El rol del estudiante en el juego dramático

With each sequence I encouraged people to let breath come and go on its own, and afterwards to sit with their eyes closed and resonate – sense what, if anything, had changed, especially with their breath movement, as a result of what they had done. We rested, talked, and

wrote in between the different ‘exercises’. MA wrote during the rest break:

Beginning to conceive of the connection between physical movement & breath – so far: that they (breath & movement) touch each other. Hadn’t perceived that before: the physical sensation of it. Also connection between pain & breath: breath stops when pain sensed, in eg back rolls/side rolls (MA 1 May 04).

Mabel Todd, from whose work ideokinesis stems, draws attention to the connection of breathing and movement in The thinking body, first

published in 1937. She looks at how the forces acting on life forms on land are different from those in the water, noting how the need to breathe air instead of water resulted in the development of lungs, and how the need to move about on the land resulted in various

adaptations including the development of limbs:

The apparatus for locomotion and breathing, which appeared

simultaneously in the racial pattern as vertebrates came onto the land, continue to be closely associated in the growth of individual organisms and in their functions. They are intimately related through mechanical and nervous tie-ups between appendicular and respiratory structures, also between both these and the cardiovascular system by which blood is conveyed from heart to lungs for aerating and back to the heart with its load of oxygen. And in man, the particular parts of the skeleton and musculature which operate to maintain the spinal curves and to keep the trunk erect are most closely associated with the bony and muscular parts involved in breathing (1968 (1937), 10).

MA’s phrase ‘they touch each other’ is most appropriate. MA also raises the issue of pain with her discovery of how her breath stops when she is in pain. In the breathwork training when someone reports

pain Roffler tends to offer a breath and movement sequence that specifically includes the part of the body where the pain is reported. He will ask the person in pain to orient to the sensations of the movement of breath rather than to the pain, and particularly to try to continue to allow breath to come and go on its own. This is because an orientation to the pain, and therefore to trying to ‘fix’ it, is regarded as an invitation to try to ‘do’ something with breath rather than to let it come and go on its own.

One of the principles of Middendorf breathwork is that when one approaches breath with full presence and participation, letting it come and go on its own, it can connect one to a source within that provides what is needed for one’s individual life processes to stay in balance. This is what Middendorf practitioners refer to as the ‘somatic

intelligence’ of every cell of the body. If I stay connected with my breath, which orients to wholeness, and allow it to come and go on its own, then I create the conditions for my body to balance itself. This is what I regard as the central ‘claim’ of Middendorf breathwork, and I return to it in detail below (see ‘Somatic intelligence’, p.217). I discovered through the breath training that as I became more sensitive to the movement of my body with breath so could I sense more of my body at the same time. Eventually I could receive my inhalation all over, throughout my body, all at once. This experience of wholeness with and through my breath is usually pleasurable, joyful, and keeps me coming back for more.

Later in the workshop series I spoke of this approach of orienting to breath movement rather than the pain when RB23 reported some pain in her chest. Afterwards she wrote:

When began focussing on where breath is held, felt it in chest – something forced, something held, something trying, something

blocked. When focussed on other parts of body & breath in those areas, found that the sensation in the chest eased – the sensation was less acute – feeling more flow of breath – seemingly just by changing the focus & quality of attention – more letting it be, quietly observing and exploring (RB 7 August 04).

HD also wrote during the rest break:

After noticing how shallow my breath was at the start of the day it feels to be in a comfortable place at the end of this first session – the body is more energised and ‘awake’ – sensitised to its surroundings and alert but also relaxed – and I do feel very aware of my breathing without in any way needing to contrive inhalation/exhalation patterns to maintain the sense of well-being or equilibrium (HD 1 May 04).

A dancer by background, HD shifts from ‘my breath’ to ‘the body’, showing what I think of as a particularly ‘dancerly’ relationship to her own body – both perceptive and abstracted. She seems well attuned to the concept of allowing breath to come and go on its own.

23 _{RB is an experienced dance/movement performer and creative arts therapist with a}

special interest in T’ai Chi. She came to some of Dieter Gebel’s workshops, attended six workshops in the first series and the weekend in the second series.