Movement classes

I learned to move again on the deck of a sailboat, where the ground is never still and the body has to find its centre over and over. My teaching grows from that: three qualities I call wind, water and steel. Wind is the breath. Water is fluid, continuous movement. Steel is the quiet strength of a well-organised structure. The practices below are different doors into the same room.

In osteopathy I don't force a blockage open. I help the deeper flow underneath come back, and the blockage lets go by itself. Movement practice is the same work, done by you. Water organises itself into spirals and waves; the body, mostly water, moves best when it remembers this.

Tai Chi

Tai Chi is a martial art practised slowly enough to feel everything. We stand, shift weight, and let movement spiral up from the feet through the waist into the hands, then string these into short forms. It is one of the most studied movement practices in the world, especially for balance and steadiness. Its deeper gift is quieter: learning to stay soft, rooted and present when life pushes.

For: everyone, any age, no experience needed.

Swimming Dragon

Swimming Dragon is a flowing Taoist form, traditionally practised for long life. The spine undulates like a snake, the hips and hands trace figure-eights, and the whole body moves as one continuous wave, never stopping. It wakes up the spine, frees the breath and massages the belly from the inside. It is my favourite way to start the morning, and the most direct way I know to feel the body as water.

For: anyone who sits a lot, and anyone who wants to feel more supple and awake.

GFP — Gravitational Field Principle

GFP is a somatic practice developed by Bruno Caverna (Formless Arts), my teacher. Its starting point is simple and radical: gravity is not something to brace against all day, but the field that organises and supports us. We practise noticing the small, constant "bracing for impact" most of us carry, letting it go, and learning to fall into the ground instead of fighting it.

Spherical Dimensions is the part of GFP I bring into my classes: a body that can move, yield and receive force in every direction, not only forwards and back. It changes how you walk, how you dance, how you take a hit or a hug. Some workshops also include Play-Fight, Bruno's partner practice drawn from martial arts and dance.

For: dancers, martial artists, movement teachers, and anyone curious about moving with less effort.

Anatomy in Motion (AiM)

Anatomy in Motion™, created by Gary Ward, looks at your body as one complete system. From the moment the heel touches the ground until the toes leave it, seven stages unfold in 0.6 to 0.8 seconds. Gary's Flow Motion Model shows what every joint is doing, in all three dimensions, at each moment: the 52 bones and 66 joints of the feet, and their constantly changing relationship to the rest of the body.

Joints, ligaments and muscles can work together as one team, but injury, trauma and years of restrictive shoes teach them to stop. When the body stiffens to protect an injured part, it has to find that movement somewhere else, and that creates restrictive patterns and often tension elsewhere.

I give you specific whole-body movements to take home, so you can move back into the places you've been avoiding, with a foot that can adapt to any root or rock. Watch how that helps the whole of your body. Human movement is a wonderful thing; let's make yours fluid, unrestricted and effortless.

For: everyone who walks. In private sessions it is woven into the osteopathy; in classes we explore it together.

How classes run

• Small groups, all levels. Comfortable clothes; barefoot or flat shoes.

• On Aegina, outdoors by the sea when the weather allows.

• Weekly group classes on Aegina and in Athens are starting soon; message me to hear first.

• Private lessons (€60 per hour), and workshops for dance and circus studios, retreats and companies, on request.