Backward Movements

What do I mean "Backward Movements" and what is the Dance of Shiva anyway? Well, it's like this...

Change Plane Movements Forwards Backwards Transquarter
Backward Movements in the Horizontal Plane	Horizontal Plane

Position 1	Backwards, 1 to 4	Position 4
Position 4	Backwards, 4 to 3	Backwards, 4 to 3	Position 3
Position 3	Backwards, 3 to 2	Backwards, 3 to 2	Position 2
Position 2	Backwards, 2 to 1	Position 1

Change Plane Movements Forwards Backwards Transquarter
Backward Movements in the Vertical Plane	Vertical Plane

Position A	Backwards, A to D	Backwards, A to D	Position D
Position D	Backwards, D to C	Backwards, D to C	Position C
Position C	Backwards, C to B	Backwards, C to B	Position B
Position B	Backwards, B to A	Position A

An Explanation

Dance of Shiva isn't so much a dance as it is a set of "Conscious Movement" exercises. We do these movements with our mind and our body at the same time. In other words, we are aware of what our body is doing. Or at least that is what these exercises are for, to help us become aware of what we are doing. These exercises are also a way of helping us to become aware of what we can do. We learn to see what is possible instead of looking at why something is not possible.

This post shows one of the 8 basic movements of the Dance of Shiva. A movement takes the arm from one arm position to another arm position without going through any of the other positions along the way. It's the "direct route" that connects any two arm positions.

What are the positions? Well in the Dance of Shiva there are 8 Positions for each arm. There are 4 positions where the palm is held horizontal and 4 with the palm vertical and facing outwards. So there are 8 positions in all for each arm. Using both arms there are 64 but we'll get more into that later.

Part of the goal of the Dance of Shiva is to learn how to connect a point with all of the other points. So with 8 positions there are 8 other positions to go to (including itself) and so that means 8 basic movements. The Backwards Movement is one of those movements.

The Backward movement takes the arm from Position 1 to Position 4. Another Backward movement takes the arm from Position 4 to Position 3 and so on. The same movements in the Vertical Plane take the arm from Position A to Position D and from D to Position C etc.

If you look at the pictures above, each row of pictures represents one Backward Movement. There are four Backward movements in the Horizontal Plane and four in the Vertical Plane. So there are 8 backward movements in all.

Backward Movements in the Horizontal Plane
Backward Movements in the Vertical Plane