The Passive Hang Phaon

Julian Disterhoft of Movement Bielefeld (@movementbielefeld) is on the Passive Hang podcast! Julian runs a movement school in Bielefeld, Germany, teaching a generalised practice on many different subjects and aspects of movement. He’s learnt from many of the very best in the field, travelling the world over to seek, practice and research.
A few months back, Julian came to Australia for Juan Rueda’s 9 week intensive program. During that time, he stayed at my house, and we had the joy of going to many trainings together. You can view a video log of our experience going to Praksis together on YouTube. Evenings were filled with discussion on various topics and debriefs from the day. We share some thoughts of that experience in this podcast.
Julian spends a lot of time educating himself, and thinking about education. What does it mean to guide someone in a movement practice? How can I be a better teacher? How can I communicate more effectively? How can I construct an environment preferential for learning? In this podcast we discuss what are some of the key concepts in how Julian tries to guide people towards in order to help people find their own path in a physical practice.   
Julian has been running his school for many years now, and he describes his transformation into becoming confident in your own style of teaching and material. It can be difficult trusting yourself - that you are enough, a challenge I think many people who teach face. His journey is one that I think many will find helpful.
https://xn--juliandisterhft-ltb.de/

Benjamin Byfield @meditativemonkey is on the Passive Hang! Ben is a dear friend of mine, who runs the Meditative Monkey, a Movement Studio based in Central Coast, Australia. You may recognise him from some of the Passive Hang video logs and previous episode #48 - he is a regular accomplice to movement workshops, and we’ve spent many nights discussing movement and beyond.
Ben is considerate, thoughtful and dedicated to the practice and the people he supports. Using the physical practice as a foundation, Ben is committed to guiding others into self-transformation, heavily drawing from the work of the Movement Culture and Gurdjieff’s Fourth Way. The Fourth Way identifies the human centres of the body, intellect and emotions, studying the self through self observation and self remembering. Ben discusses practical tools on how he fuses these teachings into the physical experience he creates at Meditative Monkey.
We cover Ben’s own evolution of physical practice, and how it led to the creation of Meditative Monkey, sharing how he organises classes and content within the class. We have a valuable discussion on how to introduce the movement practice to beginners - particularly around the idea of setting and holding integrity to standards.
Ben’s studio is a must visit if you’re in New South Wales or around Sydney. You can get in touch by sending him a message @meditativemonkey or www.meditativemonkey.com.au
#movement #movementculture #meditativemonkey #thepassivehang

Simon Thakur, founder of Ancestral Movement (@ancestralmovement, www.ancestralmovement.com) is on the Passive Hang! Ancestral Movement is Simon’s life work, practices and studies of human development through the lens of evolutionary biology, anthropology, comparative anatomy, neuroscience and whatever Simon has digested. And Simon has digested a lot! Originally from New Zealand, Simon has spent time all over the world learning different practices not only in the physical realm but also in many others, including, in his own words - “weird fantastic Druid cults”.
Simon runs Ancestral Movement camps, which I attended in April this year. It was a profoundly deep experience which affected my perspective and ability to, actually experience. I felt this sense of wonder of being alive, in a very connected way. Set in a forest beside a river nestled in a valley, with no sound of modern civilisation, we practised for 7 days with no distractions. I was exposed to many subjects, from barefoot walking and running technique to freestyle wrestling to African drumming to elemental contemplation practices. It was wild.
I had many notes from my journal, and in this podcast I ask Simon about some key ideas from the experience - aimed at both his material presented, but also - the way Simon presents - his teaching methodology. Key ideas which I continue referring to, for example are the concepts of “relaxing the mental fist”, and “silk reeling”, and inhabiting the “worm/fish body”.
For anyone interested in embodied practice, Simon is a must to learn from.
Check his material out at @ancestralmovement, www.ancestralmovement.com or on YouTube https://www.youtube.com/user/AncestralMovement - many great video explanations there!
#ancestralmovement #movement #movementculture #thepassivehang

Craig Mallett (@craigmallettdx) features on the Passive Hang podcast! Craig is a teacher based in the Sunshine Coast, Australia. He was originally part of a Canberra community featuring Simon Thakur and Kit Laughlin, associated with past podcast guest Emmet Louis. He is now a teacher and practitioner of the Da Xuan Daoist tradition.
Da Xuan - “The Big Mystery”. It’s in the name - what is all these Chinese internal Martial arts about? I had the chance of attending Craig’s Internal Strength workshop a couple of weeks ago, a fantastic experience which challenged me on different levels. In this conversation Craig gives an introduction into the Da Xuan school, and the key pillars that underline the practice.
Da Xuan is rooted in practice over ideas - something I strongly resonate with. So in this special podcast episode, we not only talk about ideas, so attached at the end is a guided standing practice that Craig has prepared for us.
Craig has many fantastic resources available on his website.
https://craigmallett.com/
Sign up to his community to see: https://community.craigmallett.com/about
Thanks Craig, it was a pleasure to chat and train together!
#movementpractice #thepassivehang #daxuan

David Wilson (@oldscoolmoves) is on the Passive Hang! David is a movement coach, anti-ageism advocate and educator, based in Toronto, Canada. David teaches at @spiritloft and online. David’s challenges our societal narratives around age-ing and what it means to become old.
David used to be an English teacher, before committing himself to physical practice. Letting go of a sedentary lifestyle, David, in spite of his age, has transformed his capabilities beyond what he was able to achieve in his 20s and 30s. He spreads a powerful provocation - to recognise how our coupling of ability and age is misinformed, and in many cases, limiting the potential of what people can do. Age-ing and frailty is not an inevitability. Even so, David is particularly nuanced in his message - avoiding “grey-washing” where we present an over optimistic view of the ageing process. We age, there is a natural decline of some capacities - but just not to the extent that we are led to believe.
In this episode David talks about some of the main limiting narratives that we can recognise as trainers, students and participants of life. We all age, and it’s our responsibility to build a better culture around the ageing process. We don’t have to believe that the best days are only that spent in youth.
David shares many creative ideas on his Instagram page - and we get to discuss how his values of curiosity, compassion and play inform his practice.
A powerful conversation with a person shifting the conversation.
Thanks David for joining the Passive Hang!
 
You can find him on Instagram at @oldscoolmoves or https://sites.google.com/view/david-wilson-movement/home

@stanslavkaza, founder of @movementfreaks is on the Passive Hang! Stanislav is a movement teacher based in Herzeliya, Israel. Stanislav shares his story from wrestling during adolescence, to being exposed to hand balancing from Odelia Goldschmidt, and surprisingly - reluctantly adopting a broader practice, starting first with locomotion and then other subjects via the Ido Portal method. Stanislav has been in this game for over 10 years, and if you dig through his Instagram - you can find clips of his journey from 2012 to 2023 - inspiring for how much the practice can transform you.
Stas has been running Movement Freaks for 8 years, and he has been very specific in how he has built his community. Movement Freaks is actually his second group, after he made the decision to relaunch a group class after his first one didn’t initially fit the vision he was after. You can see this on their page, that there is something different happening - people are engaged very deeply into the practice, but with a big smile on their face. There is a sense of authentic connectedness, not just in the class, but outside of the class - which was purpose designed by Stas.
Stas shares some approaches to improvisation within practice - particularly on the topic of ground floor work, which he is a fantastic practitioner. Surprisingly, Stas doesn’t actually follow a prescribed written program for any of his work - he has a unique intuitive approach of listening to what he needs. It’s worked for him in many areas - as you can see from his level of strength work, handblancing, floor work, environmental practices.
Thanks Stas for connecting with us on the Passive Hang!
Stas teaches in person in Herzeliya, otherwise also offers online coaching.
 
#movementpractice #thepassivehang #movementculture