Behind the Scenes in the Rosen Method Movement Class

By Lourdes Nicolau

What amazes me most with this work is the change that happens in the participants after taking Rosen Movement classes.  How is it that a simple, practical, and easy class can open so many possibilities? How does that happen?

When someone begins coming to a Rosen Movement class or any other kind of movement training on a consistent basis, they are likely longing for some kind of change, whether they know it consciously or not; and change will happen.

Marion Rosen always said this work is about “transformation”, and it is so: a transformation that never ends. We are always in the process of “becoming ourselves” all the time, little by little, movement by movement, making this transformation creative, original, and dynamic.

In my opinion, the first thing that facilitates the transformation process is inner connection, with this a sense of connection between everything begins to happen. Cells, tissues, and joints awaken, as well as emotions, sensations, and thoughts. Everything inside begins recovering its unity, its place, and its space.

Then, little by little the body begins to reveal itself in its natural design, harmony, and expression. It begins talking -- it has been talking all the time, but no one was present to feel and listen. Now, the person may listen, pay attention, understand, and be curious about what their body is saying, and needing: what possibilities lay in each joint, and in each movement. And then a body-mind connection begins to happen.

There is a universe behind each little movement -- a personal universe to explore, feel, acknowledge, and enjoy. The person recognizes her potential that was sleeping behind layers of tension, habits, and misunderstandings about how she is designed. The movement is no longer just movement. Movement is expressing; movement is oneself in the world; movement is the space of creating; movement is health and pleasure. Movement is being alive!

The key to getting into one's  personal universe is through connection. The simplicity of the movements offered in a movement class helps to create and maintain connection with oneself. The music supports and enhances the movements, and the group becomes a community of sharing and learning together. 

Each class is unrepeatable and unique; it is offered in the present moment that will never come back again. The movement class expresses the presence and intention of the teacher and of each one of the participants in the group, so it is rich and creative. Rosen Method Movement gives you permission to be yourself, as you are in the moment. To respect and honor the uniqueness of each person has a big impact: it liberates one from labels, beliefs, tension, and duties.

The impact of a Rosen Method Movement class is vast, it goes as far as you let it go.

1. CONNECTION

As a child, Marion Rosen took exercise classes in her primary school as well as dance classes.  She noticed that “there was a real difference in the way movement is used, and what did and did not work” (xiii, Marion´s book).

What was that difference? Marion continued writing about the “totally satisfying experience” with music to “accompany ... our movements while we danced” (xiii, Marion´s book) versus the “harsh movement and exercise ... that involved holding certain positions” (xiii, Marion´s book).  Opposing  experiences can illustrate this difference: music or no-music, work in or work out, inside connection or disconnection. 

When we begin a Rosen Method Movement class, the attention is guided inside: what is moving? how is it moving? what moves when you move? And all these suggestions connect the person to the “feeling” of the movement instead of the ”doing” of the movement.

One of the first surprises for students in the class is that they can become aware and feel themselves from within. This inner attention nurtures us in many ways: it starts to reconnect our brain and muscles, mind and body, and together they help us begin discovering new places, spaces, edges, movements; and we are able to recover forgotten feelings and unknown expressions. The body begins to dance, and a satisfying sense of wholeness flows within.

Marion´s movement class was very much influenced by dance. Her teacher, Lucy Heyer,  was in touch with pioneers in the field of Modern Dance, such as Mary Wigman, Rudolf Laban and Medau, all researchers and explorers of movement. So, dance and music, along with uninhibited movement and expression were very much her interest when designing the Rosen Method Movement class structure. “She had learned from watching dance how a body moves” (xiii, Marion´book).

This knowledge about how a body moves was enriched and grounded with her training in  Physical Therapy in both Sweden and at the Mayo Clinic, and with her longtime experiences with patients. Marion´s knowledge of anatomy was deep and solid. So, the marriage of specific  movements from physical therapy and the spirit that flows from dancing makes Rosen Method Movement especially unique.

But, even though anatomy is fundamental in a Rosen Method Movement Class, it is the “experience of one’s own body” that really matters, the creative process that begins when the movement is experienced from the inside, touched and enhanced by the music, the teacher's suggestions, the group connection, the breath pauses. It is an unfolding of the self in a simple, direct, and deep way.

The awareness that is developed through the movement classes also can prevent injuries and stiffness. The capacity of sensing what is happening inside gives the participants the experience of the impact of feelings and circumstances in the body-mind system, and the capacity to respond more healthfully to these impacts. We are connected inside us and  outside to the world in an interweaving relationship. 

2. WHOLENESS

Children experience wholeness naturally: feelings, movements, expressions, and words correspond to this wholeness. With family codes, school rules, societal limits, and painful experiences, a barrier may begin to develop between one´s inside world and the outside world: what “they” want replaces what I need, what is “good” or “wrong” replaces what I feel, and to belong in a community can often be more important than to be truthful with oneself. A distance between the internal and external experiences begins to grow. Something  interferes in the perception of one’s unity with the world.

Rosen Method Movement strives to rehabilitate this division and support the natural attitude of confidence and integrity, touching those places that were not able to be expressed, opening the possibility of feeling what is true without judgment, recovering the trust in a community that receives you as you are. Each movement is an opportunity to awaken, feel, and relax places that have been forgotten or closed; and the deepness unfolds layer by layer, in a never ending exploration.

When a person is in touch with their depth, the breath flows naturally and completely, bringing aliveness to each cell, as when they were a child.

3. AUTHENTICITY

Movement reveals ourselves: showing the places that are opened or blocked, expressed or restrained, included or excluded. Movement is a mirror of our inner state, our communication with the world: we move as we are in the world.

Marion Rosen could see how a person showed up in the movement; she could see the uniqueness, the potential of each one, the joy that happens when the person expresses and reveals herself. She cared about and supported this search towards authenticity.

Rosen Method Movement invites a recovery of the person's capacity to interact with and enrich the world in their unique way. 

4. BUILDING TRUST

Trust is the indispensable atmosphere that allows a person to flourish. It is like the temperature of a greenhouse, the necessary condition that embraces blooming. 

Wounds, mistreatments, accidents, and surgery are some of the things that foster insecurity, mistrust, and resistance, which are behaviors that defend and protect one’s vulnerability. These types of behaviors, even though they may have felt necessary at the time, are not rational or healthy responses.  They are instinctive, emotional and unconscious. In order to recover inner confidence, we need an environment of trust: trust in oneself, in people, and in life. That is what the Rosen Method Movement classes strive to create. 

Rosen Movement opens the door of trusting that you are okay as you are, that experiences are just experiences, that you are not defined by them. You are complete as you are.

5. CONTRIBUTING TO A PEACEFUL WORLD

As a person who lived and suffered the conflicts and horrors of World War II, Marion was a pacifist. She believed that through inner reconciliation, balancing the nervous system, and recovering the full potential of the self, people would be able to participate in the building of a better world, full of peace and solidarity. 

It is true; it happens. People who have experienced the benefits of Rosen Method Movement for a long time have felt it: the sense of belonging to a community, the compassion, the closeness, the empathy. 

All of this together makes Rosen Method Movement so special, kind, and effective. It is a way of life!