Anat Baniel Method Professional Training Transformational Movement Lessons

293 Pages·2016·2.1 MB·English

Anat Baniel Method Professional Training
Transformational Movement Lessons Segment 4

Anat Baniel Method Professional Training

Transformational Movement Lessons

Segment 4

Focus
The Spine: Delicacy and Refinement of Action

Trainers:
Anat Baniel
Marcy Lindheimer

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Anat Baniel Method Professional Training
Transformational Movement Lessons Segment 4

Transformational Movement Lessons
ABMPT Segment 4
TML 1: ON BACK, HOLDING BELOW KNEE TAKING KNEE AWAY (TO SITTING)
PART 1 (2005) .......................................................................................................................... 5
(Transcription as Taught by Anat Baniel from Seg. 4 Day 1, August 20, 2005 TML #1) .......... 5
TML 2: ROCKING MOVEMENTS OF SPINE AND HEAD IN SPACE (2011) ......................... 13
(Transcription as Taught by Anat Baniel Seg 4 Dec 3, 2011) ................................................... 13
TML 3: ON BACK HOLDING BELOW KNEE TAKING IT AWAY PART 2 OF TML 1
(2005) AKA FLEXING THE SPINE/HEALTHIER SPINE ........................................................ 22
(Transcription as Taught by Anat Baniel from Seg. 4, Day 2, Aug 21, 2005 TML #3) ........... 22
TML 4: TWISTING IN SITTING: PRIMARY MOVEMENTS OF SPINE (2011) ....................... 31
(Transcription as Taught by Anat Baniel seg 4 Dec. 2011) ...................................................... 31
TML 5: ROLLING THE PELVIS WITH THE HEAD TURNED TO ONE SIDE (2005) ............. 49
(Transcription as Taught by Anat Baniel from Seg. 4 Day 1, August 20, 2005) ...................... 49
TML 6: BALANCING PULLING ON KNEE (2011) .................................................................. 57
(Transcription as Taught by Anat Baniel Seg 4 Dec. 2011) ...................................................... 57
TML 7: LINE OF EFFORT, LYING ON THE BACK (2005) ..................................................... 73
(Transcription as taught by Anat Baniel from Seg. 4, Day 3, Aug. 22, 2005) .......................... 73
TML 8: ON THE FOOT AND FOREARM: RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN THE HEAD
AND PELVIS TO STANDING (2009) ....................................................................................... 79
(Transcription as taught by Anat Baniel Seg 4 Nov 2009) ........................................................ 79
TML 8: On the Foot and Forearm: Relationship between the Head and Pelvis to Standing
(2005) ............................................................................................................................................ 96
(Transcription as taught by Anat Baniel from Seg 4 2005) ....................................................... 96
TML 9: FIFTH KATA [PART 2 (2005)] ................................................................................. 101
(Transcription as taught by Anat Baniel from Seg. 4, Day 4, Aug. 23, 2005) ........................ 101
TML 10: FROG MOVEMENTS IN LEGS AND LOWER BACK (2005) ................................. 109
(Transcription as Taught by Anat Baniel from Seg. 4 Day 5 Aug. 26, 2005) ......................... 109
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ABMPT Transformational Movement Lessons sm Segment 4

TML 11: TILTING LEGS, TWISTING SPINE, ON BELLY (2011) ........................................ 121
(Transcription as Taught by Anat Baniel Seg 4 Dec 2011) ..................................................... 121
TML 12: FIFTH KATA, PART 1 (2009) .................................................................................. 131
(Transcription as taught by Anat Baniel Segment 4 November 11, 2009) .............................. 131
TML 12: Fifth Kata Part 1 (2007) ........................................................................................... 144
(Transcription as Taught by Anat Baniel from Segment 4 September 2007) ......................... 144
TML 13: LINE OF EFFORT OF LIFTING (LYING ON BELLY) ............................................. 162
(Transcription as Taught by Marcy Lindheimer, Feb 22, 2014) ............................................. 162
TML 13: Line of Effort on Back in Lifting, (Lying on Belly), part 1 (2009) ....................... 174
(Transcription as taught by Anat Baniel) ................................................................................ 174
TML 13: Line of Effort on Back in Lifting (2005) ................................................................. 180
(Transcription as Taught by Anat Baniel from Seg. 4 Day 7, Aug. 26, 2005) ........................ 180
TML 14 PART 1: SITTING ON CHAIR, BENDING, ARCHING AND TWISTING THE
SPINE (2008) ......................................................................................................................... 186
(Transcription as Taught by Anat Baniel; Segment 8 day 5, October 15, 2008) .................... 186
TML 14 Part 2: Sitting on Chair, Bending and Twisting Spine; Hand on Floor, Elbow
Circles (2008) ............................................................................................................................. 193
(Transcription as Taught by Anat Baniel; Segment 8 day 6, October 16, 2008) .................... 193
TML 15: MAKING THE SPINE FLEXIBLE AND INTEGRATING IT (2007) .......................... 214
(Transcription from Anat Baniel Seg 4 September 2007) ....................................................... 214
BONUS TML’S TAUGHT IN PREVIOUS ABM SEG 4 TRAININGS ..................................... 224
Bonus TML: An Extreme and Mental Twist 2007 Version .................................................. 224
(Transcription as taught by Anat Baniel Seg 4 day 2 and 3 September 2007 TML 4 and 5) .. 224
Bonus TML: Continuation of An Extreme and Mental Twist (2007) .................................. 229
(Transcription as taught by Anat Baniel Seg 4 September 2007) ........................................... 229
Bonus TML: An Extreme and Mental Twist (2005) .............................................................. 236
(Transcription as Taught by Marcy Lindheimer from Seg. 4, Day 2 Aug 21, 2005, TML #4)
................................................................................................................................................. 236
Bonus TML: On Belly, Lizard Movements/Head to Knee, Knee to Head (2005/2009) ...... 243
(Transcription as taught by Anat Baniel Seg 4 Day 6, Aug 25, 2005) .................................... 243
Bonus TML: On Belly, Lizard Movements/Head to Knee, Knee to Head (2007) ............... 251
(Transcription as Taught by Marcy Lindheimer from Seg 4 Sept. 2007 day 6) ...................... 251
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Bonus TML: Bending the Elbows Past the Knee (2005) and The 3rd Kata taught in
succession as one TML 2011 .................................................................................................... 260
(Transcription as taught by Anat Baniel Seg 4, Day 9, Aug. 28, 2005) .................................. 260
Bonus TML: Fifth Kata part 3 (2007) ..................................................................................... 273
(Transcription as Taught by Anat Baniel; from Seg 4 Sept 2007 day 7) ................................ 273

In transcripts ‘TN’ means ‘Transcriber’s/Editors Notes’.
Editors: Deb Loest Deppe and Birgit Jung Schmitt
Transcribers: Sharon Tomsky, Deb Loest Deppe, Michelle Bensky, Josie Davenport,
Barbara Van Valen

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Anat Baniel Method Professional Training
Transformational Movement Lessons Segment 4

TML 1: On back, Holding Below Knee Taking Knee Away (To Sitting)
Part 1 (2005)
(Transcription as Taught by Anat Baniel from Seg. 4 Day 1, August 20, 2005 TML #1)
Notes

A big theme for this segment is the recurring response of people to the work, which is:
you are not really doing anything, how come it can work? How come this is so different?
We get over and over again the feeling of wonder and disbelief that we do so little and it
is so powerful. Go only within the range of comfort. Use the lesson as an opportunity to
use your imagination. Take charge of yourself, say: “This is how I’m going to do it. I’m not
going to surrender to the part of myself that tells me to do harder, that I’m not good
enough.”

1. Lie on your back.
Do the movements very gently and delicately.
Legs long, your arms alongside of you. Get the general feeling of yourself lying on the
floor, the contact with the floor. Feel how you are breathing. What participates in the
movement of breathing? Don’t try to correct, just find out what you are doing.

Pay attention feel the contact of your right heel with the floor and the left heel. Feel
the direction they are pointing. Compare the direction the toes point.

From the right heel feel the contact of your lower leg with the floor. Is the back of your
right knee touching?

Follow now the contact of your left lower leg. Feel if the left knee is touching the floor
or not. Feel the contact of your right thigh and your left thigh.

And then locate your tailbone in your mind’s eye, and go up through the pelvis, the
sacrum, the lower back, the middle of the back, in between the shoulder blades to the
base of the neck. Feel which vertebrae are clear and which are not.

Feel the 7th cervical, and go down the right arm to the tip of the middle finger. And
then from the 7th to the left side to the left shoulder, down the left arm to the tip of the
middle finger.

Feel the point of contact of your head with the floor. Does it feel midway to the left or
to the right? How close is it to the middle from top to bottom?

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Gently roll it right and left. Does it go easily or is there resistance? Go only as far as
there is no resistance.
In a well-organized spine, chest, hips, etc., there is no resistance.
Stop that.

2. Bend your knees, put your feet standing spread comfortably. Lift the right leg, bent
in the air. Bent, not straightened. Get a hold with your right hand below the right
knee in front.

Now very gently start moving the knee away from you. The idea is that by holding
the knee the way you are doing with your arm, you are using the arm to translate
the force through the arm to your shoulder and neck.
Sense, when do you feel the pull on your shoulder? What is happening in your
sternum and ribs, if anything? Just go back and forth like this.
2a. See if the next time you do the movement you can do it slower.
Some of you are doing it fast like exercise, so do it slower.
As you do it, listen to what changes, what happens in the torso, in the ribs, in
the shoulder blade and spine. And listen if anything starts to happen in the
head.
[TO STUDENT] Hold your hand from the top of the knee and see what happens. What
is the difference? Your hand kept sliding off, so it took more energy to get leverage.
Now hold it from the side again and see how it is. Sometimes just doing a variation gets
the brain to do it by itself. Holding it on the side, you have more leverage. Once your hip
joint gets a little freer, it will be easier.
2b. Everyone get a hold below your leg again, and put the left hand behind the
head and begin doing it again.
As soon as you feel a tiny pull on the neck, lift it with the help of the hand. So
the feeling is that the leg first pulls on the arm, then the shoulder, then the
neck, then the head, and then the head lifts.
Lift the head in an easy way, so the chin comes closer to the chest. It takes
enormous effort to keep the chin to the ceiling.
Gradually coordinate the movement more. Don’t bring the head up because I
say so, bring it up because you feel the necessity to do so.
Let that go and rest.
See if you feel a change in the way you make contact with the floor. Does the right leg
lie differently? Does one leg feel longer? Does one shoulder lie differently? Is your
breathing different?
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3. Bend your knees, put your feet standing. Put your left hand below your left knee.

Do a few movements without the hand behind the head. Feel the pull on the arm.
Feel if your chest is complying with the movement.
3a. Put the right hand behind your head. Pull the leg away from you, and keep
pulling until there is a pull on the head and then lift the head.
Some of you lift the head when you start to move the knee. Coordinate the movement.
Pay attention to your breathing as you do it. Are you inhaling as you do it?
Exhaling? Holding your breath? The idea of using the hand is to free the
movement of the hand and arm.
Leave it alone and rest.
Pay attention to changes in the way you make contact with the floor. Do parts of you
touch the floor more clearly? The length of your spine.

4. Bend your knees, put your feet standing. With the right hand catch below the left
knee. Put the left hand behind your head and continue doing the same thing.

Slowly pull the knee away. Feel whether the necessity for movement in the sternum
is clearer.
When you went on the same side, it wasn’t quite as obvious, but going across it’s pretty
obvious.
Are you breathing in? Are you breathing out?
4a. Can you think of your spine growing longer as you do the movement?
[DEMO] Where would you make his life easier? The head. The way he is holding the
head is doable, but the weight is kept up.
4b To do it well you have to take the chest back, let the chin go down, soften in
the chest.
All of us have habits that make our life miserable. Some of the misery, and the
challenges, are inevitable, but a lot of it is self-generated.
All of you go back, put your right hand below your left knee and your left hand behind
your head.
Try to find where to go so the weight of your head disappears.
Excellent.
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Should the head stay in the middle? Explore for now. It is supposed to go
through the front, but see what happens.
Leave it alone and rest.

5. Bend your knees, put your feet standing. Put your left hand below the right knee,
have the right hand behind the head.

Start with a tiny movement, and see what happens, and go back, until you come to
the moment where you feel it’s time to lift the head.
It’s bringing the top of the head forward.
Notice your breathing. What is going on? Where is your leg going? Are you pulling it
in or out? See if you can gradually keep it more on track.
Rest.

6. Bend your knees, put your feet standing. Your right hand is below your right knee.
Turn your head to the right and put your left hand behind your right ear. Keep the
head turned to the right, the face and nose to the right.
Start pulling the knee away from you and again, the same thing, when you feel a
pull on the neck start lifting the head.
See if the pull on the head can help you turn the head more to the right.
But do not accelerate or push. It’s a delicate process of discovery, learning and
reorganization.
Feel what is happening in the sternum, in the clavicles.
Especially athletes have a harder time, because you have the power to try to overcome
not being able to do it. Being able to do it well matters hugely.
Rest.
Feel what doing this movement means to you. Is one leg longer? Does one side of the
face feel fuller? Does one side of you expand more when you breathe?

7. Bend your knees, put your feet standing. Get a hold of the left knee with the left
hand from below. Turn your head to the left and put the right hand behind the left
ear.
Take the knee away from you. Feel how different it is on this side.
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Your intelligence can take all your past experiences, accidents, etc. and figure out a
way to do it. That’s the magic of being human.
Make sure the knee moves away from you as you lift the head.
6a. Exhale when you do it and see if it is easier to soften the chest and do the
movement.
Rest.
Feel any changes in the way you are lying.

7. Bend your knees, put your feet standing. Get a hold of your left knee with your right
hand, turn your head to the right and put the left hand behind your ear.

Take the knee away, feel the pull on the shoulder blade, and lift the head.
Here it is more challenging, because the head is turned in the opposite direction.
Leave that alone and rest.

8. Bend your knees, put your feet standing. Put the left hand below the right knee.
Turn your head to the left, put the right hand behind the left ear.

Resume taking the knee away.
8a. Now listen to the length of the spine, and the ribcage, the clavicles, the
pressure on your left foot.
Gradually put the effort where you need it and let the other parts go. Do you
need to clench your jaw, or tighten your foot? Gradually clean out what you
don’t need.
Rest.

9. Bend your knees, put your feet standing. Put both hands below both knees.
Pull the knees away from you, have the knees spread, and have that pull on the
arms, and the shoulders, and lift the head.
Are you also pulling the shoulder to the ears and can you stop that?
Many people automatically lift the shoulders to the ears when the arms are pulled.
Stop it and rest.
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10. Bend your knees, put your feet standing. Put the right hand below the left knee, and
the left hand below the right knee from above. Keep the knees a bit apart if you can.

Pull your knees away, let the head lift, and go back down.
It is the movement of the legs in this lesson that dictates the rest of the movement.
10a. Change the hands over, and continue doing the same movement.
So that's a big part of working with the spine. A big part of learning to work with the
spine and understanding the spine, is having a brain, having a nervous system that
learns to recognize where to place the head, on top of the spine so that the weight of
the head goes away. You see, what I just said is more important than 99% of anything
you’ll ever hear about the spine and spinal health. It’s actually the skillfulness of the
nervous system, the evolution of the brain of the person, to recognize the relationship to
the gravitational force in such a way that the brain knows to stack the spine under the
head. It’s not so much putting the head on top of the spine as much as stacking the
spine under the head. And anyone who’s had ever the situation where you had a hard
time keeping your head up for any reason, or if you’ve worked with children, or you
have a child yourself who has a hard time being upright – a very big important,
important piece of it is – that that nervous system, for whatever reasons, hasn’t
developed the recognition, the patterns, the skill to know, to say: “Oops, here it is, now
that the weight is gone. Now it’s a place, it’s a configuration that, where I want to be
because the weight of the head disappears.” And actually it’s not a place, because we
move. So it’s a constant shift that the brain constantly, ensures, that whatever you do
with your arms, your back, your feet, that it reconfigures itself continuously to maintain
the head on top of the spine in such a way that the weight of the head disappears. This
is not a simple thought. It’s a concept. It’s not just a thought. It’s a concept, but we have
to start somewhere.

Leave it alone and rest.
Discover yourself now as you rest.

11. Bend your knees, put your feet standing. Hold the right knee with the left hand, and
have the right arm next to you on the floor with your right hand a bit closer to you
than your elbow.

Start pulling the knee away from you and see if you can direct the leg and the
shoulder and the head so it gradually brings the weight onto the elbow.
We know to anticipate our limitations. We train our feeling of ourselves. This is the tool
of our work.
Slowly. The left foot is standing.
Lift the head when you need to.
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