Body Mapping
Body Mapping is an educational tool which involves the conscious correcting and refining of the body map in order to produce flexible, efficient and elegant movement in music making. Musicians move for a living, and Body Mapping provides an anatomical context for musical performance, based on a secure somatic foundation.
What is a body map?
A body map is what neuroscientists call the internal representation in the brain of the body. It provides information on the structure, function & size, and this map changes as we grow. If the map is accurate, movement will be fluid and flexible, if it is inaccurate, movement will be stiff and possibly injury producing. By consciously correcting the body map based on the reality of the body's design, a musician can rediscover flexibility and ease, and prevent injury.
Body Mapping Course
The six-hour course, What Every Musician Needs to Know About the Body, teaches musicians the anatomical realities of the body's design, and how through this knowledge and kinaesthetic awareness, freedom of movement can be enhanced.
What you will learn:
1. Movement, Your Senses, and Attention in Playing and Singing - training musicians' movement by cultivating an accurate & adequate body map. Training sensory discernment and responsiveness. Training attention.
2. The Core of the Body and the Places of Dynamic Balance - the spine, the balance of the head on the spine, the balance of the head & thorax on the lumbar vertebrae, the balance of the torso on the legs, balance at the knee, balance at the ankle, balance on the arch of the foot, and balance of the arm structure.
3. Four Arm Joints and how to move them - the four arm joints, the organisation from the tip of the little finger to the tip of the shoulder blade, support for arm movement by a dynamic, gathering and lengthening core.
4. The Movement of Breathing - mapping the structures of breathing and the movement of breathing, including a dynamic gathering and lengthening core.
5. Your Legs and how they move when you play - the three leg joints, the organisation of the musculature, support for leg movement by a dynamic gathering and lengthening core.
6. How to - individual work with instruments.
Private Sessions
Are you looking for that extra bit of freedom in your playing? Then a private session is also possible. In these one hour sessions, you play whatever piece of music you would like to work on, and using Body Mapping elements we will explore together how you can find more flexibility.
Private sessions in English and Dutch, course is in English.
More information on Body Mapping:
'Move Well, Avoid Injury' - website with some short videos from the original 2 hour video outlining some aspects of Body Mapping
Association for Body Mapping Educators website
Photos: Deirdre Daly