COLORADO TENSEGRITY WORKSHOP (1995)
(Passes called, “Gift to Colorado” and “Entrance into Well-being.”
Audience learned so fast that an extra 7 passes were added. Only those
shown were taught in Colorado.
Shoulder rolls to loosen up. Also do Arm rolls. Same as LA and Maui.
Lean slightly forward during shoulder rolls, same as LA. With arm rolls,
hand it palm up at top when rolling forward, but it drops to palm down
as the movement begins.
Fluidity foot: Left foot faces left, right foot 1.5 feet away, facing
front (similar to cat stance but 90 degrees between feet). Foot stays
on that spot the whole time. Angle it, but as it angles you turn
the shoulders the opposite direction with the right arm pointing all the
way back or even wraping around the waist. The left arm also points back
but the two are parallel to each other. You are turned quite a ways
around. Hold to count of 10. Do 4 this way, then switch feet.
Next, do same but turn body same direction as foot. Just the torso twists,
not the hips. They face front. Head may turn if desired. Arms turn
too. But both feet face front, not the 90 degrees of the first method.
Heel, toe: Like LA but start from horse stance, lift leg that is going to
move, shifting weight to other, then begin. Horse stance should be
quite a bit shallower than karate. Keep buttocks like you are just about
to sit on a stool, but you stopped in the air just above it.
Leg sweep: Also starts from horse like heel, toe. Nyei uses her arms to
coordinate it. When leg back, same arm front and angled around chest.
Switch arms when leg sweeps front. But Kylie did not move arms, kept
them down to sides at about 45 degree angle. Do 20 times each foot.
Circle foot (may have come earlier in class): All weight on left foot.
Right foot makes counter clockwise circles to right of it, brushing ground.
It doesn’t go back beyond the heel of the left. In the front, it goes
forward of the left foot, making a perfect circle of about 1.2 feet diameter.
Do at rate of about 1.3 seconds per circle, 30 times. The reverse feet.
Next, to disperse the energy gathered, do clockwise circles on each side.
Axing Energy: Horse stance, hands at sides, slightly out. Right comes
palm up to solar plexus height, left comes up on left and claspes down on
right, palm down. Fingers do not interlock, but hands clasp each other
like handshake with right palm up. Then lift both to right shoulder like
raising an axe. Then swing axe down to left at left hip like slashing down.
Then circle along bottom and up to head and back to left and down to
right hip (counterclockwise). Hips don’t move too much, just arms.
Now strike forward with knuckles of right hand, still in clasp posture
but keep right hand palm up and parallel to ground so that the knuckles strike
at the persons solar plexus or slightly below. Strike like snake (a
thrust but it springs at end a bit). Only 1 side to this movement,
don’t switch arms.
Tai-chi arm swing (no name given at course). Swing arms to left and right,
fully extended, parallel to each other, but when they hit the extreme they
almost touch each other. Like a whirl wind block in Tai-chi. This pass
was not reviewed and may be considered more of a way to loosen the arms
after doing other passes.
Hit, slap: Slap down at right, slighty front on right side, with right
palm. Left arm swings around back and up and slaps to left side of head
of person in front of you (but you are slapping your own energy body).
Then palm of left arm points down, Nyei called it “pause” until audience
members forced them to change to calling it “prepare”. Then the left
hand slaps down like the right did and right swings back and over top
to slap right side of head in front. Repeat by “pausing” the right hand
(turning it down) and then slapping down. The turn down is immediatly
followed by turning it up in order to be able to reverse it during the
travel to slap down, thus the audience got confused with the term “pause”
since the hand was turning over the whole time.
Turning energy up and down: Horse position important. Left arm like
holding large ball of diameter 1.8 feet or so. Arm is on bottom, cradling
it. The right palm slaps the top right of that beach ball. The right
then drops down to hold it at bottom (kind of rotating the wrist from
down to up) while the left hand and arm swing down and back and over and
up to slap down on top of the ball on its top left. Just keep repeating.
The relationship of the hands is that the thumb of the top hand is almost
above the little finger of the bottom hand.
Stirring chocolate: Left hand with claw does a position like a karate upper
block, claw facing front. Right hand is like cradling a baby (similar
to the turning energy up and down) but in a claw with palm facing front.
Swing both around so that they switch, making a circle with the movement
of the arms. Top arm is “ripping” down, but bottom arm is “stirring” as
it goes up. Repeat over and over.
Building the frame of the energy body: Arms starting at sides, palms
and arms relaxed. Swing both in sync up to front, over top, down back, and
slap palms up on the bottom of an imaginary frame in front of you
which frames your own torso as a window between you and IT. You slap
the bottom of that frame which is about 2.5 feet wide, but you slap with
your hands only about 3 inches apart in middle. Your body is slightly
crunched at waist in that slap. Then slap the top of that frame, your
body opening up a little. The bottom of the frame was about at belly
button height, the top is about at at top of head height. Top slap
is also palms up. Then hands turn palms down and cross over each other
in preparation for chop outwards. Do Karate chop out to top corners of that
frame. Bring hands (still palms down) back to almost touching and
slap bottom of frame again, with bottom of palms and hands only a few
inches apart. The cross them (palms still down) and karate chop out
to middle of sides of the frame. It was clear you arent chopping the
bottom corners of the frame, at least the way Kylie did it, you are
chopping the center.