Home

SFEROLOGICO
School of Movement

For many years, people have sought a vision of a sacred and unified existence. Our way of life, in this world, derives from our being able to feel and understand the harmony between different ways of knowing. This is why many Westerners have searched, in the Eastern disciplines and philosophies, for a harmony of path and growth. For us, this has been a personal search that started with the practice and the study of Martial Arts, Karate, and Indian Yoga, then reached back to the ancient Chinese physical disciplines of Tai Chi Chuan and Qi Gong, with their grace, harmony and rhythm, and finally to the Tibetan-Nepalese dances, with their sacred rituals – all of these gestures of purification and self-realisation practiced for millennia by people seeking to rediscover their divine roots.

The natural instinct for movement has guided us down a path of listening to the body, and of working on it through many disciplines and Martial Arts. This combination of forms and exercises has allowed us to discover soft and synchronised movements of true strength, movements that flow like a dance, one into another, in continuity. Each is different, with its own characteristics, but each is always accompanied by the dance of breathing, which is rhythm, poetry and movement for the soul. This continuous search for new similarities and diversities to be used in training, together with an interest in new forms of expression from other countries and traditions, has made us into a laboratory for transformation, and for the discovery of new potential for the human body.

We’ve tried to look at movement from a new perspective, considering not only the physical, but also the mental aspects – how we sense and perceive movement in space. “Sferologico” is the name we have chosen for our school, because we believe in the logic of the sphere, the circularity of movement, and in the principle that all movement has an origin from which it departs, and to which it returns, more fluid, after a process of purification.

As Leonardo Da Vinci said: “Reality is made of circumferences, but we see only straight lines”. The exercises we propose are taken from different disciplines and Martial Arts, and are based on stretching and lengthening the muscles in order to correct posture, and to re-establish equilibrium and symmetry. These are followed by progressively more complex exercises, to be performed with diverse rhythms, with increasing concentration, involving both mind and body.

Through practice, we can discover the extraordinary objectives the body can reach when trained in a natural way, in harmony with the mind. Practice helps us to regain control of the body and to tune in to the natural rhythms and the coordination of movement. These exercises don’t simply reinforce individual muscles, but benefit the whole body; this is why they require attention and concentration, because only exercising with awareness can lead to correct posture with equilibrium.

“Good-looking and endowed with an exceptional physique, he seems the model for human perfection” - this is what Goethe said about Leonardo Da Vinci. With few exceptions, the great geniuses of history demonstrated great energy and physical capacities; in Leonardo, his extraordinary physical virtues combined with unparalleled intellectual and artistic gifts. Vasari exalted “the beauty of his body, not praised enough” and “the infinite grace in any of his actions”. Leonardo himself said: “Human beings should assume responsibility for their own health and well-being”. A vegetarian - and a skilled cook - Leonardo believed that a rational diet was a big part of the way to health and wellness. Among the citizens of Firenze, Leonardo was renowned for his bearing, elegance, and athletic gifts.

Good bearing, balance and grace – and how to achieve them – were also the subjects studied by another genius, F. Matthias Alexander. Born in Tasmania, he invented a method in 1869 that helped to stretch the body. Alexander was a Shakespearian actor and his Alexander Technique gave him the opportunity to obtain full control of his own voice, and he became famous for the quality of his vocal placement, his breathing, and his appearance on stage.

Gandhi always took care over what he ate. He walked a lot to keep fit, and to prepare himself for his non-violent initiatives, which required a healthy body and a calm and alert mind. Gandhi valued nature and simplicity. He believed that body, mind, and spirit could be maintained in good health with the observation of some simple rules which he himself followed. Over the years he established a Centre of Nature Cure where he carried out his experiments on health and hygiene, always providing a service to the poor. He believed that the body was a marvellous and perfect machine, and that when it was out of order, it could recover without the help of medicines, so long as it was given the opportunity to re-establish itself.

The same was true for Nelson Mandela, lawyer and boxer. During his 27 years as a political prisoner in the maximum-security prison on Robben Island, South Africa, he never lost control, thanks to the physical regime which he followed early every morning. His exercises kept him fit, kept him in contact with his own body, and helped him to calm his mind and reach clarity of thought.

It is worthwhile to reflect on these great human beings, and on the immense creativity that allowed them to look at the world in a new and systematic way. They did not discriminate between good and bad, better or worse, but instead learned to link diverse elements together in order to form new structures, and to propose new solutions eventually recognised by the entire world.

We believe there is a profound relationship between movement and the psyche. And we have observed that a gradual internal evolution usually accompanies physical changes in the structure and use of our bodies. By changing our habits of movement, or even simply by adjusting our posture, we can create positive changes in our own being.

This is the goal of “SFEROLOGICO” – and we welcome your participation.

 Top