The Butterfly in Repose and Flight

Tensegrity Workshop - Los Angeles, CA - August 1995

•••••

Preliminary movements, part 1:

horse stance, but legs straight

(but never completely straight, do not lock the knees)

hands out in front, palms up, about 1 foot apart, elbows bent relax hands, then tense hands, pulling fingers together, and locking thumb [locked thumb means thumb tight against hand either straight or curled on palm] . Palms are flat. [become familiar with the muscles in the palm; don't curl or overextend the hand]. While maintaining tension in hands, attention is on armpits.

tense and release now tense arms and hands and pull arms and hands back towards the body; make the movement almost imperceptible. Think of lines of energy going up the arm [concentrate on the feeling in the arms].

Preliminary butterfly, part 2:

stand straight with hands out in front, palms up, elbows bent. bend slightly forward at the waist, with attention on stomach. as you bend, bring hands down on either side and straight back behind you, as high as you can reach, with palms down. chin also down.

(as high as you can reach without struggling at all)

do this several times, back and forth. inhale while bringing arms forward, exhale while bringing them behind now stop with hands behind, as high as you can reach, and flutter your hands by moving them towards each other several inches rapidly.

Butterfly Pass

Part 1: Butterfly in Repose

(I do not think the entire first part of the pass is called Butterfly in Repose. That referred to a specific warm-up. It was part 3 of the warm-ups. Butterfly in Repose is done exactly like part two above, except when you reach the arms back position, you hold it there, still (instead of fluttering), at the highest point behind you, and look up. Hold that pose (Butterfly in repose) for a few moments, then exhale as you stand up straight, and let your palms return to your sides.)

(I think the first part of the pass was called: Butterfly in Flight. It follows...)

Start out with hands in front, palms up, relaxed, in toes-in stance Knees straight but not locked. Bend at waist, tighten hands and bring arms behind you as high as you can comfortably get them. [arms should not be higher than parallel to floor, because when you bring the arms up and out to make the wings, you want to be able to make a gentle arc out of it, at around 45 degrees] Head is down.

(Exhale when swinging the hands back, and when they get back there, inhale and exhale once before proceeding)

With a quick movement, turn palms vertical to floor, thumbs down [You are now in flight position: bent at waist, head down, palms arms behind you, palms vertical to floor-think of a swimmer in the starting block]

Bring arms out in an arc in front of you at head level. let arms sweep out to the sides; PULL the arms up with a snap-like movement, relaxed until the end of the arc; do NOT lock the elbows; you can severely injure them that way. Use the entire arm in the wing motion, starting from the shoulder. palms will face outwards; backs of hands close together but not touching; arms slightly bent, hands straight as you bring the arms up, bend knees somewhat engage the stomach with the snap

Bring head up and inhale as you bring the arms up; lower head and exhale as you lower arms. Look out to infinity through the space between the hands Now snap arms back again in an arc behind you, palms will be facing each other but not touching; stand straight Do this 6 times

(As you snap the arms up, your knees bend, and as you snap the arms down, the knees straigten again)

At the end of the 6th arc, arms are behind you, hands still in flight position, now flip hands to face floor, raise head Maintain bend at waist [only when bringing arms forward at the top of the arc, do you unbend at the waist]

Point toes of left foot down and make 3 circular pawing motions with your left foot, raising the knee high, and moving the foot forward, and then down to the floor; just graze the floor with your toes [whoops! always remember to wear shoes] :). the pawing motion should be done with a snap

(The snap in the pawing motion happens when you raise the leg, rather than when you lower it)

Repeat pawing motion with right foot 3 times Think of antennae coming out of the top of your head [insect antennae, not rabbit-ears] :) during the whole pass

(I do not agree that you are supposed to think of this through the whole pass. Nyei is the only one that mentioned this at all, and she did it near the end of this pawing movement a couple of times. Basically, be silent.)

Now bring hands down by sides with palms facing front, and straighten back

(You exhale during this last motion)

Part 2: Butterfly Feeling the World Around It

Start out with arms in front, hands relaxed Tighten arms and hands, bring them behind you, hands facing down

(inhale and exhale one time)

Get into flight position {bend at waist, arms behind, hands vertical, head down] Bend elbows, bring them forward, and to each side slightly in front of the body;

(This will look like you are making half of a rectangle out of the frame of your arms, opening toward the ground)

bring hands in to center at waist level, palms facing, fingers pointed down. Now raise hands, and bring them up in front of the body, palms facing each other [like praying]. When the hands get about face-high, curl the thumb and 4th and 5th fingers, and point the 2nd and 3rd, as you thrust up and out with the arms, making a large V [snap it up]

(You make this V up over your head, but not straight up. Your arms go both up and forward, and out to the side, in about a 45 degree angle)

Make 6 inward ovals, not circles [about 1 1/2 feet diameter] with pointed fingers, arms still outstretched and raised; snap each oval and pause for an instant before doing the next one

(For these ovals, your fingers move towards each other first, coming within inches of each other in the center, then down, around and back up. Each oval is probably about two feet wide, but this varies from person to person. The snapping is done as you move the arms back to the V position. Be sure to keep a slight bend in your elbows so you don't hurt them.)

Look at a point between the hands, and blink periodically, making sure not to stare

(Blink periodically like this and look between the hands while doing ALL the ovals, both the inward and outward ones)

Now, bring hands close together, still looking between them, and pivot body to the left; the gaze follows.

(You swing the hands in to point straight up and out in front, then, as you pivot the body to the left, you swing your straight arms to the left, still angling up at a 45 degree angle, with hands still close together. The gaze stays looking out to infinity through the gap between your hands.)

Make 6 outward snapping ovals; then pivot to the right

(The hands are together at first, so they move away from each other, then down and around, and back to the center. The snap comes when you move them back toward the center. After finishing the ovals to the left, swing your straight arms all the way to the right, while pivoting your body. Actually, all that pivots is your upper trunk.)

Make 6 outward ovals, return to center

Now swing to the left with the two arms, then to the right, with a quick snap pause; do it 6 times on each side [put a little arc in your swing]

(In other words, your arms and hands dip down just a little in the center each time while passing through to the other side.)

the hands still together about 4 inches apart Return to center; eyes follow. Now with arms still up in the air, bring your head down so that your ears rub the upper part of your upper arms; make tiny circles with your upper arms to do this

(Rub your ears with your upper arms 6 times)

Bring your hands down in front, two fingers still pointed, hands facing each other, elbows out [at some point, forearms, and hands will form a straight line parallel to the floor in front of your body] Move forearms down and out so that fingers point to floor

(This is a move back to the half rectangle position of before, but this time fingers are still in the butterfly position. There is a little snap when you move back to the open half rectangle position. Then there is a second snap, as you move each hand out further sideways, just a few more inches, opening outward the sides of the rectangle just a bit.)

Move arms back, palms facing floor, two fingers still pointed

(I don't quite agree here. You snap the arms back to the same position as flight position, except that the hands are still in "oval" position. In other words, the palms are still facing each other.)

[Do above motions with a quick snap] Straighten fingers ((with a little snap, palms still facing))

(Now you are back in "flight position")

Turn hands to face floor

(If you are going to continue on with the next part here, and you should, do not turn hands to face floor, rather, just leave them in flight position.)

Part 3: Butterfly in Flight

Continuing on, turn hands into flight position

Now make wings 6 times as in part 1, but this time rise up on toes as you bring hands forward [the chacmools say there are muscles in the calf and bottom of feet that we need to exercise]

(Yes, and bend the knees quite a bit, as you go up on the toes, look up, and snap your arms up, while inhaling; Straighten the knees without locking them, as you go down from the toes, look down, and snap your arms back behind you, while exhaling.)

End up with arms back, turn palms to face floor (Turn the palms down with a slight snapping motion)

Stand straight and bring hands forward to side of body (as you exhale)

The Chacmools said the following while teaching the Butterfly:

A key is to give the body the time to hook into the intent

Allow the body to work on the movement without allowing your expectations to surface.

We are going to hook into intent by becoming more and more precise

When doing the movements where you need to stop quickly, jerk to a stop. This will bring out the tensegrity from the center of the body.

SOURCE: Los Angeles - August 1995 "0995a.html"

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Date:   95-08-26 02:29:34 EDT