Composition

Composing a yoga or creative movement sequence evolves from one’s intention for it. When I compose a yoga class, I usually begin with stabilizing exercises, warming up muscle groups by activating the muscles usually in small ranges of motion and connected with the breath (I’ll talk more about stabilization/action before stretching in another post.) I check that I’ve moved the body in flexion and extension, side movements, twisting, and circular like motions. I consider the opposite sides of the body and connect top to bottom. There is a lot that goes into all of this, but as a general idea, this is how I go about planning a sequence. If I am working on a particular range of motion or specific yoga asana (posture), I consider who needs to be strong, who needs to be flexible, and go about creating a sequence to prepare the body for the pose. At that point, even if the pose, as it looks in a book or on the teacher's body, is not going to be fully expressed in each student's body, it doesn’t really matter. The process is where the “goods” are.

How about one example…Standing hand to foot pose, Utthita Hasta Padangusthasana. If I have to lift a leg, holding onto it or the strap around it, I will need that leg to have greater stretch, but also strong acting psoas and quadriceps to lift and hold the leg. My back needs to feel strong and upright, shoulder girdle activated to hold the leg without straining the upper body, or stress the neck. My standing leg needs a strong stable outer hip to hold me, and a flexible, awake ankle and foot to oscillate in the balance. So I will work backwards and create a series of poses and activations to warm the body accordingly. Sometimes I use ideas to make a pose more wobbly like in balancing tree pose to increase mobility. I could sway my arms like a windy day to try to throw myself off balance, thus asking more of the ankle and standing leg to pivot me back into balance. I could stand on a foam block to create a bit more insecurity to accomplish a similar waking up in the foot and ankle. I could hold a block between my hands over my head to offer more activation to reach up in the same pose to balance the weight of grounding down, or instead of hugging in, I could push out into a strap wrapped around the forearms to burst out into.

In my 3Bodies: Composition class, which is a creative movement practice I’ve compiled from a vast library of movement practices over the years; I consider the tools of this practice. I create sequences for this class that include compositional tools such as changes in speed, levels, directions, place, size, weight, and utilize visualizations and objects to assist in quality changes.

My intention is to create a bridge between what we recognize as thoughts and emotions, and feel them in our physical body, creating a conversation and collaborative effort in working through life’s “stuff”. In discovering the qualities of an emotion, I can better understand the emotion. Where do I feel it, what happens when I put my body into different positions, does the emotion change? If we exaggerate qualities of motion we can potentially unveil more understanding of our feelings and thoughts.

And we could play in two directions. One is to have the emotion or thought in mind, then move the body into position to meet up with it. Or, we can take the body into positions and qualities, and notice what thoughts, emotions, stories emerge. Always asking permission from our parts as we travel along this journey of discovery, diving into what is manageable for that moment, to sustain the curiosity and play instead of overwhelming our systems by over-triggering emotions.

Example: Playing with heavy and light. Explore a sense of heavy, so heavy you can barely lift your limbs. Sinking into mud. The effort to lift your foot out of the mud. The heavy drop of your head. After a few minutes, begin to feel light. As light as a feather or cotton blowing on the wind. Weightless, complete effortlessness in lifting your limbs. The air lifts you instead of any effort from your muscles or your willpower. After a few minutes return to the heaviness. And back and forth a handful of times. Changing the length of time you experience each, a shorter amount of time in each position, until they have blended together so closely you could feel both a sense of heaviness and lightness simultaneously.

What does heaviness feel like? Does it remind you of something in your life, does a story emerge in its effort, and what content surrounds this journey into lightness? And do we not experience both heavy and light feelings simultaneously in daily life, where we can feel really overwhelmed by many life moments while also being overjoyed to see a friend at the coffee shop? When we physicalize these experiences, how does it help us? I suggest you try it and find out. You could apply this in your yoga poses too, what changes in your experience of a balancing pose or a pose that requires a lot of effort, when you change your relationship in the experience of weight/gravity.

Why use compositional tools?

As we get curious about movement, what is available within us, how else to explore a range of motion, how to connect the emotional/mental body to the physical form, the compositional tools begin to take on a role. They can guide us when working with pain to find new pathways of pain free movement. This might help us unwind the patterns of movement that may be adding to chronic pain, and also discover we have more range of motion available even when we are feeling restricted by a pain area. Compositional tools can help manage stress, as we learn creative ways to approach it and see room for changing our perception on things. We can more quickly apply these tools to our daily life as they enhance our awareness, feeling our whole self moving through our day, not just a head on a body.

Incorporation, connection, vitality.