Up

Moving Along A Spiral Path

By Maureen McHugh

      Certainly, the shortest distance between two points is a straight line. But when you are not in a hurry, it is interesting to look at moving instead along a spiral path. You get where you are going, but more gradually. You have more time to explore your sensations and to take care of your safety.

This is an approach that is intriguing for choreographers, for people who like to move, for people who are living with pain, or who wish to avoid it.

To take a specific example--“When you have been lying down, how do you get up? This might be the same question as, “How do you get out of bed?” How do you transition your weight from maximum contact with the ground to the whole mass of you upright and supported on just two feet? And especially, how does the head transition from being supported at the back of the skull by the ground to being supported underneath the skull by the skeleton?

Below, I will contrast two possibilities: a Direct Route and a Spiral Route.

 

Two Ways To Get Up from Lying Down:

The Direct and Spiral Routes

 (Sorry for the trouble with the placement of the drawings.)

The Beginning Position: Lying in Bed or on the Floor

The Direct Route

The Spiral Route

Your Action: You look where you are going. First you raise your head, then you mobilize your torso.

Your weight shift has begun in your head and neck and has progressed through your back. Your head has moved along a line.

Your Action: You roll to a side, letting your gaze first look to the side and then down. You let your head be heavy, relieving the neck muscles of the burden of its weight. You bend a leg under your body and also bring the arms underneath to help push.

Your weight has shifted first to the side of the pelvis and then to its base. Gradually the spine comes into place above the pelvis and only lastly does your head arrive in the sitting position. The head has swept through an arc.

This route has the advantage of being quicker and simpler. It’s the express route.

It has the disadvantage of placing more demand on your muscles. You are more at risk of straining your low back or neck.

This route has the disadvantage of being more complex and slower. It’s the scenic route.

Its advantage is that it is easier on your neck and on your low back. It relies less muscular strength and more on the skeleton.

Mechanical Comparison

Text Box: Like a nail. When a hammer hits a nail, force passes through the nail quickly and directly. There is strength and speed, but, once the force has been applied, no control.

When you get up via the Direct Route , your action has some commonality with the action of applying a hammer to a nail.

Text Box: Like a screw. When a screwdriver turns a screw, the process is slower than using a hammer and nail. But the carpenter has a lot of choice. At every moment he can continue or back up. In other words, the movement is easily reversed.

When you get up along the Spiral Route , you have the control and the reversibility of a carpenter using a screwdriver and a screw.