The Axis Syllabus is a trans-disciplinary research and education platform, or a tool for information mining and information transmission, and not a brand name.

The AS research community concerns itself with the practice, study and teaching of bio-mechanics as they apply to human movement, dance, and the art of dancing. Although we share and inspire each other, there is no prescribed teaching style. Nor is there a prescribed vocabulary or branded set of exercises.

Instead, we ascribe and aspire to certain principles:

 Origins and Mission Statement - The Axis Syllabus Research Community

The members of the ASRC begin as students of the AS, graduate to candidates for certification, and then become practicing teachers and researchers. They are an organically organized collective with a fluid heirachy that is mostly based on the fair assessment of competence. The operating theories that comprise the AS practice protocols form the group's common resource and reference, and are also subjected to review, discussion, alteration, actualisation or deletion. Members participate in this discussion to the degree in which they feel implicated. All members contribute their research to the common fund of empirical, clinical and practical knowledge.

to integrate the information found in both areas of research into the practice of teaching, living and making art.

The primary aim of the AS teacher is to impart the means for physical self-protection and expression, ultimately rendering the student an independent agent in the maintenance of their own health. This objective creates a logical priority system; the shift of focus from “what” to “how” defines the AS teacher’s first concern as the physical and mental, as well as the emotional health and welfare of the class participants. This means that the student’s ability to remember and execute movement motif is second in nature. Instead, in the context of moving across, down to and above the surface of the earth, student counsel will revolve around the following issues.

Joint Integrity - Alignment
The 900 or more synovial joints we use to channel the energies of dynamic motion have specific shapes and functional parameters. Good alignment means bringing as much of the available cartilaginous surfaces of each joint together during compression, torsion or shear. Appropriate alignment expresses itself in the maintenance of skeletal integrity during the change of level from lying down to standing or into the air.

Breathing Mechanics
The oxygenation of the blood is of primary importance to the consistency of the body’s structures. Oscillation in the torso and appropriate weight distribution over available supports is a pre-requisite for breathing well.

Individual Safety Parameters: Spine, Hip, Shoulder, Knee, Elbow, Foot and Hand
The Spine offers two predominantly bi-axial and two tri-axial motion centers, in other words four areas of relative mobility with severe restrictions in certain directions. The contra-lateral spinal mechanism or antero-lateral flexion phenomenon creates torque to drive the extremities. In their neutral angles, the three synovial spinal curves create the potential for wave propagation (the passing along of kinetic energy). The hips and shoulders communicate the incoming ground shock forces to the spine. They also must withstand extreme compression and decompression. The preservation of neutrality in the three spinal curves while moving through space requires the student to understand spinal construction and function, specifically the mobility of certain sections and their limitations. Respecting the hip and shoulder axes promises mechanically sound motion parameters for maximizing the strength and stability of these structures. If the student can consciously take advantage of the principles of physics and applied anatomy, they possess essential keys to choice and self-defense. Consistent observation and dialogue with the student over an ex- tended period of time is essential to the pertinence of personal counsel.

Sequential Movement
Natural grace and movement efficiency require differentiated and sequential deployment of the body’s seven core masses and twelve peripheral elements. The reduction of both stress and shock is optimized when the dynamic potential of the wave is harnessed.

The Universal Motor Principles
Understanding these principles, we can minimize effort and maximize energetic conservation for higher intensity and greater endurance. The UMP include: angular and translational momentum, static and mobile inertia moments, the properties of the four gravitational forces: centrifugal, radial, centripetal, gravitational; as well as the physical laws pertaining to the visco-elastic nature of the body and its contact with the environment: lag, lead and friction.

Living with the Earth – Resistance and Permission
The democratic nature of mass and momentum provides everyone with the basis for the dialogue with the physical world. For example, the largest masses in the body are called to the center of the earth with greater insistence than the smaller ones. The direction of the pull often supports alignment and appropriate weight distribution. Obviously there is a limit to how much we can give in to the gravitational field. Permitting the body to drop to its intended relationship, but at the same time resisting too much intimacy is the context for negotiating our will with the earth’s magnetic pull.

The Arc of Awareness – Encouraging Self-Monitoring Skills
The AS educator’s ethic includes the enhancement of student potential, through the challenge, affirmation and solicitation of the physical and intellectual resources of their pupils. If you choose to work with set material, task-oriented improvisation can allow individual application and integration of the underlying principle on which the phrase is constructed. As the material develops, passing from simple to more complex movements, the student might come upon his/her limit for balance, strength or coordination. They may also be working with an injury or a permanent physical challenge. By trying to do the new variation while on overload, they might lose sight of the previous steps and be unable to apply what they have just learned. This moment represents the opportunity to compare and asses old patterns and appropriate new ones, and is evidence of the tactics deployed by the teacher. But the student needs to be guided with care. My suggestions for a paradygm shift are as follows. Normally, the student will struggle to copy the teacher or the other students. Instead, the teacher could offer them the option to work or improvise with previous movements, adding on as they see fit or simplifying as needed. Or, if they feel confident that they have understood the basics, the students can add a challenge for themselves.

Connection to one’s self, connection to the space, connection to the others; the span of this awareness includes:

•The knowledge of the placement, proportional distances and motion potential of individual somatic structures and their collective interactions inside the individual body.

•The conscious awareness of the interplay of kinetic energies and gravitational forces available to and acting on the body.

•The ability to measure the distance of the body’s surface to fixed or relatively static objects, implying an appropriate reaction-time to avoid collision or convert a fall into an opportunity to move.

•The subsequent development of appropriate reflexes for receiving or avoiding moving objects and other people.

•The knowledge and awareness of all of the other person’s internal structures and proportional relationships, allowing for an empathic sensitivity to another’s pleasure or discomfort.

•The conscious awareness of the interplay of kinetic energies and gravitational forces on and between two or more bodies.




Even though many tactics can be used in the effort to provoke awareness in the individual, in the AS class the student will be urged towards a direct sensory relationship with his or her body. For example, applied physics and functional anatomical parameters are continually referenced in order to assist the students in finding structurally sound solutions to weight, mass, momentum and kinetic energy equations, and to help them assess their own physical limits for safety while they are expanding range, skill and strength.

Carefully chosen neutral terminology and a non-secular premise allow for people of many religious denominations, cultures and creeds to benefit without being obliged to adhere to a single doctrine. This way, a global awareness of situation-adapted social etiquette can be encouraged and nurtured throughout the transformative process of the discovery of the self and its relationship to others.

The pedagogical goal of the AS is to impart impartial tools for understanding how to move well, and to enhance the ability to adapt to different disciplines and styles while preserving one’s health.