The head tail connectivity phrase was discovered in a lot of detail within today’s practice. “The concept that the head and tail are in a constant and always changing interactive relationship is often the single most important realization that a student of movement may have” (Hackney, 2003, 93). The quality of the movement was discovered through applying attention to detail. The reaching through the head looked a lot clearer and this made the dancers lengthen through their whole body keeping the correct posture. I came to realize that I had to focus on my head and tail together not one and then the other. When I was just focusing on pulling through my head I forgot about my tailbone and the connectivity within my spine was lost through arching within the lower spine. “One does not ‘fix’ alignment by making an adjustment only in the head or in the tail. The two are in a relationship and the whole spine is involved” (Hackney, 2003, 105). Discovering this connection every session was making me feel more confident within my dancing. The head tail connection is essential to the pieces for our assessment because there are many movements, which suspend pulling from the head to tail lengthening each vertebra. The head tail connection is a Bartenieff fundamental which is a “movement techniques that focus upon achieving comfort and ease in the body including smooth flow and improved coordination” (connectedmovement, 2014).

In order to have a strong head to tail connection a strong core is essential. For the last two years we have been working on a strong core by learning to squeeze our abs and feel like a zip is pulling our torso upwards. I think this has really helped us all to find our head and tail connection.

One of the phrases we practice is named the ‘body-half connectivity phrase’, within this phrase we have to focus on the right and the left sides of the body in contrast to eachother. There is one movement within this phrase called the robot, we have to alternate our arms in oposition to eachother whilst moving our legs in different positions, this helped me to learn to co-ordinate my body through the body-half connections. I found this the easiest connection in comparison to all of the others and found it interesting and fun to practice. I found that it used my brain more than my body through strong concentration.

Bibliography:

Connectedmovement (2014), Bartenieff Fundamentals. [online] Available from http://connectedmovement.com/Bartenieff%20Fundamentals.html [Accessed 18 March 2014].

Hackney, P. (2003) Making Connections: Total Body Integration Through Bartenieff Fundamentals. London: Routledge.