Orientation Exercises

Our central coordination organises all our music making. We are often so concentrated on a specific practice activity, that we throw ourselves off-balance, undermining our goals. We have designed simple, powerful exercises to fine-tune your central coordination and awareness to improve the quality of focus and control. These exercises, which you can follow on film, were developed over many years through work with our musicians, Alexander teachers, and the choreography department (under Tony Thatcher) of Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music & Dance. You can use the six films in any order (see menu below), as each has its own theme, and yet they refer and build on each other to help you navigate and observe the relationship between your central coordination and your arms and legs.

Here is a description:

The Power and Flexibility of the Spine

Warm-ups for balance and coordination awareness
Tony Thatcher, Head of Choreography, Trinity-Laban, London

Dancers and choreographers know a lot about using energy, balance and coordination in their work. Tony Thatcher, choreographer and Alexander teacher, runs a special program for his dancers in London in which they learn to coordinate, and at the same time experience and explore, the power of the spine in all movement. The spine and its surrounding muscles coordinate all our other movements, including those we use to play or sing.

Tony made films for us online that you will be using to do your homework. He has this to say about them:
“These are not a series of films that present the best and only way of doing things! We are filming an example of practice, a practice that we think is worthwhile doing almost daily for a while to see what change happens. It is a practice for each individual to discover, outside of the way they normally do, a means of experiencing and organising themselves.”

Balance and Coordination flashcard menu:

Films by Tony Thatcher:

Allowing the eyes to rest: Procedure 0: Coax the restlessness from your eyes and thoughts as you begin this series of procedures on how you orient yourself in space. The head leads all action and the eyes often direct us to where we want to go.

Balancing and Spinal Spiral, Procedure 1
Develop your awareness of your balance to improve your practice and performance.

Connecting Arms and Back, Procedure 2
Warm-up your arms, hands and back while maintaining your balance. Connect your arms with your strong back muscles to improve your practice and performance. Release chest from habitual arm contractions and stretch flanks to free ribs to move more freely for breathing. This is the second of three films by Tony Thatcher, Head of Choreography at Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance.

Spinal Awareness in rest, Procedure 3
Stimulate your postural muscles to lengthen and widen, re-establishing your natural springiness and vitality. Laying on the floor allows you to use gravity to allow your back and legs to come to rest. The pressure of the floor under you enhances your awareness of your head, back, legs and arms, improving your ability to steer your practice and performance.

Spinal Spiral with Arms, Procedure 4
Developing the Spiral – Connecting and Extending arms.

The Arms and Back, Procedure 5
Extending Procedure 2 – Freeing the wrist, Rotation of the elbow, Connecting the arms through the back.

Stabilising the Spine, Procedure 6
Stabilizing the Spine (using floor and wall) – freeing the musculature of the chest, shoulder girdle, shoulder blade and the connecting neck muscles.

Using the arms to tone the back and chest, Procedure 7
This exercise helps us to learn how to fold our arms at the joints in order to come into playing position while keeping our length and width. It demonstrates how are arms are connect to, and part of our back and chest. This knowledge helps us be free in our playing.