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MOVEMENT BRINGS ME JOY

Writer's picture: Ruth PoldenRuth Polden

As a child I was always dancing. I dreamed of being a gorgeous ballerina, twirling effortlessly on stage, lost in the music.


At the age of 13 I was told I would never be a classical ballerina. I had the wrong body, wrong shape, wrong size. Totally devastating I can tell you.


But I had to dance.


I set about schooling and fine-tuning my body with the one aim of achieving technical prowess.


For my instrument to become a virtuoso super-human movement machine: no matter at what cost.


It was what you did to make it: to be better than anyone else, to be seen, valued and noticed. It was what I knew.


I did dance professionally and my years dancing were all consuming; full of passion, creativity and excitement. It was an incredible time.


There was however a flip-side: I was always pushing to be more: stronger, quicker, thinner, more flexible. Never feeling quite “good enough” within myself.


Following a back injury, when I was on physio, painkillers and rest, I read a lot. Anatomy books, books on physiology of movement. I read the work of Mabel Todd and Bonnie Bainbridge Cohen. I had lots of light bulb “aha” moments, shifting and re-framing my perceptions and also my personal boundaries.


I started looking differently at my body, my work….my life.


The Alexander Technique, then later Release Work and Contact Improvisation introduced me to a totally new experience of movement.


Exploring how breath, release of weight, the pull of gravity, bring an ease, grace and beauty to movement.


Through the Feldenkrais Method I became curious about developmental movement, how we are programmed from birth to learn and internalise useful movement patterns.


I discovered new and exciting ways into the body. Different approaches to internalising and embodying movement. I could achieve the same (and often more), by doing less.


It was a poignant time of learning and of un-learning. I found myself celebrating in the body’s innate intelligence.


Touched and delighting in a very different movement aesthetic: the beauty and honesty of natural movement, rooted in the day to day. I started looking more towards our inner landscapes and the relationship between body, mind and movement.


My yoga journey was to come from this.

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