About Walking - 1 - The Walk Cycle
About Walking - 1 - The Walk Cycle
Walking The Way An Animator Sees It
Based on “Three Way Hip” as taught by Alan Questel
Supergirl and the natural length of the abs
It's one of the most complicated, most human things we do: standing upright and falling forward without falling. The action involves eyes to look ahead, feet to adjust to uneven terrain, a bridge-like leg/pelvis structure to hold up the torso, a spine that flexes and stiffens, an overall ability to balance, move and breathe simultaneously.
For this lesson, I’m taking a cue from artists who know a thing or two about simplifying complex movement: animators. (Have I mentioned my animator nephew Jacob Lenard, creator of Mugman, Pike, and several Sesame Street animated shorts?).
These movement geniuses have simplified walking into four basic stages: contact, down, passing, and up.
These simple stages capture the way the femur head rotates in hip socket to allow weight shift from one leg to other as the spine absorbs and then redirects the ground forces.
We will be using those stages as focus points as we explore a classic Awareness Through Movement® lesson: the 3 Way Hip. It’s a repeat, to be sure. We did this one in the “Grand Horizonals” series, feeling the way the clavicles support the arm as it reaches to hit a WNBA tip-in. We worked it in the “8 Shades of Play” series comparing reaching and simply expanding. And it showed up way back when in the context of kayaking, skiing, and other sports.
In “About Walking” we will be thinking like an animator:
Contact - pressing the heel into the floor to lift the hip
Down - How the public bone rolls towards the spine, the low back flattens and the shoulders round a little as the leg lifts
Passing - Shifting the weight into the ‘down’ side of the pelvis as the torso turns and the spine and the other leg lifts
Up - how the front of the body gets long as the opposite arm extends
And the last step blends into the first, except on the other side…
This is an experiment. I haven’t seen any other teacher explore this - so lie down and get ready. Of course, there will be healing sounds and pelvic floor references.
Set Up:
Lying supine on a mat
OR sitting on a flat-bottomed, armless chair with knees and hips level
How You Might Feel After This Lesson: Connected from Finger Tips to Toes; Ribs open and flexible; Breath deep and wide; Arms resting easily in shoulder sockets; Shoulder girdle - shoulder blades, clavicles - resting comfortably over upper ribs; Into the rhythm and flow of walking with a refreshed appreciation of the complexity of this movement.
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