Theme descriptions for all weekly classes

“CONNECTING THE LIMBS THROUGH THE MIDDLE”
- Mondays 7.30-8. 30pm (UK)
ONLINE
- Tuesdays 7.45 - 8.45pm at The Haelan Centre, London, N8

"THE ROLE OF THE HIPS"
Wednesdays 10-11am (UK)
ONLINE

"BALANCE AND SUPPORT"
Fridays: 1.30-2.30pm
The Crouch End Fitness Centre, London N8

WINTER/SPRING 2026

These on-going weekly classes are stand-alone so that you can drop-in as you wish and start in any week. If you are able to come regularly you will get a more complete picture. All the themes overlap and interweave, so coming on different days works too.

THE OVERALL THEME FOR ALL CLASSES THIS TERM IS: 'EASE AND POWER'
How can we find power without pushing and wasting effort, and an ease of movement that facilitates power and strength?

In each series of lessons this term we will address how we put our movement together, exploring and improving the fundamental habitual ways we tend to use ourselves, or get in our own way!

We will discover more approaches to reduce unneccessary difficulty and strain and find clearer movement pathways that use our whole selves to move with less effort and more clarity of intent.

Power and ease comes partly through a dynamic connection of arms and legs through the middle. It is not just the contractile power of individual muscles, but the clear and appropriately orchestrated use of our whole selves that enables healthy functioning and can generate power. In sport it might be called 'good form', but specific techniques have to lean on our more fundamental abilities to sense and use ourselves habitually in an integrated manner. In everyday movement we might call this agility, ease or grace.
We will explore from the middle to the peripherery and the periphery to the middle in many varied ways.

I chose the general term of 'hips' so we can include the agility of the hip joints as well as the central role of the whole pelvis in movement that is easy and powerful.

Power and ease in this context is less about doing the splits or shaping your behind, and more about finding upright without stressing your lower back; moving up and down easily and elegantly; finding your 'engine', and transmitting force.

It will depend on who comes as to how this class shapes up, but there are many ways we can explore.

Balance is fundamental to the simplest things we do. But when it is challenged we can start to use many parts of ourselves to stay upright that should really be used for other functions, reducing our ability to move and act efficiently, powerfully or with any ease.

There is no one universally 'correct' balanced posture; once we start to move, all the relationships between parts of ourselves have to change to maintain balance, like an ever-shifting constellation. So discovering how we find and use our base of support dynamically and in many situations is the essence.