Continuum Movement

Continuum Movement explores our capacity to participate in our health and well being, using sensation, breath, sound, and movement for both subtle and dynamic explorations.

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This form of somatic education, developed by Emilie Conrad-Da'oud, author of Life on Land: The Story of Continuum, starts with the premise that movement is not something we do, it's something we are. Awareness of ourselves as movement begins with becoming more sensitive to our inner world, by exploring breath, sound, and fluidity.

My experience in the two weekend workshops I have taken (one with Emilie; one with her top student Susan Harper) is that's it about exploring all the ways that the body can move, especially the "micromovements" - movements so small that you feel them but they are almost imperceptible to anyone watching.

What's the value? More body awareness. Better and easier movement and balance. There's even evidence, through work that Emilie has done with people with paralysis, that Continuum Movement creates new neural pathways.

Key Elements of Continuum Movement

Breath
All movement begins with breath. The movement or inhibition of breath maintains fixations, compensatory patterns, family history, trauma, and emotional stress. Variations in breathing stimulate a wide range of internal sensations, responses, and movements to enhance healing, growth, and mobility.

"The body is movement because we come from water and we're composed mostly of water. We are wave motions that become stabilized in order to function on this planet."

"We see that a human being is an ongoing process, not a fixed point in time and space. We become finely tuned to ourselves and feel and experience movement that is not muscular; movement that is allowing the unfolding of that movement to make itself present in every aspect of our lives. In this way the boundaries of creativity, spirituality, and healing are never separated. They're really different aspects of the same thing."

- Emilie Conrad-Da'oud in "Continuum: A Movement Practice of Bodies Without Boundaries" by Doris Mosler, The New Times, August 1996.

Sound
Sound is audible breath. Specific sound frequencies engage various systems of the body, releasing areas of stagnation and stress. Using sound with movement increases the agility of both.

Movement
Continuum’s movements are designed specifically to enhance the undulating spirals and circularity of the fluid system, using a full range of non-patterned movement. Movement may be dynamic and full-bodied or subtle micro-movements. Undulating wave motion permeates tissue and opens up sensitivity.

Sensation and Pleasure
Continuum uses sensation as a guide to awaken the body’s mysteries and the life force that feeds and nurtures us. We let go of "doing" and listen carefully to our internal environment.

Emilie Conrad-Da'oud

Emilie was a professional dancer from New York City who moved to Haiti in the late 1950s to study primitive dance. She became choreographer and leader of a Haitian folklore dance company. Melding with the indigenous culture, she began to question the very essence of how our movements relate to our culture versus our biology. She began developing Continuum Movement in the early 1960s as a way to teach a new view of movement.

Find more information at the Continuum Movement Web Site.

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