You need To Check this Dynamic Alignment Through Imagery Franklin
The body is an amazing thing. We look at architecture and don't see a simularity in it with us, yet just as beams and walls and cielings support buildings, bones, ligaments and skin support what we inhabit and live in. Just as a building's foundation and subsequent floors affect how it stands and reacts in an earthquake or wind storm, how we walk, position our pelvises, carry our shoulders and necks and arms affects how we react to our environment and as this book emphasizes-- gravity.
DATI brings together everything wonderful about our bodies. Gravity isn't good or bad, it just is and we need to learn to deal with it. DATI is one of the best books on getting to know your muscles. If you don't know why they or even if they do and where they are, you can't work with them. Franklins visualization is second to none as far as helping the reader gain feeling through imagining water or air finning up an area and then letting it all out. He takes what we can relate to, describes it in another area, and moves us through to places that we didn't have names for.
Franklin has a sense of humor. (Humor is imporatant because it establishes a sence of the irony in looking at life.) He tells the reader of a commedian who went to basic training. After a week, his stomach started to feel funny. He went to many doctors, convinced that something was dreadfully wrong only to discover that for the first time in his life that he was not suffering from heartburn! This is important because in changing our bodies, when we change soemthing that is bad, it might not feel right.
I highly reccommend this book especially for GYN patients. Doctors who aren't trained in body movement will not understand how to guide their patients into understanding. I've had nine children and was getting revolted by what I felt like I had no control over. Since I am a yoga practicer, I decided to see what I could do before an operation and this is turning out to be a great investment. I think the best thing is that I have gotten control over muscles that are attached to bones that are attached to connective tissue that work with inner organs that were once loose. I am not afraid to sneeze any more or of watching nurses react with paste faces to what I tell them. This book has helped me get more acquainted with my body so I am able to discuss it. It's very hard to go in to a doctor's office, see a nurse that you've never seen before and start discussing problems that you never thought you'd have to deal with. When you know your body, you can speak with confidence about it. (In my case, the problem is in the process of being fixed.)
I highly suggest that OB/Gyns/urologists and family practitioners at least read this book. Without an understanding of how the body's muscles are used, doctors don't help us unless they are cutting in to us. I almost had an operation based on one doctor's response to my sagging organs with, "OK, I can operate on that." The man is nothing but a body mechanic-- he doesn't understand how our bodies work-- just that when they don't that he can fix them through an operation, and isn't aware of what a patient can do to help her-or-himself, yet he is one of the alleged finest in our state. He's really not that great-- he's like a musician that can only play one style of music with one instrument. If he was ever inspired, he's lost it. I am not slamming him; this is the case with many, many doctors. (This is the case with anyone who has done the same thing for too long and not realized that how little they know.)
I urge patients to learn from books like this and learn to ask questions and help yourselves. Doctors are slaves of convention and the latest word from the AMA. I am not against operations to fix what doesn't work, but the ramifications of an operation can be bad-- for what my doctor was proposing, I would have never been able to do certain stretches and bends in yoga. Give your self six weeks to try Franklin's approach and fix your problem and if it doesn't work, get operated on. I will warn anyone doing this that if you don't have a background in body movement, ie; yoga, dance, some type of athletics, it will take longer to get results. Our body awareness starts on the outside and works inward, and you will have a new vocabulary to get familiar with.
Imagery is hard. You have to know how to focus. I highly suggest that you try yoga. I learned to empty my mind in a Hatha Yoga class and learned to chant because it kept my mind on my body position and my breath. I am a highly amped person and need this-- others may be able to do it more easilly. If you have never worked out before, I think that you will get better results from this book if you take at least a short class in something so that you can get used to how your body works. You may also benefit from Uta Hagen's Respect for Acting where she teaches acting using the entire body. Acting isn't about --I strike a dramatic pose here-- it's about how one REacts to the environment and this creates what you are phsyically.
Eric Franklin takes the works of Mabel Todd (The Thinking Body) and Andre Bernard (Ideokinesis) to another level. He references them and has adapted many of his exercises using their concepts. The sketches are delightful and whimsical, but he also encourages you to develop your own imagery. The book is filled with anatomy, alignment, and exercises. He encourages you to do your own self-evaluations with developing self-awareness. A great book that I repeatedly use along with his other books.
ReplyDeleteI found this book to be eye opening, and immensely helpful with all the exercises that are discussed in the chapters. I improved my dancing within two weeks of reading and starting the exercises. It's concise with a nice touch of humor. I'm recommending this book to all my dancer friends both social and professional. I love this book and I have plans to purchase all of Eric Franklin's books.
ReplyDeleteAs a Dance/Movement Therapist working with various populations/settings, I find this resource excellent and very applicable to my clients - most not dancers. Thank You...I will pursue the publisher to get worksheets, lessons, CD's that might be available for student study. That was my only disappointment with the product....I thought these would come with my purchase and didn't.
ReplyDeleteThis book was in perfect condition. The language is somewhat technical insofar as anatomy goes, but the basic concepts contained therein are very helpful and I learned a lot from taking the course which required reading from this text. Will always be useful as a reference and guide book for constructive rest and physical self improvement.
ReplyDeleteI work in the fitness industry as well as dance. I see how important dynamic alignment is to do ANYTHING in dance and I think the general population needs a deeper understanding of it. I struggle with my balance and this book has been a wonderful tool to help me improve my technique.
ReplyDeleteThere is so much useful information in this book! It's not just for dancers - bodyworkers of many types would find it very helpful as well. The shoulder release technique alone is worth the price of the book. My clients love the suggestions the book inspires.
ReplyDeleteThis is a really good resource for alternate approaches to body alignment and integrative structure. A different approach with much promise. Worth the read!
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ReplyDeleteI am a big fan of Eric Franklin's books. As a dance instructor, not a fitness instructor, he is well aware of the finer points of human performance that are often overlooked by a society so focused on speed and strength. I would recommend this book for two groups of people. One is those studying anatomy. By going through the exercises, the major muscles and bones of the body can be learned on deeper and more useful level than simply by studying them in a book. Experiential learning is best in this case. Second, those with a strong ability to visualize, which doesn't include everyone. Alignment through visualization can be adifficult skill to learn. Having taught in a field similar to Franklin's, I know that not everyone has the internal sense to grasp the concepts here.
ReplyDeleteA thorough, insightful and well-illustrated(!) book.