The Axis Syllabus - Sustainable Training and Teaching Methodology

First Level Resource Economy Fundamentals - Physical Education

THE SHIFT BEGINS WITH YOU

The members of The Axis Syllabus Research Community (ASRC) form a group of investigative scientists, therapists, performing artists and educators, who have unified their efforts in order to correlate biomechanical research findings and empirical data with human therapeutic, athletic and artistic training and healing methods.

In our assesment, the current ways in which human beings are typically being physically prepared for their lives is often ignorant of or outright rejects the integration of bio-mechanical principles. Principles which, when observed, promote the breath-cycle, strengthen bones and muscles while helping to metabolize nutrition and assist in evacuation and regeneration. The study and application of these same principles allow for the aquisition of harmonious, well-adapted, injury sparing reflexes that build a bridge of awareness from the inner to the external environment.

As with the earth, so each of us has the choice to examine our relationship with our own body, and weigh the potential outcomes of habit and traditional approaches to managing,  cultivating, and rehabilitating it.
 
The human body is an interdependent mini eco-system, with finite resources, and specific operating parameters. It is, like the rest of life on this planet, a representative model of the same forces that shaped the physiological attributes of other animals. The evidence of these forces can not only be seen in the architecture of anatomical structures, but also in structurally supported movement patterns.

When habits are developed that do not allow for adequate nutrition and rest; and when these habits do not make use of the support value of the skeleton, or squander opportunities for efficient kinetic energy generation and deployment, basic functions can be inhibited, placing the practicing person in immediate and long term risk of injury and disease.

Since the body's resources are limited, ignorant, abusive or neglectful treatment will place it's longevity in jeopardy, and hence, reduce its expressive potential, either immediately, or eventually.

Our postulation is, that similar to the way in which we need to treat our external environment sensibly, so do we need to develop sustainable practices of individual resource management, that help to provide the conditions for an extended and enjoyable life.

Enhancing the development of accurate space-time perception, critical and associative thought, and offering ample opportunities to examine identity constructs; the age-old practice of the art of dancing provides a sociological context for the acquisition of these, and other important attributes that can prepare the individual for respectful and creative interaction with other people.

The application of the scientific method to dance training, physiotherapy and athleticism, reveals the primary, universal importance of the educational, and salutary value of moving well, often, and creatively. From neurological development to practical ethics, from basic hygiene to balanced diet discipline, we feel strongly that movement training is not only a human right, but a basic necessity, and should be considered a building block subject of any meaningful pedagogical effort.

Because they hold the welfare of the people who participate in a class or performance in their hands, teachers and project leaders, in our opinon, can no longer allow themselves the luxury of ignorance. By nature of their social position, it is incumbent upon those who lead to found their exercise routines, pedagogical tactics and esthetic movement choices on a competent understanding of the workings of the human body.

The foundation of our present and future world, scientific research has provided working explanations of functional anatomy that give clear guidlines for human movement training methodology. When the basis of all approaches stem from the application of science, the reasons for the choice of tactics is self-evident, enhancing the potential for collegial collaboration. For the educator or project leader, the process of information transmission offers the chance to impliment various forms of democratic leadership, for example: facilitation, individualisation, open-handed counsel, non-violent communication techniques.

From the ordinary walk through the park to a disciplined jog, from the study of sophisticated dance vocabularies to theatrical or conceptual artistic exploration, human activity is enhanced or inhibited by the degree of kinetic intelligence and individual adaptation skills.

 In other words, movement students, performing artists, athletes, teachers and creative project leaders can be seen as the managers of resources that are proper to us, social awareness, creativity, muscular and kinetic energy, anatomical knowlege, applied physics, health and safe fun.