BODY PARTS OF A contemporary DANCER
The practice of contemporary dance forms the body in a way that certain skills and new body parts appears. Even though, as dancers, we often use these body parts daily, some of them still have no name…
This chapter gives name to these body parts and skills, to acknowledge and share their beauty and strength.
NOBONES
The Nobones are groups of muscles used in floorwork to slide, roll, or fall, without hurting the body on the solid surface.
The Nobones are an elastic and bouncy layer of muscles that protect the bones from having direct contact with the floor, (and thus prevent injuries that would be caused by the friction between these two matters).
Most dancers use 5 main Nobones: 2 posterior Nobones (very useful for slides), 2 anterior Nobones (very useful for rolls sideways), and a dorsal Nobone (very useful for backward rolls).
Posterior Nobone
Musculus Vastus lateralis + Tibialis anterior
Anterior Nobone
Extensor Digitorum + Musculus Brachialis
Dorsal Nobone
Trapezius + Musculus longissimuss thoracis + iliocostalis lumborum +Serratus posterior inferior
+ Gluteus Maximus
THE SLURNS
The Slurns (coming from the words „slide“ and „burns“) are marks that dancers get on their skin when they practice floorwork. The most common Slurns are located on the feets (see drawing), but they can also appear on the knees, the elbows, or on other body parts depending on the movements and the dance technique.
The Slurns are the result of the skin sliding quickly on the floor, which creates enough heat to burn itself. The Slurn have very often the form of a little circle.
THE PFIU
The Pfiu is a temporary extended body part that is created by brain activity.
It is a kind of channel of radiation starting from a body part and expanding in a specific direction into space. This channel can be felt and seen in space, and so it erases the formal border of that body part. (The dancer's brain can create different Pfiu simultaneously in different body parts).
Exercice to practice your Pfiou:
Try to touch somebody from far away with your Pfiou. Aim at different points on their back. They say when and where they feel the touch.
THE LOVERS
The Lovers are two or more body parts that are in relationship to each other, influencing each other in a very direct way.
THE HANGE
The Hange (coming from the words „hand“ and „hinge“) is a thin part of skin, bones and muscles that builds the edge of the hand. It is the side area, in between the palm and the top of the hand, which is used as pivot when turning the hand on a surface.
Each hand has an inner and an outer Handge.
The Handge (especially the outer Handge) is very useful in floorwork, for getting in and out of the floor.
Our feets also have Hanges, they are called Feenge (from “feet” and “clinge”)
THE REPTILARMS
In contemporary dance, humans use to borrow a lot of skills and techniques from other animals. In order to move quickly and effectively on the floor, dancers can borrow the arms of the reptiles, bend very close to the body, elbows touching the rips, with open suctioning hands.
(Note: if you turn your Reptilarms inwards, your anterior Nobone appears in the front of your body. In this position you have a sort of cushion in front of your body, which provide a very good protection for rolling on the floor.)
KISSTROCKING ARMS & FEETS
When working on the floor, the hands and feet of the dancer can become “kisstrocking”. Which means that their main function is to “kiss” or “stroke” the floor.
Kissing combines the combination of a suction (needed for the stability of the body on the floor) and of giving love (which helps create a close connection, as well as a softness in the relation to the hard surface of the floor).
Stroking also provides softness and connection, but is also very helpful (especially for the feets) for all kinds of slides, and for quick movements, hovering over the floor without losing contact.
THE CHAINSPINE
The Chainspine describes the spine as a conductor for a movement, starting at one end, and developing itselves following a principle of chain reaction, through the vertebrae, all the way to the other end of the spine.
The „Chain-spine“ can have different movement patterns, like for example undulations, waves, curves or spirals, in different directions.
When the start of the chain is a fixed point, this part becomes the anchor of the chain.
SYSTEM OF STABILITY
To keep the balance and control of their body in various unstable positions and movements, dancers often connect/extend their body to the space around them, in order to get support and stability.
DEEP ROOTING
The deep rooting is an extension of the legs, deep into the earth. This body part appears when connecting to the idea that our legs don’t stop at the limit of our foot, but that they can be roots,
starting from our pelvis, extending through the floor, until the center of the earth.
Deep rooting gives a feeling of groundedness.
THE ANCHOR EYES
Used in many styles of dances, this temporary extended body part appears when using the eyes to fix an external point in order to create an anchor for the body. In this moment it is as if the body is attached to this point in space, through the gaze. This attachment can help keep the balance.
THE PUPPET STRING
Another temporary body part very much used in many dance techniques is the “Puppet string”: an invisible string created by the imagination of the dancer, attaching the top of their head to the ceiling. With this body part, the dancers feel like they are hanging from a string like a puppet. This allows them to do very complex movements, and even lose the ground, without collapsing.
LEADING BODY PART
Any part of our body can become a leading body part. This means that it becomes a life on its own, in which it can decide by itself where it wants to go. I have been using the word “leading body part since so long it doesn’t feel right to change it, but actually it would be more accurate to speak about “independent” body part, because it is not that the part leads the movement of the body like the conductor of an orchestra, but rather moves freely on its own. The rest of the body has to organise itself to follow and allow the movement of the leading body part.
THE DENSIFYER
The “Densifyer” is a temporary organ which appears when pulling mentally all cells towards the center of the body, activating the core and the inner muscles of the body.This organ has the shape of a drop, and feels like a concentration of warm energy in the abdomen, pulling towards inside.
The “Densifyer” can have different forms, depending how strong it is pulled together. When it is pulled to its maximum, it becomes a ball, in the center of our body.
This „dense-center“ can have different functions:
The Center-base: Whe the center is used as a base.
The warm compact energy of the Densifyer in the center of the body gives us a sensation of stability. It can be a stable ground, around which the rest of the body can move freely.
The Center-engine: When the center is used as engine.
The warm compact energy of the Densifyer in the center of the body can be used as power to bring the rest of the body in movement, like the motor of an engine. The Center-engine can travel in space, carrying the body, in a very different way than the legs do.
The Bounster is the name of the center as a bouncy mass.
The round mass of muscles around the buttcheeks, and the spatial concentrated weight of the pelvis can be used like a bouncy ball. In this case the movement is not initiated by the Densifyer but by using the legs or other parts of the body to make the center the bounce. Many parts of the body can rebounce, but we only have one bouncy ball, and that is the Bounster!
(Note for Beginners: The Bounster doesn't need a surface to bounce against, however, but it is easier to start using a surface (like the floor for example) in order to find the movement.)