SI Workshops 2023

I was born in 1962 in Torino, Italy.

I was for a year in the Italian Navy Academy as a cadet before becoming a professional dancer. Appointed soloist dancer, I performed from 1985 to 2005 dancing with many different ballet companies (among them Aterballetto, Arena di Verona, Teatro Regio Torino, GöteborgsOperan, Scottish Ballet) all around Europe and many of these years under the direction of the choreographer Robert North.

In 1997 a serious injury occurred during a rehearsal and, as usual therapies and medical interventions didn't help, I decided to get Rolf Structural Integration sessions. Not only was the problem resolved, but I was also healed. Moreover I was able to discover a whole new being inside my self emerging, new informations were feeding my mind- soul-body structure, a sense of completion was emerging.

It goes without saying, that this experience urged me to go deeper on this path and I felt I had to share this new world of possibilities with other human beings.

I moved to Colorado (U.S.A.) in 2003 and I had the chance and the honor to study with Peter N. Melchior, along with Emmett Hutchins, one of the two disciples put in charge to teach by Dr. Ida Rolf .

In the subsequent years I deepened my study and practice of Structural Integration with other Rolfers trained directly by Dr. Rolf, like Neal Powers, Jim Asher, Hubert Godard and others like David Davis, Nilce Silveira, Liz Stewart, Maria Laura Gentilini.
In 2009 I assisted Liz Stewart at a Basic Training Class for the Guild for Structural Integration.

In 2018 I became an Advanced Pratictioner and I then had the honor to assist Neal Powers in his Advanced Training in Prague.
I teach BT in Italy and workshops where the wind of SI brings me. Since 2005 I have been practicing SI in Torino while at the same time I ‘m collaborating with different Ballet and Dance Companies throughout Europe (Krefeld Ballet, Saarländsches Staatstheater Ballett, Béjart Ballet Lausanne, GöteborgsOperanDansKompany, Tanztheater Wuppertal-Pina Bausch), where I love to bring Rolf Structural Integration to dancers.

Here I am sharing the "Rolf experience" with all sorts of people: dancers, athletes, musicians, actors, singers, the general public of any age, condition, expectations, wills; learning more about human potential and expansion by the minute; being grateful and honoring all the Masters, friends and people met and meeting whom I'm glad to share a piece of path with, as fellow wayfarers.

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Tre giorni per esplorare le prime tre ore del “cammino che ha un cuore”, la ricetta della dr. Rolf. Respirare nella schiena, nel piede che incontra il terreno come fiocco di neve che scende dal cielo, nello spazio appena dietro le viscere. Vedremo la pelvi iniziare ad aprirsi al movimento per accogliere la Linea Verticale, quel campo nel quale la gravità semina leggerezza. Le prime tre ore nelle quali le “vele dello sleeve” cominciano a prendere il “vento del core” per navigare nell’oceano della coscienza.

Three days to explore the first three hours of the “journey that has a heart”, the Recipe by Dr. Rolf. Breath into the back, into the foot that meets the ground like a snowflake descending from the sky, into the space just behind the viscera. We will see the pelvis begin to open to movement to accommodate the Vertical Line, that field in which gravity sows lightness. The first three hours in which the sails of the sleeve begin to take the wind of the core to navigate the ocean of consciousness.

SCARWORK

Image: Sharon Wheeler and Dario Di Lorenzo

ScarWork is Sharon's original discovery, and one that she is continually developing and expanding on. There are 20+ separate techniques used to integrate different qualities of scar tissue into the fascial web. Most will be demonstrated in class. They are simple to learn and easy to do.
Working with scars is like speaking a different language in the world of connective tissue. Scar tissue is very dense fascia with unique properties. ScarWork uses a casual, light touch - a little reminiscent of working with bread dough.
The work is rarely painful - even for very new scars, and the amount of change in one intervention is extensive. The cosmetic effect is delightful and the functional changes can be profound. Natural and surgical scars of any age respond immediately followed by a short period of rapid healing and continued improvement. The improvements are permanent.
Scar tissue quality changes quickly and easily. Lumps, gaps, ridges, holes, bumps, knots, and strings in the tissue rapidly smooth out into a three dimensional fascial web. The work starts with the surface layers and goes into the far reaches of the scar including work with any involved viscera. Scar work often results in large whole body integration shifts along with trauma resolution, and nerve-impaired numbness usually resolves within a session.
Practitioners will learn these techniques well enough to take them home and use them the next day in their private practices. Scar work can fit seamlessly into an SI series or be used as a stand-alone intervention session.

Teaching Approach:

On the first day the basic techniques will be presented and work on a model will be shown. Afterwards, students will work on each other. On the next days there will additional techniques and external models with scars of various types on which the method can be practiced. Practitioners will learn these techniques well enough to take them home and use them the next day in their private practices. Scar work can fit seamlessly into an SI series or be used as a stand-alone intervention session.

John Lodge was the artist who illustrated Ida Rolf's book 'Rolfing - the Integration of Human Structures.' He was an instructor in the 1980's at the Rolf Institute, he was a philosopher, a mystic - a 'shaman'.
One of the concepts John loved to use in his teaching were "The 7 Domes of Lift", the dome-shaped horizontal structures in the body, which constitute a 'hydraulic system', with all elements in an intimate interdependence with each other. He used to introduce them on the very first day of class.
There are various descriptions of these 7 domes possible e.g. 1. the arches of the feet 2. the menisci 3. the pelvic floor 4. the respiratory diaphragm 5. the thoracic outlet 6. the roof of the mouth 7. the crown (the top of the head).
Nilce Silveira will be offering a workshop investigating what new insights can be gained by looking at the recipe through the prism of these "7 Domes of Lift".



The image shows a sketch from John Lodge's notes.

Bert Schmitz experienced Rolfing™ in Esalen in 1975 while he was involved as a psychologist MA (University of Amsterdam) in a gestalt-practice training with Dick Price. He was trained as a basic and Advanced Rolfer™ by Michael Salveson & Peter Melchior from 1982 onwards. In Florence, Italy he practiced psychotherapy, meditation and Rolfing®Structural Integration for over 40 years integrating mindfulness (MBSR) in his methods. His psychological approach is subtle and relates to the understanding of the finer networks of body and mind, which offers the means for finding the code for psychological transformation. In groups his strength is in creating a foundation and atmosphere for intuitive study, through concept, presentations, intuitive choices, conversations in silence.

After receiving an MA degree in Dance from UCLA, I was privileged to study with Ida Rolf, originator of a type of body therapy known as Structural Integration. I’m proud to have been certified as a Structural Integration practitioner by Dr. Rolf herself.
Rolf’s understanding of the body went beyond anything I’d learned during many years of movement training. She taught that gravity organizes human structures and that people can achieve an optimal relationship with this determining force through bodywork and education.
I began teaching movement and bodywork courses in 1994 and was Chair of the Movement Faculty of The Rolf Institute® of Structural Integration in Boulder, CO for many years. I also teach workshops tailored to the needs and interests of various groups such as runners, dancers, Pilates and yoga instructors, and massage therapists.
My articles have appeared in magazines such as Massage, Shape, Men’s Fitness, Somatics Journal, and Massage and Bodywork. My first book, Balancing Your Body: A Self-help Approach to Rolfing Movement, was published in 1993 by Healing Arts Press. In it I offered a self-help version of Rolf Movement® therapy.

Sensorimotor Education for the Rolf 10-Series

This workshop explores Dr. Ida Rolf’s protocol from a functional perspective. Enhance your skills in body reading, verbal and tactile cuing and tailoring movement education to fit your clients’ needs.

A Structural Integration practitioner’s expertise includes the ability to enliven clients’ body awareness, and to provide movement education that helps them sustain the results of the manual therapy. This workshop is designed for SI practitioners to gain body-reading confidence, skill in verbal and tactile cuing, and success in facilitating body awareness and in creating practical movement solutions for clients. Topics include:

• Experiential understanding of foundational movement theory.
• Review the goals of the 10 sessions.
• Practical movement lessons that support those goals, including movement awareness for home practice.
• Sensory-based language and imagery to help clients increase their interoception and proprioception.
• A repertoire of sensorimotor interventions that can be tailored to clients’ needs and motivations as well as support the goals of SI.

Essential Proprioception

Sensory awareness is the key to sustainable change in movement habits and therefore also the key to good posture. In this workshop we explore the proprioceptive foundations for balanced, efficient, and graceful movement patterns. Workshop is open to SI practitioners and other somatic educators. Topics include:

• Revising inefficient breathing habits.
• The importance of pelvic floor orientation for respiration, spinal alignment and hip mobility.
• Tension in the face as a “lid” on the spine that blocks full embodiment of the central line.
• Cues for staying grounded and relaxed in tension-evoking times.
• Spatial orientation as a source of bodily support.
• Applying the tensegrity principle to the Rolf 10-series as well as to performance of other somatic disciplines (e.g. yoga, Pilates, Tai Chi, dance).

Identity Free Space in SI
An Integral/Mindfulness Perspective in SI work

In Ida Rolf’s view, the Rolf Method of Structural Integration is an integral approach to living.
“Core” and “Line” are not just phenomena in a physical environment. They could be considered as indicators of transformation of bio/psycho/social/spiritual levels.
We will touch on what the qualities of the therapeutic relationship are and how the therapeutic presence is crucial in reaching your goals. This presence is a space of nourishment and information, and will help preventing you from compassion fatigue and burnout, and essentially will transform your S.I. practice.

From an integral/mindfulness view we will explore:
• Listening, questioning and seeing
• Presencing
• Emotion Regulation
• Breathing, Body and Gravity

Reflecting on
• Interoception / Proprioception
• Neuroplasticity and Space/Time
• the Limbic System
.

Thinking about 3 Post-Ten sessions a good place to start are sessions 8, 9 & 10 of the Basic Series, except that one needs to remember that they are not 8, 9 & 10 of the Basic Series. The clues of how to approach Post Ten Work will ultimately be found in the client's body-mind. We will explore possible strategies on how to approach these 3 sessions, incorporating and start exploring the "Psoas/Rhomboid Balance".

This is a workshop that will benefit - not only - but especially beginning practitioners.

Pod povrchovou vrstvou se v oblasti krku nachází tři hlavní vrstvy fascií:
- první vrstva, kterou tvoří trapezius a strernocleidomastoideus,
- první hluboká vrstva fascií na přední straně páteře, která obsahuje ostatní svaly krku a svaly kolem krčních obratlů,
- hlubší vrstvy fascií, které se nachází před dýchací trubicí (scaleni, svaly jazylky).
Na základě poznatků z Anatomického atlasu fascií profesorky Carly Stecco budeme zkoumat, jak tyto vrstvy pokračují dále do těla a jaký význam mohou mít pro deset sezení Strukturální Integrace.


Underneath the superfiscial fascia there are three main fascial layers in the neck
- the investing layer of the trapezius and SCM
- the prevertebral lamina of deep fascia containing all other neck muscles around the vertebrae
- the pretracheal laminae of deep fascia containing neck muscles in front of the trachea (scalene, hyoid muscles)
Using Prof. Carla Stecco's Fascial Anatomy Atlas we will investigate how these layers travel further down the body and look at the implications these findings may have for the Basic 10 Series.

A "bon mot" attributed to Ida Rolf states that the first six sessions are merely there to prepare for session 7. She was of the opinion that if you do not manage to “Put the Head on” in session 7, you take the risk, that many gains from sessions 1-6 may be “undone”. This because the 6kg head will, over time, pull everything back to where it was originally. In this workshop we will cover
- strategies for how to build this support in sessions 1 -6
- and cover all aims and techniques for session 7, incl. the oral and nasal work, as they were originally taught.

This is a workshop that will benefit - not only - but especially beginning practitioners.

We will review on day 1 everything covered in the first workshop 'Put the Head On 1'.
On Day 2 we will spend most of the time reviewing Session 7.
On Day 3 we will look at the implications of the discussion for Sessions 8 - 10.

In Ida Rolf's view the human legs start at the front of the lumbo-dorsal hinge with the interlacing of psoas and crura fibers. She likened this to "BEING".

Just above the lumbo-dorsal hinge, at the back of the body, the rhomboids control shoulder and arm movements. She likened this to "DOING".

She postulated a 'KOAN' for one goal of sessions 8 & 9 - to find the best possible balance between:

Psoas and Rhomboids, Lordosis and Kyphosis, Being and Doing.

The workshop will focus on how we can prepare for the investigation of this riddle in sessions 1 -7 and how to incorporate these findings into sessions 8 & 9.

The following quotes from Ida Rolf's Book: 'Rolfing - The Integration of Human Structures' will guide us through the weekend.

Day 1 : Psoas
'If psoas and recti are really sharing the load, any and all body movements involving flexion allow the abdominal wall to fall back. Although this seems illogical, it is nevertheless true. In normal, balanced flexion, the psoas does not shorten, does not bulge forward; it lengthens and falls back within the abdomen.'

Day 2 : Rhomboids
'Normally, the job of the rhomboids (together with the serrati anterior) is to hold the scapulae in an appropriate relationship to the spine and to balance the teres. When the rhomboids lose their tone and are no longer able to balance the teres or to hold the scapulae in place, their function of supporting the shoulder girdle passes to spinal muscles.'

Day 3 : Psoas/Rhomboid Balance
'The psoas (prevertebrally) and the rhomboids (postver-tebrally) connect the two girdles to the spinal vertical. The connection must be stable, yet sufficiently flexible to allow movement by the girdles while retaining a substantially undisturbed vertical. Rhomboids are central to the activity of the shoulder girdle, psoas to adequate functioning of the pelvic girdle. The focus of rhomboid-psoas balance is at the lumbodorsal junction, which is what gives this area its unique importance in body mechanics.'

W ujęciu dr Idy Rolf nogi człowieka zaczynają się na wysokości przejścia piersiowo-lędźwiowego w obszarze przeplatania się włókien m.lędźwiowego i Przepony. Rolf łączyła to z aspektem „BYCIA”.

Tuż nad przejściem piersiowo-lędźwiowym, z tyłu ciała, m.równoległoboczne kontrolują ruchy barków i ramion. Ida Rolf przyrównała to do „DZIAŁANIA".

Stworzyła 'KOAN' mówiący o celu sesji 8 & 9 - znalezienie jak najlepszej równowagi pomiędzy:

m.lędźwiowym i mm.równoległobocznymi, lordozą i kifozą, Byciem i Działaniem.

Warsztat skupi się na tym, jak możemy przygotować się do zbadania tej zagadki w sesjach 1-7 i jak włączyć te odkrycia do sesji 8 i 9.

Poniższe cytaty z książki Idy Rolf: "Rolfing - Integration of Human Structure" poprowadzą nas przez cały weekend.

Dzień 1: m.lędźwiowy
'Jeśli m.lędźwiowy i m.prosty brzucha rzeczywiście dzielą się obciążeniem, wszelkie ruchy ciała obejmujące zgięcie pozwalają ścianie brzucha przesunąć się do tyłu. Choć wydaje się to nielogiczne, jest to jednak prawda. W normalnym, zrównoważonym zgięciu, m.lędźwiowy nie skraca się, nie wybrzusza do przodu; wydłuża się i opada do tyłu w obrębie brzucha'

Dzień 2 : mm.równoległoboczne
'W normalnych warunkach zadaniem mięśnia dwugłowego ramienia (wraz z mięśniem zębatym przednim) jest utrzymywanie łopatki w odpowiedniej relacji do kręgosłupa i równoważenie mm. obłe. Kiedy mm.równoległoboczne tracą swoje napięcie i nie są już w stanie zrównoważyć mm.obłych lub utrzymać łopatki w miejscu, ich funkcja podtrzymywania obręczy barkowej przechodzi na mięśnie przykręgosłupowe.'

Dzień 3: Równowaga m.lędźwiowego i mm.równoległobocznych
'M.lędźwiowy (przedkręgosłupowo) i mm.równoległoboczne (zakręgosłupowo) łączą obie obręcze z pionem kręgosłupa. Połączenie to musi być stabilne, a jednocześnie wystarczająco elastyczne, aby umożliwić odpowiednią ruchomość obręczy przy zachowaniu zasadniczo niezakłóconego pionu. Mm.równoległoboczne są kluczowe dla aktywności obręczy barkowej, m.lędźwiowy dla odpowiedniego funkcjonowania obręczy miednicznej. Punkt równowagi mm.równoległoboczne - m.lędźwiowy znajduje się w przejściu piersiowo-lędźwiowym, co nadaje temu obszarowi wyjątkowe znaczenie w mechanice ciała'