Leaning into life with somatic sensitivity: Lessons learned from world-class experts of partnered practices

Abstract

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.