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A dancer, Michael Nebadon, formulated some concepts of movement which, for me, have made structural integration a great deal clearer. His idea of expansional balance was already implicit in Dr. Rolf’s concepts of core and sleeve, I think, but she did not fully communicate the dynamic aspect of her vision. Often her students attempted merely to establish “The Line” from a very static perspective.

In the mid-seventies I attended a series of dance classes with Michael in which he demonstrated the principles of expansional balance in movement. I felt I finally understood what Dr. Rolf had been talking about. Here was an overall concept of structural integration of the body in gravity which could guide and inform every step of the work. Later Nebadon published a critiqueof the Rolf perspective (Journal of Structural Integration, 1982) in which he pointed outfrom before- and afterpictures of a client who had undergone the ten session series, that the result was a compression rather than an expansion. The client’s integration lacked “Expansional Balance.”

EXPANSIONAL BALANCE

“EXPANSIONAL BALANCE is the free extension of the skeletal frame to all directions in space. A human being is in this state when the force which he creates to lift himself in the field of gravity is equally distributed through the whole of the body, producing one equal tensional field of force. This one equal tensional field expands the body omnidirectionally in space and is the result of the balanced polarization of two forces, one vertical and the other horizontal.” Nebadon, 1975.

Nebadon?s way of finding expansional balance was through extremely meticulous attention to the inner feeling of movement at each joint. He found that when a joint, the elbow for example, is held within a certain range of movement, it is possible to find an inner expansion- “like fluid through the center of a tube.” When the elbow is hyper extended, however, that inner feeling is lost, and one is more aware of the sides of the “tube.” This internal sense of expansion, involving all the joints of the body, he called “The Form.”

“The way in which a human being embodies balance is to begin to understand the relationship of the whole body moving three-dimensionally. This means perceiving the centering of all the joints of the skeleton in every moment of movement. Moving in balance is the act of moving with no resistance within oneself … Any resistance emerging in consciousness will be released into a closer balance of the whole.” (1982)

He also makes clear that this has the most profound psychological and spiritual implications: “Balanced movement is the only experiential physical reality that will allow each human being to understand how, through the perfection of mechanics, one can unify one’s thoughts, feelings and ac-tions into the fullest expression of the Self. The Form is the eternal moment of transformation that merges the Self with the continual movement of life. The Form is the art of presence, the art of becoming the absolute intelligence that revolves the human being to the fulfillment of his divine destiny. His destiny is to become like God, and in his transparency, merge once again with the Creator.” (1982)

These are amazing words. To move without resistance in an expanded form is to transcend internal division, become transparent, and merge with the spontaneously unfolding movement of one’s destiny!

Michael has pursued The Form in movement to such a degree that he has explored beyond where most people are afraid to go. He has said that there is a point at which one releases tensions which are the accustomed shape of the ego, and this involves fear, or even terror. I think his experience is a difference in degree, not in kind from structural integration. Each step in structural integration is a move toward opening that has this possibility at its furthest extreme.

“THE LINE” BECOMES A POLARITY

The body, according to Nebadon, expands omnidirectionally due to the balanced tension between two polarities, one vertical, the other horizontal. Dr. Rolf’s concept of “The Line” has thus become decidedly dynamic. No longer a plumb-line, it has become “The Vertical Polarity.” As I see it, this is not radically different from Dr. Rolf’s original conception. Jeff Maitland, of the Rolf Institute, attempted to capture this aspect of her model with the word “palintonic,” which means essentially the same as polarity. The Line is a mutually expanding polarity from heel to crown, provided it is unbroken.

EXPANSIONAL BALANCE AS THE GOAL OF STRUCTURAL INTEGRATION

The average person lives with a contracted balance in which the antigravity expansion is reduced or impaired. There are various degrees of being “muscle-bound” so that the outer layer interferes with expansion. Mostly, people simply don’t know how to find core expansion. There is a lot of confusion about posture, about strength, and about the interior feeling of the body. Structural integration is an efficient system for teaching the dynamic polarities of expansional balance.

Dynamic Polarity

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NEBADON: “A human beingis in this state [of Expansional Balance] when the force which he creates to lift himself in the field of gravity is equally distributed through the whole of the body, producing one equal tensional field of force …. the result of the balanced polarization of two forces, one vertical and the other horizontal.”

VERTICAL POLARITY
When we lift ourselves in gravity the force can be equally distributed in all directions…. under the right circumstances.

Pelvic Extension creates Vertical Polarity
That’s the Iift – the Iift of the anterior spine created when the waistline is brought back – which turns the downward thrust of the feet into the upward thrust of the spine.

Vertical Polarity must pass through three “rings”
The head can expand upward because the feet are expanding downward. But first the torso must be balanced around the “Line” of that polarity passing up through the center of the body. The polarity must pass through THREE RINGS OF THE TORSO. These three transverse sections are particularly important for balancing the torso around the Line.

Vertical Polarity and “The Line” are closely related concepts. “Polarity” implies a more dynamic system, while “line” can suggest segments which are stacked vertically in gravity.

Polarity starts with the lift of the spine in the pelvic extension.

EACH RING MUST FIND A BALANCE

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PELVIC RING
With pelvic extension, the pelvic ring becomes horizontal, with perineum in the center of the balance.

DIAPHRAGM RING
As the vertical polarity is brought upward the lumbar torso is balanced across the two planes and the Diaphragm ring comes into a parallel relationship with the pelvic ring.

SHOULDER RING
The stabilized diaphragm becomes the foundation for theme shoulder girdle, which can now find balance (releasing the Horizontal Polarity).

THE UPPER POLE
The head coming up should be no more effort than finding a balance. If the head can find a balance on the Atlas, the hinge wich allows the head to nod, then the neck can release to a balance between front and back all the way down into the upper chest.

“Neck free to let the head come forward and up” (Alexander Technique)

As the Shoulder Ring balances in 3 dimensions…
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HORIZONTAL POLARITY
The shoulders and arms must expand horizontally for the shoulder ring to balance and permit the extension of the upper pole. The elbows extend from the spine through the shoulder sockets, not from them.

THE COUNTER-BALANCING CORE

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Every expansional movement of the limbs is counterbalanced by a point within the core from which the movement expands. One of the advantages bestowed by the system of girdles is an extra set of hinges between the arm or leg going out and the core from which it comes. In expansional movement, core is not static, but balances limb movement with stabilizing counter-action. For example, the arm goes out from the core through the shoulder girdle. It goes out from the chest first of all, and then (in a complex series of unfolding hinges) from the remainder of the torso counterbalancing the chest. The counterbalancing is done from shifting points within the torso. Or the leg goes out from the lumbar spine through the pelvic girdle. The Lumbar spine, stabilized by abdominal muscles, hangs back across the pelvic hinges. The rest of the torso counterbalances that movement. Strength is important. The torso can be strengthened for highly differentiated movement (flexibility) if the lumbar balance is maintained. The muscles can be strengthened in relation to the whole system.

THROUGH THE HINGES[:de]<img src=’https://novo.pedroprado.com.br/imgs/2005/697-1.jpg’>

A dancer, Michael Nebadon, formulated some concepts of movement which, for me, have made structural integration a great deal clearer. His idea of expansional balance was already implicit in Dr. Rolf’s concepts of core and sleeve, I think, but she did not fully communicate the dynamic aspect of her vision. Often her students attempted merely to establish “The Line” from a very static perspective.

In the mid-seventies I attended a series of dance classes with Michael in which he demonstrated the principles of expansional balance in movement. I felt I finally understood what Dr. Rolf had been talking about. Here was an overall concept of structural integration of the body in gravity which could guide and inform every step of the work. Later Nebadon published a critiqueof the Rolf perspective (Journal of Structural Integration, 1982) in which he pointed outfrom before- and afterpictures of a client who had undergone the ten session series, that the result was a compression rather than an expansion. The client’s integration lacked “Expansional Balance.”