Our Latest issue - Movement-as-medicine in challenging times: Body as recourse when suffering, Intellect Publishers  
 





Bio-somatic dance movement naturotherapy: The occiput, scapulae and sacrum – fulcrums of support and reorganization, Amanda Williamson with Miranda Henderson, Adam Hussain, Vanessa Tucker, Macarena Ortuzar and Karin Rugman
This extensive article shares foundational practices and theory developed in the field of bio-somatic dance movement naturotherapy (a two-year professional training in association with The International Somatic Movement Education and Therapy Association ISMETA). Unique to this programme is the experiential study of the cranial bones, craniosacral motion, restoring balance through the parasympathetic experience, and a deep blend of western anatomical knowledge with the subjective living experience of the organism. In this article I share foundational practices that often start sessions. The key areas covered in this article are ‘the occiput as a fulcrum’, ‘the scapulae as fulcrums’, ‘the sacrum as a fulcrum’, ‘sensory awareness of the foramen magnum and the jugular foramina’, ‘releasing soft tissues in the suboccipital region’, ‘expansion, contraction, flexion and extension of the cranial bones’, ‘craniosacral and thoracolumbar divisions’ and ‘the flow of cerebral spinal fluid’. Here I discuss discreet areas of the body in anatomical and physiological detail, but always in relation to the whole. In this way, I am working in a post-cartesian framework, which is one of the defining educational and therapeutic features of practice internationally, where there is an applied balance between objective science and the subject experience of living breathing tissues.
 
Post-Newtonian anatomy and physiology: The gravitational and parasympathetic experience in bio-somatic dance movement naturotherapy, Amanda Williamson with Maisie Beth James  
In this article, I expand western anatomy’s normative geography of the vertebral column to include the atlantooccipital joints, the sphenoid-basilar joint, the occipital bone, the cranial sutures and the sacroiliac joints. The sphenoid-basilar joint is considered one of the most important joints to contact in the practice of bio-somatic dance movement naturotherapy; it is a central joint and point of conscious awareness that organizes the entire vertebral column. Further, I share scientific reasons why gravity and an extended sense-perception of the vertebral column beyond the normative is essential to health. The article invites the craniosacral system into expression, the dural membranes into awareness, and the vagus nerve into creative play. Other areas discussed are the intervertebral discs, the facet joints and the primary and secondary curves. Notably, this anatomical theory is enacted through post-Newtonian somatic principles that bring objectified theory alive through the living soma on the academic page.
 
Sympathetic holding and parasympathetic release: Vagal tone and beta, alpha and theta in bio-somatic dance movement Naturotherapy, Amanda Williamson 
This article will be of interest to somatic movement dance therapists who work with people suffering from stress, anxiety and depression. Anyone suffering from sympathetic neural expression (fear and anxiety) might find this article useful. Within this article I detail information and practice that supports participants moving from a sympathetic state into parasympathetic release. Two of my students have provided practice-based enactments of the physiological theory they study on the programme ‘bio-somatic dance movement naturotherapy’. The article is divided into five parts. Each part provides theory about the autonomic nervous system (ANS), the vagus nerve and the practice of bio-somatic dance movement naturotherapy. The first part is called ‘The intelligence of the autonomic nervous system’. The second part is called ‘The vagus nerve'. The third part is called ‘The geography of the autonomic nervous system’. The fourth part is called ‘The New Vagus’. The fifth part is called ‘Beta, alpha and theta’. The article provides essential information on embodied healing, offered to enhance our understanding about the scientific underpinnings of practice. Another area covered is the relationship between the parasympathetic and beta, alpha and theta.
 
Why Somatic Movement Education and Therapy has an advantage in the world of fascial therapies: Radial and Omnidirectional Self-regulation, Amanda Williamson, with practice from Maisie Beth James
 
This article is offered in the spirit of supporting students studying at home during the COVID-19 lockdown. It is offered as a study aid for those who may not be able to return to the studio for months, but want to continue with their life-giving somatic studies at home. The article shares the properties of fascia and biotensegrity, and reflects on why somatic movement dance education and therapy is an effective approach in the world of fascial therapies. The first areas covered are sensory nerve endings found in fascia that respond to different types of movement and pressure, such as Golgi organs, Ruffini receptors, Pacini corpuscles and interstitial receptors. Other movement concepts covered are omnidirectional volume, pressure, time, stretch, friction, gravity, ground reaction, floating bones, and chirality and counter-chirality. The article serves as an introduction to biotensegrity and why fascia innervates the parsypathetics. Of note, the article is pedagogical, aimed at supporting students who are training in somatic movement education and therapy. At the end, Maisie Beth James offers some experiential movement applying the properties of fascia and biotensegrity to practice.
 
Your feet and my hands: fulcrums of support and reorganization: Bio-Somatic Dance Movement Naturotherapy, Amanda Williamson and Maisie Beth James
This article is offered as part of the COVID-19 Special Issue. I imagine it is useful for academics and students who are working at home, unable to attend the studio. Like most of my work, this article can be used as a study aid. The article explores the joints in the feet through a model of differentiation (traditional anatomy) and de-differentiation (biotensegrity). The feet are often forgotten. While they carry us through the world, from our first step to our last, they often fall beneath conscious awareness. Our feet suffer considerable strain. They often become a repository of life’s stresses and strain. The health of the feet affects the whole organism and any change in the feet locally will affect us globally. In this article, I share a practice that helps to realign the feet through a model of biotensegrity, co-creative touch and self-regulatory movement. In this model, the bones are viewed as floating in a sea of connective tissue. Each joint is perceived as a mini fulcrum of reorganization. The article explores the feet as fulcrums of reorganization and the hands of the therapist as fulcums of sensory support. The article also shares some subtle embodied qualities that underlie healthy practice. The article is divided into four parts – Part 1: Hygeia meets Asclepius; Part 2: The feet suffer; Part 3: Preparing for practice; and Part 4: My hands, your feet: Fulcrums of support and reorganization.
 

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The Journal of Dance, Movement & Spiritualities

1. Dancing in two worlds: Experiencing n/om inside the Ju/’hoan Bushman dance

 
HILLARY KEENEY AND BRADFORD KEENEY

1. Dancing with the spirits, Act 1: ‘Being grounded and being able to fly are not mutually exclusive’,

 
ELINE KIEFT

1. Bio-somatic dance movement naturotherapy: The occiput, scapulae and sacrum – fulcrums of support and reorganization

 
 AMANDA WILLIAMSON WITH PRACTICE-BASED OFFERINGS FROM MAISIE JAMES, KARIN RUGMAN, VANESSA TUCKER, MACARENA ORTUZAR, MIRANDA HENDERSON AND ADAM HUSSAIN

1. The innate human potential of elevated and ecstatic states of consciousness: Examining freeform dance as a means of access

 
LISA FASULLO, ALINA HERNANDEZ AND GERARD BODEKEE

1. Sartre and somatics for the pedagogy of movement in contemporary dance

 
 MAISIE BETH JAMES AND CAROLINE STOCKMAN

1. A body of work

 
 SONIA YORK-PRYCE

1. The Flourishing Folds

 
 JUNE GERSTEN ROBERTS

1. Post-Newtonian anatomy and physiology: The gravitational and parasympathetic experience in bio-somatic dance movement naturotherapy

 
AMANDA WILLIAMSON WITH A PRACTICE-BASED OFFERING FROM MAISIE BETH JAMES

1. Sympathetic holding and parasympathetic release: Vagal tone and beta, alpha and

theta in bio-somatic dance movement Naturotherapy
 
AMANDA WILLIAMSON WITH PRACTICE-BASED OFFERING FROM MAISIE BETH JAMES AND VANESSA TUCKER

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