skellis @ posterous

Yoga for cyclists

Subject: yoga for cyclists starting this thursday 5th November

Greetings cyclists, yoga enthusiasts and friends,

Hope this finds you all generally healthy and content!

Just a reminder that the next 7 week yfc course will be starting this Thursday (5th Nov - 17th Dec).

As ever, the class shall be taking place every Thursday at bodywise yoga and natural health centre - 119 Roman rd E2 0QN
(nearest tube Bethnal Green) 8.15-9.30pm.

Prices are as follows:

£59.50/ 42
£10/ 7 drop-in

It can be booked as a 7 week course or attended as
drop-in classes. As ever, it works out cheaper if
booked as a course (that is if you can make at least 6 of the classes) and even cheaper if you are a
concession of any kind - student/ unemployed/ oap.

This class will of course benefit anyone who is
engaged in other physical activities (climbers,
swimmers etc.) or not - so welcome all.

There is bicycle parking available outside bodywise.
Don't be tempted to bring them indoors, believe it or
not, they are probably safer outside!

Any questions, please don't hesitate to contact me at
gizzardbogue@yahoo.co.uk.

Lastly, for further info. on bodywise and course
booking, please contact them directly on
www.bodywisehealth.org - ta.

Hope to see you there!

Rebecca Bogue

FURTHER INFO:

This class specifically addresses a cyclists typical
physical tendencies as a result of the imbalance
created by repeated overexertion of some muscle groups
and underutilisation of others. The class will
concentrate specifically on:

Increasing full mobility in the joints that suffer
from reduced mobility during cycling, in particular
the hips, shoulders and knees

Strengthening postural muscles to encourage correct
seated alignment and ease overuse of the upper body
and back strain.

Lengthening the commonly overdeveloped quadriceps, hip
flexors and tight hamstrings.

Counteracting postures to balance out the cyclists
position when astride a bike (eg. backbends etc).

Controlled breathing for increased exertion, endurance
and efficiency.

The main aim being that students learn how to
strengthen and stretch mindfully in class and apply
these at any point pre or post ride and keep commonly
developed cycle related injuries at bay.

Rebecca has trained in various forms of Dance, Anatomy
& Physiology and most recently Yoga Teacher Training
with Edward Clark and Elizabeth Connolly. She has
taught and continues to teach these subjects since
2002.

Having cycled regularly for 14 years, practiced yoga
for 11 and taught anatomy & physiology for 5, it made
sense whilst doing my yoga teacher training to bring
all disciplines together. What started off as simply a
written assignment, gradually developed into a
programme specifically designed to help cyclists (for
more info, see below).

For those wondering why I have opted for
studios (which I understand are not the cheapest
option), 'tis because they are fully equipped with
props (many a foam block, straps, bricks etc.) which
will specifically address a cyclists typical physical
shortcomings and will make for safer, swifter and more
satisfying progress. And then if all goes well and
people feel it worthwhile acquiring their own props (i
can get these at cost price for anyone who is
eventually interested), it is still my intention to
seek out alternative spaces and run the classes
cheaper.

Obstacle course for the mind

Yes - there are plenty more where this came from.

Self-cleaning

This is the first in series of scans from a single magazine, read in route from New York to New Haven in early October. It was entertaining and soul destroying – a hearty mix indeed.

The magazine is called Sky Mall and it is living (huh?) proof of just far humans have progressed, and just how far we shouldn't have progressed.

(Don't forget – it's also suitable for larger cats)

tell 'em Terry

In principle, however, capitalism is an impeccably inclusive creed: it really doesn't care who it exploits. It is admirably egalitarian in its readiness to do down just about anyone. It is prepared to rub shoulders with any old victim, however unappetizing. Most of the time, at least, it is eager to mix together as many diverse cultures as possible, so that is can peddle its commodities to them all.

Yvonne Rainer

Beyond the resonance of the title, however, the 21st century dance footage (itself containing 40-year-old instances of my 20th century choreography) can be read multifariously—and paradoxically—as both the beneficiary of a cultural and economic elite and as an extension of an avant-garde tradition that revels in attacking that elite and its illusions of order and permanency. Or, finally, each dance image can be taken simply as a graphic or mimetic correlation with its simultaneous text. Some may say the avant-garde has long been over. Be that as it may, the idea of it continues to inspire and motivate many of us with its inducement—in the words of playwright/director Richard Foreman—to ‘resist the present.’

Yvonne Rainer (from Dance Camera West advertisement), talking about her work After Many a Summer Dies the Swan: Hybrid (2002, 31 min, video)

Bacon's dog

Study of a Dog, 1952
Francis Bacon
From http://bit.ly/c0ybS

the body and walking

From Rebecca Solnit's "Wanderlust: A History of Walking" (p.27)

The phenomenologist Edmund Husserl described walking as the experience by which we understand our body in relationship to the world, in this 1931 essay, 'The World of the Living Present and the Constitution of the Surrounding World External to the Organism.' The body, he said, is our experience of what is always here, and the body in motion experiences the unity of all its parts as the continuous 'here' that moves toward and through the various 'theres.' That is to say, it is the body that moves but the world that changes, which is how one distinguishes the one from the other: travel can be a way to experience this continuity of self amid the flux of the world and thus to begin to understand each and their relationship to each other. Husserl's proposal differs from earlier speculations on how a person experiences the world in its emphasis on the act of walking rather than on the senses and the mind.

failure

On Saturday 12 September Colin Poole and I performed a version of our duet "Colin, Simon & I" at The Place in London as part of the Touchwood season (designed to show works in various stages of development). We'd had about 7 weeks development (on and off), and there are some notes at http://colin-simon.tumblr.com.

The final section of the work involves Colin moving to sit deep in the audience, and then me effectively trying to 'fail' as a performer. At least I think this is accurate. We'd cultivated a certain degree of awkwardness in how I was attempting to be, but of course things only stay awkward for so long. So, we didn't really rehearse it at all. I was left talking (addressing the audience very directly) and dancing and attempting to find out (and share) what it was like to no longer have Colin on stage with me, and also talk to the feeling of wanting to entertain them (whilst trying to avoid doing just that).

Long silences. Long pauses. Flurries of movement. Some music (which made me feel more comfortable for sure). Discussing a slight feeling of frustration that Colin had elected to 'disappear', a monologue about how he hadn't really disappeared ... and then, a missed cue from the ushers. We thought they were going to ask the audience to leave whilst I was still attempting to fail. They didn't and I was left with a really close experience of on stage awkwardness. Excellent fun indeed.

But what is it to fail on stage? The 'dying' I'd felt in an earlier showing wasn't really there this time - it felt far too easy to go into 'entertaining' mode. Is it to not know what is going on? Is it resisting training/experience? How can I do this?

It reminds me of playing tennis as a youngster: when there were certain parts of my game that I was having trouble with, one strategy for coping with this would be to develop control of the failure. That is, to practice various degrees of failure (say, hitting the ball at the bottom of the net, then a bit higher, then a bit higher still, then to just touch the top, then to pass just over etc). It goes against all the rules in sport of "perfect practice makes perfect" but it was a powerful way of 'owning' the failure ... or being able to choose to fail (and therefore choose to 'succeed').

As a performer/dancer, perhaps it is in listening to the silences and the stillnesses, and how audiences are 'coping' with these that can step the practice of failing into the foreground? Of course, the paradox is that seeking failure opens up the body to all kinds of listening that inevitable is not failing at all. Ugh.

I guess another question is about why I'd want to be failing ... but in terms of this work with Colin it had to do with absence/presence on stage. That is, it was an aesthetic or creative decision.

influence

Last Friday I went and saw Duncan Jones' film "Moon" at the Prince Charles Cinema in Leicester Square. The film was wonderful—intelligent, moving, simple—and superbly acted by Sam Rockwell.

Afterwards, Duncan Jones led a Q&A with the packed audience (300+). He spoke very directly and passionately about the work (his first feature film). What was really fantastic was just how openly he described his influences, and how he is a fan of, for example, Ridley Scott (among others).

There is a certain generosity and lack of preciousness about sharing this information, and it seems like (from the outside) filmmakers are particularly good at owning up to influence, and even borrowing from others.

I am not sure that choreographers share this generosity. We seem to be preoccupied with owning particular notions of originality.

So, for the record, I am a fan of Helen Herbertson (Melbourne choreographer) ... and of Jerome Bel ... and of Kirstie Simson ... and I think I am a fan of Duncan Jones now as well. There are others, but I need to do some work.

Just out of Furness, Scotland (August 2009)