Meeting Cristiam back in 1990 was one of those encounters that, looking back, seems pre-ordained. Basically, there was much work to be done and we simply set about doing it. Life is filled with such miracles and I know I have been greatly blessed in being able to assist in giving physical reality to this most perfect and beautiful vision that is Unity In Motion
Cristiam and I were engaged in other projects relating to Unity In Motion for several years and it was not until 1994 that we began working specifically on “The Movements”. It was time for the physical movement that had emerged from Cristiam’s ever-expanding understanding of balance to take shape in a more structured form.
We entered a new level of putting into words, giving names and describing that which was once formless energy. Like Cristiam those many years before, I became fascinated with the movement and came into an ever deeper appreciation for all the years he had spent making sense of his initial experience and for the love that propelled and keeps propelling him to share it. I began to practice for hours on my own.
I searched for my own way to describe what I was experiencing. I searched for clues that would assist me in finding myself in space. Being a musician, I began seeing the emerging Movements as a musical composition and became aware that they had their own natural rhythm. We began using the metronome while practicing. We became very precise with the beats and wrote them all down. We tracked the body’s ever-changing center of balance as it moves through three-dimensional space (see pages 26-27).
From Cristiam’s innate understanding, the Movements began to flow one after another until five sections emerged and the form was complete. We decided we needed pictures for students to have a clearer sense of the Movements. I took photos of Cristiam, we enlarged the pictures by photocopying them, we traced them and then worked on each drawing in order to get as accurate a depiction of the specific three-dimensional Connection as we possibly could.
The result was a pictorial map of all the Movements first published in 1997 (of which this is a revised edition). During this time we also produced another book, Unity In Motion, The Balanced Nature of Life which is a more detailed explanation of the principles of balanced movement.
At the precise moment we focused our attention on getting the Movements into a teachable form, Nancy McGowan from Pittsburgh and Sandy Holland from Marin County appeared on the scene. They both knew immediately that they wanted to learn the Movements and pass them on. Sandy has continued quietly and steadily with her group up in Northern California.
Nancy, Cristiam and I continue to work together closely developing and refining teaching techniques. Cristiam travels to Pittsburgh regularly to teach and assist Nancy in establishing classes there. Nancy has written many beautiful things about Unity In Motion (for example the chapter entitled “Practice” at the end of this book). She lovingly teaches many classes in Pittsburgh and also leads a special teacher’s training class. There are now teachers of Unity In Motion in the San Francisco/Marin County area and in the Pittsburgh area. And notably, there is Ellen Rennell, a teacher in Los Angeles who was one of Cristiam’s first students more than twenty years ago. Ellen is still an ever-present and vital contributor with her own essential understanding of Unity In Motion.
As we all, students and teachers, continue to expand with experience and awakening awareness, we feel blessed to have Unity In Motion as a connecting thread running through our lives. We share the same feeling of gratefulness and are often heard to exclaim – “What a miracle”.