Bartenieff Fundamentals

Bartenieff Fundamentals are a set of principles for corrective body movement developed by Irmgard Bartenieff, who studied with Rudolph Laban and colleagues in Germany (1925). After coming to the United States in the 1940s and becoming a physical therapist, Bartenieff developed the method in the form of a set of exercises, based on concepts and principles of kinesiological functioning, that can be extended into all types of movement possibilities.

There can be many varieties and expansions of Bartenieff Fundamentals, but a group of movement sequences have become known as the Basic 6. Details can be found in many sources.

Purpose
"Movement rides on the flow of breath" Be aware of "subtle inner shape changes in the cavities (mouth, chest, abdomen) and fine gradations that occur in different configurations of limbs...and subtleties in phrasing"

Purpose
To bring awareness and encouragement to

Purpose
To flex the hip most efficiently with iliopsoas without superficial muscles.
Encourage deep folding in inguinal area during hip flexion.
Awareness of subtle pelvic tilt.
Use hamstrings for grounding in ‘standing’ leg.
Use of reciprocal crossed-extensor-reflex between hamstrings and ilioposas.
Use of breath abdominal ‘hollowing’ to promote iliopsoas initiation.

Purpose
Mobilise forward & backward transfers of weight.
Use of hamstrings to shift pelvis forward from the pelvic floor
Connection between heels and sitz-bones.

Purpose
Mobilise lateral transfers of weight without any twisting or lifting the hip
Use pelvic floor, together with hamstrings, to flex and abduct/adduct at hip.

Purpose
Awareness of the vertical mid-line of the body
Stabilise one half of the body, supporting mobility in the other half.

Purpose
Awareness of lower-body twisting against upper-body
Awareness of pelvic floor and iliopsoas as connecting upper to lower

Purpose
Awareness of arm-shoulder-scapula-latissimus connecting to lower body
Awareness of full 3-dimensional gradated rotation in shoulder joints
Integration of head-eyes with arm movement
Narrowing and widening across sternum

Also known as Developmental Body Organisations, Developmental Movement Patterns and Basic Neurological Patterns.

It describes the Developmental Progression of Neurological Organisation from:

Breath to find your core

The body grows and shrinks as a single undifferentiated mass, as an amoeba, the simplest form of life, the most basic sense of being. The most fundamental movement, lungs and also oxygen in blood flow and saturation of cells (cellular breathing), moves through a rhythm of expanding and condensing. When breath is integrated throughout the body, then all parts of the body will move at least slightly in coordination with the in / out breath rhythm.

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