BodyStories is a book which engages the general reader as well as the serious student of anatomy. Its information is applicable to dancers, artists, athletes, bodyworkers, massage therapists, teachers, and individuals with injuries or with a special interests in learning about their body. Thirty-one days of learning sessions bring heightened awareness about each bone and body system as well as providing self-guided studies to activate the learning processes. The book draws on Ms Olsen's twenty years as a dancer and teacher of anatomy to show how our attitudes and approaches to our body affect us day to day. Amusing and insightful personal stories enliven the text and provide ways of working with the body for efficiency and for healing. Anecdotes about international travel as a dancer, and about working, with colleagues Bonnie Bainbridge Cohen in experiential anatomy and Janet Adler in Authentic Movement demonstrate how movement patterns and memories are part of our physical heritage, and how the body serves as a language for our world community. The works of twelve visual artists plus childrens' drawings, medical illustrations and mutlicultural images are included to broaden our way of looking at and learning to listen to the stories of the body.

'This is the perfect gift for anyone who wishes to be enticed into understanding more about themselves within the contect of their body, and anyone who wishes to understand anatomy in more dept through their own inner journeying.'-- Bonnie Bainbridge Cohen, Co-Director and Founder of The School for Body-Mind Centering

'An intimate knolwedge of the body is crucial for the dancer. This book provides information and inspiration that will find a place in the study of dance technique and theory. It should be required reading for all dance students!'-Susan Waltner, Directir of the Five College Dance Department, 1988-90; Professor of Dance, Smith College

'Andrea Olsen's BodyStories is several books in one. It is a remarkably lucid introduct into human anatomy; it is an exercise book in how to get in touch with your own body; and it is a sequence of prose poems about the intricate connections between the human body and the range of complex emotions that the body makes possible. These terse anecdotal passages are rich in narative detail and lyrical in their articulation, and they create an ongoing dialogue with the more expository and instructive parts of the text. The total effect of this unusual mixture embraces the pleasure of learning, of exercise,and of individual awareness. This is a delightful book for anyone who plans to go on living with his or her own body.'-Robert Pack, Director of the Breadloaf Writer's Conference; Axinn Professor of Literature and Creative Writing. Middlebury College.

this book really amazed me. the title alone drew me to it. i am a Pilates instructor and i wanted to learn as much as i could about the body and mind working together. this book breaks down the body into different areas, gives you a little anatomy lesson, and gives activities to connect with that body part. some are meditations and some are hands-on. it gives you a better idea of your own relationship to your body as well as a sense of gratitude for all it does for us. truly a gem!-A. Kenneally

Bought this book to explore further after several somatic n similar classes in feldenkrais, wave works continuum , Nia and body mind centering. I travel with this book n use it to learn about myself and also experience wellbeing from it - its nice to b 'working' on many of the short experiential 'exercises' in the book and later finding that i m more in touch with my body - - sure beats pacing around or staring at the tv when in some hotel room and missing home when working overseas.-E. Soon

Contents

Acknowledgments
Preface
Introductioin: The text
Stories 'Writing'
'Colors'
Using the text
Day 1 Basic concepts
Story: 'Claiming your height'
To do' Drawing your skeletion
Day 2 Attitudes about the body
Story' 'Running'
To do: Constructive rest
Bodystory
Day 3 Proprioception adn sensory awareness
Story: 'Choice'
To do: Body scanning
Body painting
Day 4 The cell
Story: 'Exchange'
To do: Cellular breathing
Breathing spot
Cellular awareness
Day 5 Evolutionary story
In the water
Story: 'Layers'
To do: Body symmetries
Day 6 Evolution to standing
On land
Story: 'Language'
'Body as home'
To do:
Evolution to standing
Day 7 Bodymeasuring
Terminology
Story: 'Depth'
To do: Measuring the body
Planes, axes, and planes of motion
Body 8 three body weights and postural alignment
Story: 'Balance'
To do: Cone head and tail
Landmarks for alignment
Balancing body wieghts
Day 9 The nature of bone
Story: 'Assembling the skeleton'
To do: Articulating the bones
Moving from bone
Day 10 Skull, jaw and hyoid bone
Story' 'Masks'
To do: Suture massage
Holding the head
TMJ joint
Day 11 Axial skeleton: skull to spine
Story: 'On alert'
To do: Walking down the spine
Rolling down the spine
Rocking the spine
Caring for your spine
Day 12 Thorax: the vertebrae and ribs
Story: 'Exposure'
To do: Ddrawing the vertebrae
Tracing the ribs
Tracing ribs, with partner
Day 13 Breathing
Story: 'Sigh'
To do: Breathing with the five lobes of the lungs
Day 14 Shoulder girdle
Story: 'Process'
To do: Shoulder circles
Tracing the shouder girdle
Partner work
Moving hand from scapula
Day 15 Forearm, wrist and hand
Story' 'Control'
To do: Rotating the forearm; tracing the bones
Day 16 Hand
Story: 'Tapping'
To do: Hand massage
Shoulder girdle integration
Dancers: carriage of arms
Day 17 Touch
Stories: 'Staying present'
'Body picture'
'Hands on'
To do: Sensitzing the hands
Partner: Touch
Day 18 Pelvis
Story' 'Forgetting'
To do: Pelvis
Dancers: Hip rotation
Day 19 Iliopsoas
Story: 'Finding cetner'
To do: Sit-backs
Partner: Sit-bakcs
Front surface alignment
Day 20 Femur: A leg to stand on
Story: 'Holding'
To do: Hip circles
Tracing the bone
Thigh rolls
Toothpast tube
Day 21 Knee
Story: 'Connections'
To do: Feeling the two balls and two sockets of the knees
Caring for your knees
Day 22 Tibia and fibula: The lower leg
Story: 'Below the knees'
To do: tracing the tibia & fibula
Rotating the tibia & fibula
Day 23 Feet
Stroy: 'Slow down'
To do: Foot massage
Integrating pelvic girdle: feet-pelvis
Integrating pelvic girdle: chair work
Dancers: Releve
Day 24 Joints
Story: 'Body logic'
To do: Arthrometric model drawing the joints
Moving from the joints
Day 25 Nervous system: Body listening
Story: 'Release'
To do: Dialogue between systems
Visualization, imagery, and imagination
Day 26 Digestion
Stroy: 'Gut response'
'Passageway'
To do: Tracing the digestive tract
Day 27 Human reflexes and developmental patterns
Story: 'Progress'
To do: Pattern sequence
Exploring patterns
Modulating oppoosites
Day 28 Sexuality
Story: 'Voyage'
To do: Relating to self
Relating to others
Day 29 Emotions
Story: 'Support'
To do: The motin in emotion
Image work: Masks
Moving conrasts
Creative response
Day 30 Sound and movement
Story 'silence'
To do: Moving with sound
Vibrating the body
Vibrating the body; standing
Day 31 Personal project
Story: 'Endings as beginnings'
To do: Following your movement
Teach-a-friend
Notes
Acknowledgments
Bibliography
Art index
Multicultural index
Subject index
About the authors

BodyStories is a book which engages the general reader as well as the serious student of anatomy. Its information is applicable to dancers, artists, athletes, bodyworkers, massage therapists, teachers, and individuals with injuries or with a special interest in learning about their body. Thirty-one days of learning sessions bring heightened awareness about each bone and body system as well as providing self-guided studies to activate the learning processes.