Jean Coté about the roots of high performance

More on play to come.

As you move, so you will become.

                                                         

As you move, so you will become.

Fitness and movement courses, workshops and trainings abound, each looking for the optimum physical performance. But the physical outlook only is incomplete. A Spacial Dynamics® approach to movement takes the idea of space not been a void but something that is alive and when used with the physical body produces a unity. We work with this different quality of movement in a variety of settings to being about the change of healthy movement, ideal movement, and new movement possibilities within the physical body. These spacial movements are the bridges to our thinking, emotions, habits, and image of ourselves.

Todays work and “thought” patterns mainly have to do with gravity. A gesture of “ you must”. “You must go to college”, “You must follow the rules”. Don’t get me wrong following rules is a good idea and gravity is an important force, without it we could not stand and live our lives. Gravity is just one of the forces that surround us. It is a purely physical force and it sometimes get our bodies to stagnate or become stuck in a movement pattern that it is hard to let go! In the work of Spacial Dynamics® we use other forces to help us stand and move. We ask the body to give us another gesture to work with the “must” that gravity allows us to use. A movement quality of “you may”, an invitation in connection with gravity. This “may” invitation is a force of levity, a drawing of oneself out to the periphery. It is like that feeling of standing in the sun after a cloudy morning, feeling the warmth of the sun and expanded feeling of your being. By activating an invitation we create a spacial gesture that the physical learns to follow, then arises the human experience: A feeling of new possibilities, a rejoining and rejoicing of the whole.

It is these “relationship of forces” that lie at the heart of Spacial Dynamics® practice, whether it is during a workout, performance or our everyday activities. It is as if we are in a conversation with our body, its form and function, and the world of motion.