Strategies for experiencing the dorsal-ventral wave
If you have played with exercises 1 and 2 on the type-specific imagery page , this chart below may give you assistance to kinesthetically experience the stages of the dorsal/ventral wave more clearly and completely. One of the “reduced” images below may help you overcome some difficulties you may be having. The colors are merely for identification of the types with other imagery. Where the creatures have full dorsal segments, imagine them as white (not colored) and fluffy.
In the imagery shown here, there is no need or usefulness to imagine yourself as horizontally four-legged. Merely imagine the shape, texture, and tonal qualities that these caricatures suggest being placed on you body where they coincide… eyes to eyes, forelimbs to arms, hind-limbs to legs, tail to “tail” section, and so forth.
Row 1 shows the four stages of hopping. (When combined with lateral wave impulses, it also shows stages in galloping, which is a combination of the two waves).
Row 2 shows just the “director” segment of the waves. You can concentrate on getting just the director segment imagery in place for the particular “stage” or posture type you want to experiment with. The effect of a well-imagined director segment should carry over automatically to the remainder of the body.
Row 3 suggests that you try concentrating only on the first part of the face and the hind end. This approach, as well, will tend to promote the appropriate tonal patterns in the unimagined or less imagined shaded areas.
Row 4 as an image is comparable to exercise 1 of the type-specific imagery. The missing parts are to be imagined as just that, totally missing. Full dorsal areas are to be felt as dorsally fluffy though firm and “totally present.” Areas that are imagined as “not present” or absent become less firm and seemingly more gentle.
See if this helps in experiencing a pattern that is in all of us… in one form and to some degree. There should be one postural pattern that feels the best to you… since you are definitely “getting outside of yourself” and becoming your “opposite” when in that character.
Good luck.