Core-distal connectivity.

CORE- DISTAL CONNECTIVITY

'Before I can confidently move on my own world, I need to have a sense of my own center.'

                                                   (2002, p. 67.)

 I decided to read the chapter on core-distal connectivity from Peggy Hackney's book Making Connections to develop the knowledge I have gained from the movement sessions further. She talks about how we must discover our core and know that our whole body is connected through this. We must develop a relationship between each body part and our core, in order to acknowledge and 'claim our own movement sphere'. People often try to move their body parts in a disjointed and unorganised way, forgetting that all of their limbs are joined. We need to reach this point of connectedness within our own bodies in order to move as one through life and within performance. She states that if this is lost that we must return to simple movements to rediscover this connectivity, going on to say that 'the whole body can be organized by a pattern of connectivity that begins in the center'. The core-distal connectivity relates to us expanding and contracting our bodies, stretching out to what is around us. After reading this chapter, when I experiment with such movements, I feel as though I can really feel this connection. It is something that we often don't notice and there are targeted exercises to strengthen the core alone. However some people do not realise that through other exercise, such as running and dance for example, the core is in action, supporting the rest of the body.

This is a picture from this chapter that I particularly like as it outlines the connection from each body part to the core.
 After reading the chapter Core-Distal connectivity from Peggy Hackney's book Making Connections I decided to do further research around this fundamental and came across this YouTube video:- 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wDyvO70mlw8
Despite being rather short I found that this video broke down this fundamental in a way that was clear and simple, highlighting the key elements.  The woman involved also gives visual representation of core-distal connectivity, something that is good for me when learning due to being a visual learner. I was able to use her examples to outline the connections on my own body. 
Reading this chapter has inspired me to work on improving my core strength in order to improve my movement abilities as a whole, as I now know how important the connection between the core and my limbs is.