Dynamic Alignment Through Imagery

Description

Dynamic Alignment Through Imagery, Second Edition, expands on the classic text and reference written by Eric Franklin, an internationally renowned teacher, dancer, and choreographer who has been sharing his imagery techniques for 25 years.

In this new edition, Franklin shows you how to use imagery, touch, and movement exercises to improve your coordination and alignment. These exercises will also help you relieve tension, enhance the health of your spine and back, and prevent back injury.

This expanded new edition includes

• more than 600 imagery exercises along with nearly 500 illustrations to help you visualize the exercises and use them in various contexts;
• audio files for dynamic imagery exercises set to music; and
• updated chapters throughout the book, including new material on integrated dynamic alignment exercises and dynamic alignment and imagery.

This book will help you discover your natural flexibility and quickly increase your power to move. You’ll learn elements of body design. You’ll explore how to use imagery to improve your confidence, and you’ll discover imagery conditioning programs that will lead you toward better alignment, safer movement, increased fitness, and greater joy. Further, you’ll examine how to apply this understanding to your discipline or training to improve your performance.

Dynamic Alignment Through Imagery, Second Edition, will help you experience the biomechanical and anatomical principles that are crucial to dancers, other performing artists, yoga and Pilates teachers and practitioners, and athletes. The techniques and exercises presented in the book will guide you in improving your posture—and they will positively affect your thoughts and attitude about yourself and others and help you feel and move better both mentally and physically.

Contents

• Acknowledgments
• Introduction: How I Came to Use Imagery
• Reinforcing What You Want
• Purpose and Will
• Using Imagery for Alignment

Part I: Posture and Dynamic Alignment

• Chapter 1: Roots of Imagery for Alignment
• In Search of Ideal Posture
• Somatic Disciplines
• Summary
• Chapter 2: Postural Models and Dynamic Alignment
• What Your Posture Reveals
• Postural Habits
• Rich Sources for Dynamic Alignment
• Summary
• Chapter 3: Foundations of Mental Imagery
• Brain as the Basis for Imagery
• Brain and Consciousness
• Nervous System
• Neuroplasticity and Imagery
• Developing Mind: The Role of Imagery
• Summary
• Chapter 4: Change Through Imagery
• Four Steps for Change
• Body Image as Basic Feedback
• Developmental Patterns and Mental Imagery
• Wrong Habits That Feel Right
• Retaining Your Progress
• Motivation and Change
• Summary
• Chapter 5: Benefits and Types of Imagery
• Benefits: What Imagery Can Do for You
• Types of Imagery
• Styles of Imagery Delivery
• Self-Talk: The Internal Monologue
• Summary
• Chapter 6: General Guidelines Before Using Imagery
• Factors That Influence Successful Imagery
• Guidelines for Using Imagery
• Training Your Ability to Use Imagery
• Concentration and Attention
• Stages of Learning
• Positions for Anatomical Imagery Work
• Using Imagery When in Motion
• Image Narrative, Image Bundles, and Relational Imagery
• Summary

Part II: Biomechanical and Anatomical Principles and Exercises

• Chapter 7: Finding Your Center and Befriending Gravity
• Planes for Direction and Location
• Central Axis
• Body Geography
• Joint Movements
• Force
• Matter and Mass
• Summary
• Chapter 8: Laws of Motion and Force Systems
• Newton’s Laws of Motion
• Force Systems
• Lever Systems
• Energy Conservation
• Ability of Materials to Resist Force
• Dynamic Stability
• Summary
• Chapter 9: Joint and Muscle Function
• Joint Types
• Bones
• Connective Tissue and Fascia
• Muscles
• Summary

Part III: Exercises for Anatomical Imagery

• Chapter 10: Pelvis, Hip Joint, and Company
• Pelvic Arches
• Balancing the Pelvis
• Motion of the Pelvic Halves
• Counterrotation and Three-Dimensional Alignment
• Pelvic Powerhouse
• Hip Joint and Femur
• Iliopsoas and Piriformis
• Summary
• Chapter 11: Knee, Lower Leg, and Foot
• Knee
• Tibia, Fibula, and Ankle
• Foot
• Summary
• Chapter 12: Spine and Body Wall
• Functioning Spine
• Pelvis
• Vertebrae
• Facet Joints
• Discs, Spine, and Psychology of Pain
• Spinal Ligaments
• Musculature of the Abdomen and Back
• Abdominal Wall and Fascia
• Abdominal Muscles and the Concept of Core Stability
• Summary
• Chapter 13: Shoulders, Arms, and Hands
• Suspension of the Shoulder Girdle
• Glenohumeral Joint
• Scapulohumeral Rhythm
• Elbow
• Wrist and Hand
• Summary
• Chapter 14: Head and Neck
• Atlas and Axis
• Skull
• Suboccipitals
• Mandible
• Hyoid and Tongue
• Eyes
• Nose and Mouth
• Summary
• Chapter 15: Rib Cage, Breath, and Organs
• Rib Cage
• Breath
• Support for Abdominal Organs
• Skin as an Organ
• Summary

Part IV: Returning to Holistic Alignment

• Chapter 16: Definitions of Dynamic Alignment
• Plumb Line
• Median Alignment
• Defining Ideal Alignment
• Dynamic Versus Static Alignment
• Dynamic and Static Stability
• Pulling Up and Ideal Alignment
• Summary
• Chapter 17: Integrating Dynamic Alignment Exercises
• Alignment in Supine Positions
• Alignment in Sitting Positions
• Standing and Walking Alignment
• Releasing Excess Tension
• Continuing Imagery Exercises

• Bibliography
• Index
• About the Author

Audiences

Text for introductory exercise, dance, and movement classes and reference for upper-level dance students, dance educators, and somatic education instructors. Resource for instructors of Pilates, yoga, bodyworks, and other groups interested in alignment and imagery. Also a resource for athletes.

Reviews

“The Franklin Method training as outlined in this book is the most intelligent approach to learning about the workings of the body that I have ever attended. It is not just information but the experience of our design as we learn that is transforming.”
Tom McCook-- Fitness Instructor, Founder and Director, Center of Balance

"In Dynamic Alignment Through Imagery, Eric Franklin offers an easy-to-read, practical, and educational resource, which I wholly recommend."
Dr. Emma Redding-- Head of Dance Science, Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance, President, International Association for Dance Medicine & Science

"Dynamic Alignment Through Imagery is a must-have resource. Eric Franklin creates a truly powerful tool for improving movement and function."
Marie-Jose Blom-- PMA Gold-Certified Master Pilates Teacher, Founder and Owner, Long Beach Dance Conditioning, Founder and Owner, Angel City Body Kinetics, Founder and Partner, SmartSpine Works

“The Franklin Method has had a profound influence on my personal and professional life. Eric Franklin’s evolution of imagery and its application contain the knowledge and power to create a quantum leap in our understanding of human movement and our own potential.“
Jan Dunn M.S.-- Past President, International Association for Dance Medicine & Science

Author

Eric Franklin is director and founder of the Franklin Institute in Uster, Switzerland. He has more than 35 years' experience as a dancer and choreographer, and he has shared imagery techniques in his teaching since 1986.

Franklin has taught extensively throughout the United States and Europe at the Julliard School in New York, the Royal Ballet School in London, the Danish Ballet in Copenhagen, the Dance Academy of Rome, and the Institute for Psychomotor Therapy in Zurich; he was also a guest lecturer at the University of Vienna. He has provided training to Olympic and world-champion athletes and professional dance troupes such as Cirque du Soleil and the Forum de Dance in Monte Carlo. Franklin earned a BFA from New York University's Tisch School of the Arts and a BS from the University of Zurich. He has been on the faculty of the American Dance Festival since 1991.

Franklin is coauthor of the bestselling book Breakdance, which received a New York City Public Library Prize in 1984, and author of 100 Ideen für Beweglichkeit and Dance Imagery for Technique and Performance (both books about imagery in dance and movement). He is a member of the International Association of Dance Medicine and Science.

Franklin lives near Zurich, Switzerland.