Teaching Notes

Occasionally I post my teaching notes. Students find them helpful, readers may find them provocative. Feel free to ask questions in the comments. This two day class, “Pure Animal” is designed around the idea that many of the things which restrain us, delude us, or limit our perception to see—are evolved human attributes of culture which can be transcended by reversing evolution a little bit. Each of these evolutionary exercises is either a game or a playful exploration. The end goal is to have a bunch of discrete kinesthetic experiences which can be integrated together to make a simple, potent, whole. Enjoy.

__Golden Elixir

__Conceptual

__Practice

__Single Cell —Breathing—Permeable Respiration (O2 in CO2 out)

__Sponging (multi-cell) Fluid in and around, Extra-Cellular breathing

__Pulsation—Organizing around the center (condense/expand)—Jelly Fish

__Radial—navel radiation —6 limbs —Sea Star

__Head to Tail__—-axial rolling?

__Mouthing —Sea Squirt (before birth) (Gut—Tube) —axial rolling?

__Worm

__Shrimp

__Axial—-Spinal—Notochord

__Fish/Dolphin —Axial rolling

__Homologous—Frog/bunny

__Homolateral—Salemander

__Contralateral—hand to mouth (Gut—Tube)

__ Scooting,

__Crawling

__++++

____________________________

Keep repeating__rolling sideways across the floor

__Circus Crunches

Salamander (for locomotion and opening the ribs)

Try circus crunches from the dog position—resistance inward, the head, biting (drag down)

Teach Rabbit (constant)

Teach Seahorse (constant)

Teach the cat
Open the Ribs—all muscles inwards

Teach the trade-off between rooting and whole body unity.

Whole body unity is the natural-animal state

Being connected is the natural-animal state

Center of Mass Waltzing

3 fingers push-hands (add pinky, thumb)(try it with 45 degrees)

Resolve/neutralize all incoming forces. Trust don’t feel, you are the master.

Horse Riding Power (mongolian wrestling) (monkey on a horse)

Do the alligator (West Africa)

Apply front/back connection in a form

Test front/back connections in animals and people-partners

All fours__invent center games…nudging while running

__all fours goating __ +1, 0, -1

__bringing down a beast with your jaw

Zero Root—Negative root

Counter Balance Games and theory and Testing

Matching— hips, shoulders, elbows, head, wrists, knees, etc…

Tipping the Styrofoam Castle

Rotating the Crumpled Paper

Blind-folded wrestling

Putting the other on your back (not front)

Being on yourself, being on the other.

Emptiness practices

Practice standing and connecting/resolving

Postures with integrity__testing

Software (short-time) vs. Hardware (longer-time)

Equalizing Games/ Tipping Lines

Opening and closing (animals animals animals)—breathing

Fur/Feathers

Snake vs Dragon (experience) (rotational clinch game)

Reverse the order of the curriculum to reteach everything from the end to the beginning, exercise by exercise.