Academic literature on the topic 'Acroyoga'

Partnered practices reveal somatic insights into leaning-in and prompt us to consider how we can move responsively and interactively with others. Particular experiences of relational leaning are described through a motion-sensing phenomenological approach framed by the authors’ Interactive Function2Flow model of somatic education. With sensitivity to movement function, form, feeling and flow, this relational leaning is explored through the slow and controlled balances of acroyoga, the gentle forward and backwards lunges of push hands tai chi, the fast paced, rhythmical walking of salsa dance, and the effervescent gait transitions of equestrian arts. We consider the act of leaning-in and the relational awareness of each partnered practice in terms of the life lessons of connecting with a partner, responding to conflict with composure, giving less or more of oneself in a given situation and, in so doing, moving with enhanced motion-sensitivity into a state of interactive flow.

The overarching purpose of the InterActive for Life (IA4L) project is to mobilize relational knowledge of partnered movement practices for physical education practitioners. Through a participatory, motion-sensing phenomenological methodology, relational knowledge gleaned from world class experts in salsa dance, equestrian arts, push hands Tai Chi and acroyoga, and analyzed through the Function2Flow conceptual model, was shared with Physical Education Teacher Education (PETE) students. They, in turn, made sense of the ways these experts cultivate relational connections through a process of designing interactive games suitable for physical education curricula. The kinetic, kinesthetic, affective and energetic dynamics of these games were then shared through professional development workshops, mentoring, and open-access resources. Each phase of the IA4L project invites us to depart from the predominance of individualistic ways of conceiving and teaching movement and instead explore what it means to be attuned to the pulse of life as we break away from tendencies to objectify movement as something our bodies do or that is done to them. Consideration is given to the ways in which meaningful relational connections are formed in and through movement and how this learning prioritizes the InterActive Functions, Forms, Feelings and Flows of moving purposefully, playfully and expressively with others. In so doing, what this research offers is an understanding of how knowledge of an essentially motion-sensitive kind, which can breathe life into physical education curricula, can be actively and interactively mobilized.