Your spine is a long curving river. Within the experience of asymmetry, and indeed, in all spinal terrains, it is important to sense the course of the river, the riverbanks, the surrounding country. To encounter the inflow of the tributaries of the limbs, and observe their impact on the course of the river-spine.
Unique Workshops, we will explore the felt experience of asymmetry (however subtle), in the midline of the body. Through careful sensing, you will be invited to know the country and topography of your back as felt, known place. We will investigate the ways in which the active use of the limbs can inform and modify this landscape, generating more easeful energetic flow through the spine as your central, functional axis. A place of cohesion and resilience, fluidity and strength. Through conscious acknowledgement of the organic body and the embryological pathways of both the limbs and spine itself, we will offer your body fresh choices in finding its natural state of grace, balance and ease. Expect to come away with playful, yet deep, enquiries that will ignite your curiosity about your spine in the practice of yogasana.
Narelle Carter-Quinlan BAppSc (Biomed; Cell Path, Clin Biochem. Human Movement Studies).
I inhabit a significant scoliosis. I am a global exponent on both the practice of yoga with scoliosis, together with the landform and climate of this terrain; that is, its anatomy and its impact on the body. I’m an anatomist by academic, experiential, and yes, cadaveric training. Always, the beauty of Form. My five years of post graduate research at QUT, lies in the Pathology of the lumbar spine and sacrum in scoliosis and in low back pain. Spinal stability, disc and facet lesions. The neurophysiology of postural control.
I’ve shared my Practice in Workshops and lectures at the Yoga Union Center for Scoliosis and Backcare in New York City, assisted and taught within Elise Miller’s renowned Yoga for Scoliosis Teacher Training in San Francisco and NYC. I’ve offered my work in Europe, the United Kingdom, New Zealand, and of course in my own land, Australia. I’ve enjoyed presenting the scholarly and movement aspects of my research at peer reviewed international Conferences, including the World Congress for Low Back and Pelvic Pain, the World Dance Alliance Global Summit, the International Association of Dance Medicine and Science Conference, The Australian Osteopathic Convention, and twice at the Australian Yoga Therapy Conference. And it is always a great joy.
My formal rigorous Training and Apprenticeship in the Iyengar method of yoga unravels close to two decades; my yoga and movement practice spans five. I’ve been an elite level Ballroom Dancer as a teen; more latterly an Independent Dance Artist as choreographer, artistic director, performer. I am a Photographer these past three and a half decades, imaging the body-landscape. My work is a benediction of communion; our inner and outer terrain.
