Tantsu begins by unconditionally holding someoneÕs whole
body from the back as, loosely clothed, they lie on their side on cushions or
a massage table. We gently clasp shoulder and hip between our forearms, doing
nothing, staying in the emptiness at the bottom of the breath, until our arms
are pushed apart by their breath, a pushing apart that draws our breath up
into every part of our body. We drop back into the emptiness and are drawn up
again and again.
We start with our forearms instead of our hands
which, controlled by the brain, pick apart and interpret whatever they touch.
Our forearms come from our core and, as we learn in Watsu when we float
someone at our heart, our whole core contains both our body center and heart
center. In some places where our arm stops on its way up the back the breath draws us
up from the base of the core to its other center, the heart, where sometimes a movement continues beyond the breath, continues
out our arm to the one we hold. When our arms clasp and rotate the shoulder, engaging our
whole body until everything comes to rest, out of that stillness our hand, now ready to come from our core, is
drawn to their heart center. It stays there while our other hand is drawn to the
head, connecting it to their core. Everything connects and moves and breathes together.
When we let an arm lay across our open hands until it becomes weightless and we
lift and move and stretch it every which way, our breath is drawn higher and
higher. The more our whole body is engaged, the more the movement beyond the
breath draws us to other places. When we move the leg and find the place
where all its weight is balanced, it is the place where our own breath is
grounded. A simple progression from the back can be done on both sides with anybody in Tantsuyoga. In Core Tantsu after it is done on one side someone is rolled into a new position for the second side.
Watch the above. Download the four page Tantsuyoga_instructions.pdf. Print its checklist/chart. Invite two others. Watch this video with them. Show them how to use the checklist/chart when it is their turn to be the guide. Join them in an uninterrupted Flower Round.
Core Tantsu
One of the very first holds of Tantsu is one to which,
after working one side from the back (the Posterior Cradle, the only position used in Tantsuyoga), to work the
other side, we roll someone up between our legs (the Anterior Cradle), and
contain their whole body as we rock and stretch them.
With its unconditional containment and the way we
can lean back and rock someone's back, this is TantsuÕs most powerful position. It is also a position that, because it looks more intimate than it actually is,
is not included
in Tantsuyoga. Whatever misgivings people enter this position with
disappear when they realize how safe they feel in its containment and how
powerful what they receive in it is. A complete form of Core Tantsu is taught in Basic Tantsu. It is also introduced in addition to the Tantsuyoga Path in our Watsu
Tantsu Explore Flow Course. It is also featured in videos, DVDs and the book,
Tantsu a Yoga of the Heart. It is the first step on Tantsu's Professional
and Partner paths.
Tantsuyoga Path
Yoga means union. The Path is one on which we deepen our connection with others and one on which more and more join. In our Tantsuyoga Path workshop, the same time you learn to share a complete Tantsuyoga you learn to teach others two at a time with the Tantsuyoga Flower Rounds.
This path of rounds is also included in Watsu Tantsu Explore Flow in which you also learn the moves of Basic Watsu and the Explorer Path in Water.
Tantsuyoga Flower Round
When asked to present Tantsuyoga at the Milan International Yoga Festival in 2011, Harold developed a two hour round in which three could take turns being the holder, the one held and the guide. The guide sits behind and supports the holderÕs back, something much appreciated by those not used to working on the floor. For the Round Harold has selected seven holds and moves of Tantsuyoga, in each of which we are engaged in a different aspect of union. Their initial thorough presentation and the guideÕs support makes it possible for the holder to go through all seven at their own pace in silence without once opening their eyes and then, in the Round, become the one being held with their eyes still closed. This helps them realize just how internal and deep our connection to others is and to celebrate all the aspects of union, sometimes in movement from within, sometimes in stillness. Every round begins with a celebration of the union of 3 in our Tantsuyoga Flower, a water flower which brings the movement of water onto land.
Extending the Path
At the same time you learn how to share a complete Tantsuyoga with individuals, you learn to teach them, two at a time, through the series of rounds that you learned with. The principle of being not doing that underlies Tantsuyoga can now be realized in the teaching of it. Instead of separating yourself out as a teacher you join them in all three roles in the rounds, being on the path yourself. The number you can reach on that path can be extended by continuing through our program to be registered as a Guide that the public can engage for lessons, a Presenter who introduces the Tantsuyoga Flower Round to groups and a Path Teacher who offers the Rounds in a weekend workshop or in five three hour meetings.
Our goal is a world in which everybody can unconditionally hold each
other.
Order the Tantsu book which has 250 color photos of the holds and moves
of Core, Partner, and
Professional Tantsu
Basic Tantsu can be followed by classes that introduce
additional holds and cradles that can be appropriately combined for each client.
Many of the holds that have proven their value in
almost 30 years of use in professional Tantsu sessions are introduced in our
Tantsu intensives and weekends. Since Watsu originated from Zen Shiatsu,
and Tantsu from Watsu, many of the holds and moves of Tantsu can be combined
with those of Zen Shiatsu in a professional session. New applications of
Tantsu are included in a Somatics educator program:www.tantsutraining.com
Tantsu is a way for those in relationship to
discover how unconditional holding leads to a
physical intimacy that does not always have a goal in mind.
There are some beautiful cradles in which we wrap
around our partner and hold them joyfully or hold them on our lap, our hara
at their base, sharing our energiesÕ deepest connection with no intention.
Tantsu has proven to be of great value to couples in Tantra and other
workshops and therapy. Those who have taken Basic Tantsu can attend our
Partner Tantsu workshop. The spirit and stretches of Tantsu return into the water in Home Spa Watsu.
Watsu®
Every Watsu opens with the progression taught in Basic Watsu. In its first stage we drop into the emptiness at the bottom of the breath and, doing nothing, are drawn up out of it again and again by the buoyancy of the one breathing in our arms.
We continue to be drawn up from the base of our core into moves and stretches that engage more and more of our body until they bring us to a stillness where, in the second stage, movement from another center of our core, the heart, is drawn out through our arms. movement that is not timed to the breath, but is a flow, a continuum that engages more and more of our body until it brings us to the stillness of the third stage where we hold someone far enough out for whatever has been released to be drawn up through their core without our engagement. Then, anchoring their head on our shoulder, the movement of seaweed brings their second side around to us as we sink back into the emptiness where the three stages start again. Like the paths of Tantsuyoga and Core Tantsu, no matter how many times the progression
of Basic Watsu is repeated it is still a path that benefits both giver and receiver. Basic
Watsu can also be the first step on two complementary paths, the Professional and the Explorer:
Watsu Professional Watsu
On this path, practitioners learn to adapt watsu sessions as needed, and realize its full potential with whoever they might have in their arms.
Building upon the three basic stages that begin most sessions and establish connection and trust, in a fourth stage the practitioner draws from all the moves and combinations that he has learned those that both fit the needs of the one in his arms and add to the continuity of the flow that maintains the connection and trust. Sometimes a practitioner who has enough experience ingrained in his body that it knows how to be in a place wherever it is needed will let the flow of the session draw him into Free Flow, a fifth stage, much like the continuum of the second stage, but one in which the whole body is drawn into ever new positions. Today,
in more than 40 countries, Watsu is proving its effectiveness with chronic
pain and a widening range of conditions. It has been welcomed as a primary
modality in Rehabilitation by Aquatic Therapists and is taught in
universities around the world. In addition to the physical benefits derived
from the movements and stretches warm water facilitates, Watsu's power to
reduce stress underlies both its effectiveness with those conditions in which
stress is implicated and its growing popularity among the general public and
its use in spas around the world. Moves, adaptations and information for those practicing Watsu fill the book:
Watsu Explorer Path
Practitioners and students of all levels
meet on this path to explore with the power of three WatsuÕs potential for connection and
creativity.
Each meeting of three on this path has two parts. In the first they meet as an explorer team in which each brings his own theme such as how to use the knee in a session. The other two help him explore all his theme's possible applications and provide feedback as to what feels best. The second part of a meeting on this path is a round in which all receive complete sessions in which the other two take turns extending the opening of Basic Watsu from their side to include in its continuum their own theme and spontanous moves, while the other witnesses. Then they explore how a theme can be applied when one of them supports in a Tandem Watsu and how, before they take someone to the wall together, three become one. The book, Watsu Basic and Explorer Paths, lays out
themes that each can bring to a meeting and ways to develop your own. Both the book and the class, Watsu Tantsu Explore Flow, introduce the format for meetings on the path as well as Tandem Watsu, Tantsuyoga, the Tantsuyoga Path, and Basic Watsu that, in this class is taught through the Explorer Teams and the Rounds. The Registry lists those who, from all levels of Watsu, want to meet on this path which can be done without an instructor in pools as small as those used for single sessions.
Tandem Watsu
The tandem floating
that concludes the rounds on the Explorer Path has evolved into a new form of
Watsu. This newest path in Watsu opens a dimension beyond both bodywork and the traditional ways of
working with energy.
WatsuÕs being with someone, not doing something to
them, and the safety that containment creates reaches new dimensions in
Tandem WatsuÕs total containment. In Zen Shiatsu we learn how stretches release energy. In Free Flow Watsu that released energy moves us around the pool. Having another support someone helps us hold even stronger stretches longer, and, instead of moving us around, when someone is contained, the released energy is freed to
circulate within. There is no attempt to direct it to any part of the body.
There is no massaging of any part, no holding of any point to distract or
divert its flow. Those being held can apply what circulates through their
body to whatever self-healing is needed, or just ride the joy of it which is often the strongest at the very end when everything rises up their spine. Many find 30 minutes between two practitioners is
more profound than 60 minutes with one. It has also become part of a new
Watsu for Two by Three. These new forms are ideal for spas.
