Axis Syllabus FUNDAMENTALS

THE C-STAR
The C-Star is the most basic falling study in the AS vocabulary. Through the study of this movement, the student will be able to transform the floor from a dangerous obstacle to a trampoline, allowing for less inhibition when learning more demanding or risky movements. The C-Star develops all-round support, stretches and strengthens the rotators of the hip and stabilizers of the knees.

ARTFUL WALKING / FLIGHT BASICS
Optimal use of the foot, knee, hip, spine and arms to harness gravity. Analysis and restructuring of individual walking/running patterns using Axis principles. Prepare to leap, study foot mechanics and optimal anatomical jumping architecture, learn to harness gravity and inertia to fly. Walking well is a preparation for life, for everything we will do with our bodies. Our walking patterns form the base of unconscious reflexes that serve as a starting point for learning any other coordination, such as sport and dance or any kind of active work. If the knees are not aligned, if the curves in the spine are not adjusted for optimal rebound, if the feet are not actively supporting the arch and ankle, the repetition of minimal gestures that compromise the integrity of these structures will cause a gradual or even sudden deterioration.

On the average, the human being takes about 80 to 90 steps a minute, that is about 5000 steps every hour. Each repetition of a faulty coordination sets the stage for potential injury.

Walking well includes understanding and supporting the side-bending principles, the involuntary internal and external rotations of the knee, Q-Angle and Hip-axis arcs, foot structure and disposition, as well as finding and applying the motions of individual spinal curves to the different cases of locomotion. The healthy motion of walking includes continuous tri-axial undulations in the axial skeleton, a rotary under-curve swing in the pelvis, diagonally angled arcs of the extremities as they swing and receive the weight of the body falling through space. Each body has an optimal walk and personal rhythm. This workshop is designed to assist the participant in breaking the code of the habits that are potentially dangerous, ultimately finding their own walk, a walk that optimalises the structure of their bodies.

ADVANCED SUBJECTS

PROXIMAL MAGIC

Find and use the central masses of the body to gather momentum. Work with undulatory movement sequences to release, strengthen and clean the fluid sysytems, muscles and skeleton. Align the bones to recieve and channel wieght with pleasure and in safety

CONTACT IMPROVISATION

"...CI is the improvised dance-form developed by Nita Little and Steve Paxton among others in the early 70’s..."

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ETHICAL PARTNERING

Learn what works and how to avoid what doesn't when improvising with one or more partners. Learn to recognize the difference between an opportunity, and an unusable offer. Learn appropriate techniques for offering lifts, for lifting and carrying and for being lifted and carried. Play and have good safe fun.

CI SKILLS
Dynamic Wieght - methods for helping you and your partner lose their fear of falling and flying
Static lever studies are often no help at all when speed is allowed for. Light, easy, centered, fluid, mechanical perfection is bliss in the exchange of dynamic wieght. WE are there. No apologies, no excuses, no defenses. We are what we are, and this is all we can and should be. When we really are in the center of the storm of existential questions, there is a profound calm, and the power to transmit our experience to ourself, to our partners, and to a watching eye.
In this moment of arrival in the very blur of swirling motion, every decision comes, not from indulgence and egotism, but from a generous joy of life that begins to bubble over like a laughing brook. This is Contact Improvisation to me. In the heart of nature, our nature, we can hear that living water. we find ways to structure and channel the current, pour out and receive the essence that is sleeping though us from three million years of shared history.

CHRONOLOGICAL ARCHITECTURE (CA)

CA is the quintessential principle through which we harness gravitational forces to our advantage. In this workshop you will Learn the significance of functional support and practise applied biomechanics for your physical well being in all walks of life and art, as well as dance your heart out.

AXIS UPSIDE DOWN

Lose your fear of being on your hands. Find your orientation and balance while you stand on the sky.