We’ve been in Canoa Quebrada for a couple weeks now, in Ceara, along the famous northeast coast of Brazil. This is my fourth time here and Fabio and I plan to build a house here eventually, but meanwhile, while we wait for the appropriate government agency to give us permission to begin construction, we come here and spend time with family and friends, trying to imagine a life here someday.

The Axis Syllabus – universal motor principles™ is a set of ideas relating to dance or movement.   It includes a technical reference guide derived from laws of physics, geometry and human anatomy, and presents observations about safe and advantageous mechanical parameters within which the human structure suggests we should move. One thing that sets the Axis Syllabus apart from other movement “techniques,” is that the material presented in class is to be used as a framework in which to explore these principles, a sort of obstacle course or playground in which a student can engage in her or his own exploration of movement.  Phrase material is offered to serve the students and their learning, rather than the other way around.  When counsel is given in class, it is usually addressing the mechanics of a given movement, shedding light on a dynamic principle that the student is missing, rather than a judgment of their instrument and the way it moves.  In other words, students receive feedback about what they are doing, as opposed to criticism about themselves or their bodies.

If you are interested in contact improvisation but are a little timid or scared, or if you have already begun exploring the world of contact but want to find ways to go deeper in your exploration, the Axis Syllabus is a fantastic toolbox for several reasons.  The safe falling habits, structural awareness and ability to make transitions smoothly can all be incredibly liberating, giving you more confidence to try things and allow for off balance situations. The AS helps you feel universal principles in your own body before starting to merge dynamically with others, and ultimately you first have to trust yourself before you can really trust another person.  CI then becomes a bit less awkward and scary. Of course, there are no guarantees, no magic formula for success, and everyone must find their own way in their own body, but I believe the Axis Syllabus is a very helpful resource for anyone who moves, and particularly for contact improv.

First I want to focus on falling. When all weight sharing and lifting possibilities are relatively new experiences, one is bound to find herself in awkward exchanges, but one must try anyway in order to learn. Rather than avoiding falling at all costs, in AS training we seek opportunities to fall, exploring new ways of falling and guiding our falls safely, striving for “off balance” as the goal. If you fall to the floor repeatedly in different ways and don’t hurt yourself, your body will get the message that it’s OK to fall.  If it’s OK to fall, then it’s always playtime! In fact you may even start to find falling pleasurable or fun.  Having well trained falling reflexes helps you to remain open to new experiences.  If you are more apt to explore and try things, you are bound to learn much faster. I remember a dance partner once commenting to me when I was first starting to go to jams about my ability to fall and land safely.  What I think is so cool is that this is something that nearly anybody can learn.  It doesn’t take any special qualities, flexibility or strength.  It takes concentrated study and surrender, so that the right body parts take the impact at the right angle at the right time.  Meeting the ground with receptive body parts (typically the same body parts used in self defense training,) can actually be very good for you, reaffirming your presence and the resilience of your structure.  If things don’t go how you expect and you fall to the ground, you know how to protect yourself and you can use the energy from your fall and channel it right back into the dance.

As students and teachers of the Axis syllabus, we examine the skeletal support system as the first building block in analyzing movement through space, looking at where the most support can be found and how to use this support to move with the least amount of effort or strain.   This takes specific organization of the body and sensitivity to weight shifts, which can then serve as a foundation when you want to offer the support of your bones to another, or you want to find it and use it in his or her body to support you. When you have studied and know well the support structures in your own body, you are more likely to be able to find it in someone else’s body.   There is something so satisfying about feeling the sound architecture of your bones stacked up solid and receptive inside of you, and then building on top of that with another person, maybe several people!

Another important part of the Axis work is what we call sidebending.  Sidebending principles generally refer to lateral flexion in the spine, but acknowledge that moving sequentially through the body is the more efficient way to travel through space and that our body parts are not meant to move along single planes or axes.  A healthy sidebend actually involves rotations around all three axes in all three proximal motors, the pelvis, torso and head.  However, rather than working primarily from this idea of a shape, we use the idea lightly to suggest something the body passes through on the way to something else, so that we are always in a state of transition, never fixed.  This is very helpful when trying to merge your body’s collection of shapes with another’s, and you can be very adaptable and open to respond to moment to moment changes in a logical way.

When multiple layers of understanding come together it can be very exciting. What I have described above is foundational work.  Without this foundation, higher dynamic becomes more and more risky.  Of course, with no risk, there is no fun.  So . . . it is about getting to know the risks involved as well as possible, and going from there.  For more information about the Axis Syllabus and some great articles written by Frey Faust about CI and partnering, go to http://www.axissyllabus.com.