Forward-Change Transquarter Movement Tables

Latest addition to the Dance of Shiva website is “Forward-Change Transquarter” movement tables. The idea is to practice this movement combination from all possible positions of the dance of shiva. To make it more fun…. and balanced, you can practice alternation the f-ct and the ct-f move. This movement is a part of the warp 3 sequence so if you want to do warp 3 faster it might be helpful to practice this set of dance of shiva movement tables.

I’ll be publishing the other three movements that are part of warp 3 over the next few days.

arm swings

Arm swings are a way to relax the shoulders and improve their range of motion. They can be a good prep for stretching or something you can do after stretching your shoulders or as a morning practice before of after doing the dance of shiva. You can do one arm at a time or use both arms. In this video we swing backwards and forwards and then from left to right in front of the body (and right to left!)
You can swing in half circles and then do full circles.
In all cases focus on relaxing your arms and shoulders. When doing the circles, imagine throwing your shoulder in to the circle, let the momentum of your arm carry your shoulder forward, upward, backwards and then down (or vice versa.)
Try to do the movements smoothly and feel the weight of your arm as you swing it.
Arm Swing Video.

dance of shiva level 4

Dance of shiva level 4 involved doing a series of change forward moves. Change forwards are part of the class of movements that andrey calls “link moves.” I differentiate these moves with the names change, change forward, change backward and change transquarter so that they are easier to distinguish from each other.
In level 4 we do change forward and change backward moves with the hands in the same planes, so its similiar to dance of shiva level 1. In level 5 we do the same thing but with the hands in different planes, like in level 2.
Anyway, there are tables and videos so that you can learn and practice dance of shiva level 4 easily and efficiently (and dare I say, in 5 minutes a day!)

practice all possible movements of the dance of shiva

Here’s a guide to practicing all possible movements of the dance of shiva. Note that using both arms there are only 49.

It includes starting positons so that you can practice all moves from all positions and I’m slowly adding pages with tables of moves.

dance of shiva level 6

Check out dance of shiva level 6. It includes the algorithm, which is pretty simple:

• forward forward (mirror)
• transquarter transquarter (mirror)
• forward backward (mirror)
• transquarter transquarter (mirror)

as well as links to videos and movement tables, grids of movements and positions so that you can see the patterns.

the dance of shiva

Hi everyone, check out my new dance of shiva website:
http://thedanceofshiva.com

Neil

P.s. you might also be interested in http://sensational-yoga-poses.com

Warp Tables

Warp Sequences are a way of practicing all possible movements of the dance of shiva without needless repetition. They are sequences of four movements that you have to repeat four times in order to return to the starting position. In so doing, you practice the four movements within this sequence from four different positions each.
So that you can practice these movements from all positions you practice each Warp Sequence from 16 different starting positions.

So that you can practice all 49 combined movements of the dance of shiva efficiently, there are 7 warps. For more on the math involved check out Warps and to find out how to use Warp Tables check out Warp tables and Warp Maps.

Leading With The Mind

Practicing
Life Skills

Most of the things that we can practice with the dance of shiva can be applied to anything we do. They include:

• learning to break complex tasks into simpler ones,
• sensing and choosing options,
• knowing what we are doing before we do it.

One of the advantages of the Dance of Shiva is that it provides a good way of practicing any of these skills. Plus you don’t have to figure out how to practice them, you can simply get on with practicing them.

Warps
and
Clear Ideas

One of the things we can practice is “leading with the mind” or “leading with a clear idea”.
In the more advanced practices (I call them “Warps”) we can memorize a sequence of moves. An example would be “CF-T, CF-CF, CF-B, F-CF.
(CF=CHANGE FORWARDS, T=TRANSQUARTER, B=BACKWARDS, F=FORWARDS.)

This is a “generic” formula that can be used to start from any of the 64 different positions of the dance of shiva. Repeating this formula 4 times returns the arms to the position from which they started. So that we use each of these moves from each of the 64 positions we need to practice this formula from 16 different positions.
When practicing this sequence or any other sequence, before we “do” each move we can first see it with our mind.

As an example, starting from position 1-1 the first move is a CF-T which takes the arms to b-3. With enough practice we know the positions so that they are easy to see with our minds eye. As a result we can see our hands in position b-3 before we actually move them there.

From our new positions we can then see what the result of the next move is before we do it. From b-3 we can “see” that the CF-CF move will take our arms to 3-d. Having seen with our mind we can then move our arms there.

Rather than moving automatically and then checking where we are once we get there, we use our mind first and then follow with our body.

Move Mind
then Body

If we move first (automatically) and we move correctly, our hand position shows us where we went. That is not a “bad” thing. However, if we think first then we have to use our mind to draw up the memory of where our hands should go. Rather than relying on our body to give us the answer we use our mind and then we use our body.

We can learn to use our mind quite quickly in this fashion. Rather than waiting for our body to give us the answer so that we can check it, we use our mind and then check that our body has done the move correctly.

This is exactly like the kung fu movies where the adverseries see the fight and what they do in it before the fight actually begins.

Inner
Skill

Another term for gong fu is inner skill. I like to take this as meaning seeing with the mind first and then doing with the body. Practicing “inner skill” with the dance of shiva we develop our ability to think fast.

Thinking fast, we can do quick movements knowing that we are doing the movement correctly, or we are able to correct ourselves while we are doing the movement if we spot that we have made a mistake.

This “leading” with the mind lends itself immediately to what we do outside of the dance of shiva.

Do we know what it is that we are trying to do? If not what is it that we are trying to do. We can then spend time figuring it out rather than wasting time by doing something we don’t need to do. Then once we are doing something we can do it quickly, efficiently and like a martial arts master.

Practicing Warps, if we use our mind to know where we are going before we get there we can then lend additional brain power to monitoring our arms as they do the movement (since we already know where they are going.) We can make our movements more precis, more exact.

We then not only train our brain, we also train its ability to control the body while training the body at the same time.

To try out a warp (don’t worry this is for free) click here.

Sincerely

Neil Keleher

Managing Change

In my previous article I talked about how memorization can be the first step towards training the brain. Although I didn’t say as much the actual act of memorization is one of the ways in which we can train the brain. By memorizing something, whether the script to a play or how something works, we make what we’ve learned a part of ourselves. We don’t have to rely on outside resources (a book or someone who “knows”) we can instead rely on ourselves. As a result we can dance with change.

Dancing
with Change

When an actor memorizes his or her lines they are then free to interact with the other actors in the scene. Rather than “saying” their lines when necessary they can allow their lines to come out organically based on the situation they are in. The action then becomes more like real life… or it becomes what real life can be like if we are present.

To learn to ride a motorcycle we have to memorize or learn how do do certain things. We learn how to steer, how to use the brakes, the accelerator and how to change gears. Ideally we learn these things in a controlled environment where we don’t have to worry about things like other traffic. Once we’ve learned these skills so that we can do them “without thinking” we then can test ourselves on a windy road… or one curve at a time. We can then test ourselves further on a road with traffic. If we’ve learned to ride the bike well then we can handle the changes in the road and we can handle other traffic on the road all while staying on the bike. We can dance with change.

If we are really in our element we can sense change as it happens and respond to that change instantaneously. Rather than ourselves, the bike, the road and the traffic on the road being separate entities, we can move as one, still separate entities but all tuned in to the same source.

Knowing what
You are Doing

That might be a bit far fetched to imagine and perhaps it doesn’t suit the motorcycle riding analogy. Another setting might be two people who’ve learned to dance together so well that they move as one. What get’s them to that stage? Learning their moves and their partners moves. We might not think of this as memorization but the result is the same, they know what they have to do and so they can focus on doing it.

Inputs and
Outputs

The brain is like a computer. It receives inputs, processes them and then sends out an output based on the program that is active at the time.

Memorizing a set series of moves we download a program into our brain. We can then sense inputs from the world around us or from within ourselves and respond to those changes according to the program that we’ve downloaded and made a part of our selves. We can then train our brain by noticing the changes that are happening now and responding to those changes.

In the dance of shiva we create the changes that we observe by moving according to a set sequence of moves. The challenge is to do the moves correctly according to the algorithm but also to sense our body so that the parts of our body are also doing the movements as good as possible.

If we sense errors, we correct ourselves.

As I mentioned in my previous article, you don’t need to do the Dance of Shiva to practice this. If you understand that in anything you do the better you know what you are trying to do the better you can handle change while creating the change that you desire, then you can train your brain.

Doing the Dance of Shiva is simply a good way to practice this so that it is easier to apply in other aspects of your life. The nice thing about the dance of shiva (apart from the fact that it leaves you feeling energized or awake) is that you can practice it in fifteen minutes each day. You can also do it in five minute stints and all you need is room to swing your arms.

Sincerely

Neil Keleher

Memory and Understanding

What if you could train your brain without needing a computer or a book? What if you could train your coordination, your proprioception (your ability to feel your body), your ability to use the left and right sides of your brain, short term memory and long term memory, and also exercise your ability to sense inputs and respond with different outputs all at the same time. What if, as an added bonus increase your creativity, your ability to think outside of the box or even to create the box that you think within.

What if you could develop your ability to sense potential, the ways to do things rather than the reasons to stop, and balance the sides of your upper body. You can even learn to think from right to left as well as from left to right and learn how to think from “another point of view.”
The Dance of Shiva offers all of these advantages, while exercising the brain and the body at the same time.

Training
The Brain

In the Dance of Shiva a small part of training the brain involves remembering. Is that enough to turn you off of training your brain? What if memorizing was made simple. Rather than focusing on the idea that you have lots to remember, why not focus on learning little bits at a time. Make memorization bearable or even enjoyable by doing it a little bit at a time and not worrying about what you still have to do.

It’s not a big stretch to remember bits at a time. So while comfortable and doable, how does this train the brain? In a way it’s like learning to ride a bicycle. Initially you have training wheels so that you can focus on steering and using the pedals. Training wheels don’t really help you with balance but they do help you to get comfortable with the “idea” of riding a bike. Then when the training wheels come of you can practice looking ahead and finding that thin line of force that helps to keep you upright when the wheels are turning.

Once you’ve learned to ride a bike without training wheels using training wheels is an encumberance. With the training wheels off you have so much more freedom to ride the bike. You can handle corners quickly. Likewise in the dance of shiva. Once you’ve done something simple like learning the basic positions so that you don’t have to think about them you gain a bit more freedom. Then you learn the next stage-how to move between those positions.

Freedom
To Act

Here again is a little bit more memorization, but again with memorization comes the freedom to use your brain in other ways. Instead of trying to remember what the positions and the moves are you can focus on doing the positions and the moves. You can focus on sensing your body at the same time and based on the ideas that you have memorized, you correct the positions of your body as necessary. The faster you do the movements (the faster you are able to do the movements because you’ve memorized them) the faster you have to use your brain to check and correct your positions if necessary.

Computers and books aren’t a bad thing. Obviously I am sitting here writing to you on my macbook pro. But over reliance on computers and books at the expense of not-memorizing or learning, we miss a chance to help our brain (and body) grow. It doesn’t matter if there is “too much to learn or memorize” the point is you just have to start now. And if you focus on learning little bits at a time, not only do you train your brain and your body, you can have fun and enjoy life at the same time simply because you are practicing being present in what you are trying to do.

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