right hand.

Two groups of thoughts emerge. 

• The first group of thoughts center around the ability to express with our backs. As with all joints and structures of the body, from person to person we each have a unique variation like no one else. Flexibility varies, strength varies, movement possibilities and therefore our ability to express, varies. Not everyone has hyper mobile shoulders and spine. Does having less movement possibilities mean less expression?

• The second group of thoughts center around the actual awareness of the space behind you. Imagining that there is the other 180 degrees of our sphere that is out of our peripheral view. Surviving on feedback through studio mirrors, a teacher standing at the front of the classroom or the audience watching from the front has led to an emphasis on how the front looks. Gaging distance with our eyes is easy for all the directions that lie in our peripheral view. How can awareness and mindfulness of what we don’t see be increased. Awakening the lazy senses of hearing, smelling and the imagination. The willingness to let go of logic and let instinct have a stronger role.

Inspiration and food for thought. (Not in any specific order.)

• Standing still

• Skinner Release technique

• The knowledge of the Po Hu from Acupuncture

• Touch and partner work

• Ideokinetic principles and closed eye work.

Note about Mirrors. 

Source: Teaching dance with ideokinetic principles. By Drid Williams pg. 73.

Our four-dimensional body (3 spatial and one involving time) is reduced to a two-dimensional body and from all three spatial dimensions of right and left, up and down and front and back, it is the front and back dimension that is flattened. In our minds we get used to seeing this image. Working daily with mirrors leads to those mirror images becoming dominant. We rely on seeing this image to feel a security about our movements.

Furthermore, we have the problem of the head and eyes distorting our movements continually, every time we insist looking in the mirror. This becomes a technical problem as our head and eyes are usually embedded in the “whole thing”. They have a relationship to other body parts. As we strive to look in the mirror, we need to hold the head a certain way or fix it in quite a static position. The concentration goes towards the front and apart from the head losing alignment with the rest of the body, we lose awareness for our 4 dimensionality.

Attention to the mirror image leads us to remain in the spectator’s role of the mirror image of the movements instead of the creator’s role with the power to change something from within. We look at our flat image from “outside” and logic relying heavliy on the sense of seeing, dominates which gives us a sense of being in control. What we lose is experiencing the movements from inside. Gaining the skill to read differences within our movements as we repeat things, being aware of small nuances without the help of our eyes and the “spectator” perspective.

Personal note. In all the dance classes I ever took from the age of 8 to 16, I never had a mirror in the studio. Only as I began my professional training at the RBS (Royal Ballet School) in London did I experience having a mirror in the studio everyday. I have always welcomed phases of working in spaces without mirrors but have come to realize that the body will always need time to arrive and trust itself again after long phases of working with mirrors.

Above: With my research group, Aurora, Hannah, Chiara and Mareike. Looking at anatomy sketches and talking through the first exercises.

Po -Hu - Location

The Po Hu is located on the back, 3.0 cm (equals to the individual’s 4 fingers placed together - little, ring, middle and index finger) lateral to the lower border of the spinous process of the 3rd thoracic vertebra, in the depression just medial to the vertebral border of the scapula. Situated in the trapezius rhomboideus major and serratus posterior superior muscles, and, in its deep position, the iliocostalis muscle.

Po Hu is located on the Bladder meridian; it is the back point for the Lung, and it also belongs to a family of points that treat the most complex issues of the psyche. Its special feature is that it helps treat the emotional, psychological, and spiritual aspect of the Lung, and so, it is generally used to sooth prolonged sadness and grief.

Because it is so closely related to the lungs, breathing exercise can provide access to it.

In The book “Inside Motion” - John Rolland, I found a few anatomy sketches which inspired me to imagine the Po-Hu located at the point described above and to imagine it as more of a doorway for energy and breath as opposed to only a point of location or pressure point. 

Imagination exercise

1.     The outer circle - Sitting or standing with closed eyes. Imagine you can look down from a bird’s eye view seeing your collar bones curving from the sternum out and round to the shoulder joint and then the rest of the circle curving around the back from the shoulder joint along the top of the scapula. Between the medial edge of the scapula is an open space. A doorway. Imagine you can look down upon this circular form.  

2.     The inner circle - Still looking down from above, inside this outer circle you can see a closed smaller circle of the top ribs attached at the sternum at the front and curving into the vertebrae at the back. Look at the arrows on the diagram and then close your eyes again and imagine these directions of energy. Observe in your meditation the 360 degrees of your awareness.

Simple Breathing exercise -

Part One (can be a closed exercise on its own) 

Just breath gently in and out. Breathing in through the nose, filling the circular space with air and alternatively play with: 

1.     Breathing out through the nose or mouth and thinking of the breath flowing into your front space - out of the mouth or nose forwards.

2.     As you breath out, imagining that the air is coming out of the Po-Hu location between the shoulder blades as through a doorway into your backspace. Imagine the air filling the space behind you like a cloud.

3.     Then imagine both happening at the same time. As you breath out you send equally the air out forwards in front and backwards through the Po-Hu doorway.

4.     Repeating as a meditation with closed eyes for the time you need to begin to feel more rounded volume connecting the front of the upper body (sternum) and the back (between the scapula).

Part Two - just continue from part one.

5.     Begin to move VERY softly, reduced so that the attention remains on the awareness of SPACE behind you and not on being particularly creative in the movement material. Just move intuitively through the breath. Try without any music and let any natural sound and your own breath accompany you. 

6.     If there is a wish to travel more whilst moving with closed eyes, work in partners so one person takes care of the mover. Swap roles after a good experience.

7.     Breathing in through the nose can be used to increase the awareness of the smells around you. Other people in the space for example, maybe a familiar smell if it’s a space you often move in. Working outside on grass is also very helpful with changing wind directions and “greener” earthier smells. Concentrating on the smell as you breath in and the space behind you as you breath out. Don’t be afraid to pause and just stand, sit, kneel or lay down and continue the breathing increasing awareness before moving off again. The longer you can stay with the eyes closed and deeper you emerge into another layer of awareness using hearing, smelling and the sixth sense, proprioception of the space all around you. Even fear of bumping or falling gets less.

Partner exercise 1. - with touch.

Preparation: Shoulder manipulation based on “Skinners release technique” (I am not a Skinners release technique teacher. This exercise is based on my experience of learning in workshops myself and hence why I say “based on…”)

NOTICING: 

These exercises focus on the attention, what you notice, the ability to notice, practicing noticing.

EXPERIENCING:

Can we experience what we notice?

NOT RESULT FOCUSED

Being in process. No goal. A process practice. Dynamic and individually unique to each person.

I like this exercise because it uses touch on the back and front of the head and shoulder girdle and whilst freeing up the shoulder joint and lightening the head on the axis, one already becomes aware of the space behind. 5 steps are:

1.     Putting on head strings

2.     Stroking out behind the knees

3.     Shoulders

4.     Arms

5.     Moving 

We call the mover “A “and the “touch-giver” B  

Headstrings: 

• B stands behind A and strokes gently up the nape to the base of the skull. Stroking in a circular motion with alternate hands (using the backs of the hands and fingers).

•  Take the base of the skull with the thumb and either the middle or ring finger in one hand without squeezing or pressure. Imagine you are holding a butterfly and let the energy have a slight upwards-lift direction.

• The other hand is with the thumb and finger (middle or ring) on the sides of the forehead at the temples. This touch should encourage a floating of the skull on the spine.

• A begins very small movement of this floating skull and B just amplifies what A is doing.

• Coming to stillness, B releases the touch and cups the fingertips of each hand around the right and left ears of A (standing behind them - the thumbs on the bone behind the ears and the other fingers spread equally around the ear. As if attaching 5 strings each side, let the fingers slide vertically upwards through the hair and into the air above.

Stroking out behind the knees:

• B kneels behind A, and strokes out behind the knees. Again with the backs of the hands, stroking from inside to outside. A Concentrates on softening the knees and ankles.

• Note from me: The point is not in-between the shoulder blades - the PO-HU, but it is a very vulnerable part of the body and behind you. Notice what the backs of the knees tell you about your awareness of the space behind them.

Shoulders:

• B standing at one side of A (B, taking care oneself for a good solid stand to be able to lift) and taking the whole shoulder joint of A, in both hands from in front and behind the shoulder. A, concentrates on giving up weight. The shoulder blade is lifted vertically toward the ear as far as easily moved and lowered again two times.

• On the third time instead of lifting straight up, we lift slightly in front on the way up and circle the shoulder joint up and over and down the back.

• Standing behind the shoulder lifted, B, strokes with fingertips and palms very lightly (encouraging the facia to soften), with alternate hands from the front of the shoulder (clavicular) over the shoulder and down the blade.

• Just once starting from the sternum in front and the PO-HU behind, brush with both hands the facia out until you reach the acromion. Follow by brushing with both hands down the arm hanging to the floor to the fingertips.

• Repeat all this steps with the other shoulder.

Arms:

• B Standing at one side of A and taking with the inside hand under the elbow of A and with the outside hand, the back of A’s hand lifted at 90 ° angle to upper arm, palm up. Wait for a time until you feel A can really let go of the weight of their arm. Melting and softening.

• Holding the hand firmly enough, lift it towards the shoulder so that the elbow is “hanging”. Use this moment to shift the free inside hand to the shoulder to encourage the joint to stay soft.

• Begin a small manipulation of the arm using the outside hand moving in different directions in front of the body with small and larger movements and varying the rhythm and tempo eventually. Leave the arm at side to hang.

• Just once starting from the sternum in front and the PO-HU behind, brush with both hands the facia out until you reach the acromion. Follow by brushing with both hands down the arm hanging to the floor to the fingertips.

• Repeat these steps with the other arm.

Moving:

• After going through the above stages, B will place again (like holding a butterfly) the thumb and finger on the bones at the base of the skull and lead A to walk in space. After a minute or so, let A go on alone and melt into a dance thinking of one of the following, or all interacting:

1.     Move from the arms - weight of the arms and their autonomy.

2.     Move from the shoulder joint

3.     Move from the shoulder blades

• Of course, you will be reacting with the rest of the body too. Enjoy freedom of the arms and shoulder girdle. A can keep the eyes closed and B will take care. You can also dance with open eyes.

Partner Exercise 2 - Po-Hu massage from laying to standing.

• A, begins laying on the floor face down or on one side. B, lays a hand on the PO-HU and lets A breathe into the hand. The touch helps to send the breath to between the shoulder blades. A can change the lying position slightly whilst breathing as long as B still has access to the PO-HU. 

• Once the breathing is stabilized and B feels A breathing into the hand, the touch can begin to vary from a whole palm of hand to fingertips, to stroking or tapping the PO-HU.

• A begins over the next 10 minutes guided by either B or a person leading the session, to move to child’s pose.

• The stages thereafter are kneeling on all fours, squatting and finally rolling up the spine to standing and then walking forwards and backward in space with B still touching the PO-HU.

Comments from the dancers were:

• The kind of touch is important (sharing how different touches had different effects)

• Pauses are important. B should take away the hand at intervals so that A can use the bodies “memory”.

• Time to understand is needed.

• Tapping and rubbing in combination was helpful.

• Manipulating one vertebra and moving the whole body from one point was a memorable experience.

• Less can mean more.

Partner exercise 3 - with blindfold.

• The exercise is very simply described. The aim is to continue working without sight to deepen instinctive awareness of yourself in space.

• A will wear a blindfold (or be able to consequently keep the eyes closed). B will give different types of touch on any “back” part of the body. Back of the head, neck, shoulders, arms, pelvis, thighs, knees, calves, heels… for example. A will be moving softly taking own initiatives whilst being interrupted with impulse from the back.

• The touches from B can be also different, using finger tips, poking, tapping, stroking, brushing, using eventually different body parts to touch such as your feet, head, elbows, your own back or pelvis. Let your creativity have free space and experiment.

• At least 10 minutes should go by before swapping roles.

• Take time afterwards to exchange and talk about and reflect about the experiences of different body parts

Lengthened version of exercise 3 without blindfold.

The last exercise is executed without a blind fold and the dancers can choose to close the eyes in between and open them when ever needed. Softening the gaze with “half closed-half open” eyes - giving enough awareness but blurring the optic slightly will help sustain the reliance on the instinct.

•  A person guiding the session will let the first round run with ten minutes in each role.

• After this the rounds get shorter and then vary in length. By calling out “change”, the roles are changed from toucher to receiver.

• Eventually the dancers slip into touching and receiving roles simultaneously. Both aiming to give impulses to the back of their partner whilst receiving them too.

• As far as you warm up the trust with your partner, you can begin to also experiment with encouraging the backwards in space, catching each other and challenging your partner to be there for you.