Movement is a process of change. This seems self-evident. And yet, when the analytical brain is focused on motion and change, understanding breaks up the flowing continuity into successive and distinct positions and states. What was dynamic becomes static, what was becoming becomes an invariable being.
One of the things I most appreciated about Warren Lamb was his insistence that movement is a process of change. The dynamic qualities of effort and shape must be observed to vary. A movement is never simply strong – it is becoming stronger. The moving body cannot not simply occupy a position in space – it must shape shift towards and away from various areas of the kinesphere or become static.
Lamb’s movement classes were deceptively simple. He never taught complex dance sequences. Instead he insisted on whole-bodied involvement in which effort and shape kept changing. You never walked out having mastered a set of physical tricks. But you did emerge with a deeper experience understanding of the inner volition needed to move dynamically through space.
The link Lamb found between movement and motivation is only plausible when bodily motion is appreciated as a process. The drive to act necessitates change – it is about becoming, not being. In the upcoming Embodied Decision Making course, we start from the somatic experience of effort and shape as processes of change. Then we build on the “felt sense” of effort and shape variation to explore how these physical processes link with cognitive processes. Learn more….