Ido Portal’s 10-part lecture series

Yesterday concluded Ido Portal‘s 10-part lecture series covering cultural and evolutionary origins of movement, the neurophysiological basis of movement and adaptability, as well as a precious lecture on how to examine things from many perspectives.

Such experiences give us the opportunity to do something which is lost in our time - to ponder and work with concepts, letting the mind wrestle with something that doesn’t yield at first impact, and to do it with guidance and feedback.

And what do we get for this legwork? Cleansing the perspective. It can be elusive to see how a conceptual grasp of the evolution of movement is beneficial to a practice that happens here and now. The “benefit” is all the more magnificent for that subtlety: what is delivered is a Perspective. It’s changing the water in the fish tank for the fish, who doesn’t even realize that they’re in a fish tank, or that they are surrounded by water. What gets affected when you change the water? EVERYTHING gets affected.

“The important thing isn’t can you read music, it’s can you hear it.”

How do I feel when studying such things? It feeds the machine of awe, gratitude, and humility - when you are studying movement and the body from a specific lens, from the lens of life, evolution, adaptation… there is something downright mystical that brings the goosebumps.

Several of us are participated in Ido’s lecture series - we met and will continue to meet and discuss what we took away from these lectures.