Loraine Corfield

My interest in the body began from meditation and spiritual practice. It became obvious that the balancing of mind, body and emotions required an alignment of the physical body. This could occasionally occur when meditating, but I had no idea how to find this in a more active state. I had a hip problem as a young child and that had left me with a torqued pelvis and slight scoliosis, and the awareness of this limitation also became much more obvious as I struggled to maintain an upright posture. Having participated in a few Feldenkrais classes that supported an awareness of how the body moves, I was searching for help in understanding my body and how to work with its limitations.

Then one day I saw a flyer that advertised a psoas workshop given by Nancy Topf, who was a dancer and had studied with Barbara Clark. I attended her workshop and became a student, exploring hands-on work with her, as well as attending her dance classes. I had always wanted to learn more about the body’s structure and her approach to exploring what she called “selective anatomy” was my way into this complicated human body. We mostly studied the bones, along with a few important muscles. Nancy developed a series of weekend workshops where we would study one aspect of the bony structure, such as the ribcage or pelvis or skull or shoulders, touching the skeleton, looking at pictures, moving on the floor, touching a partner’s body and improvising. I also read The Thinking Body, which I found could be followed with the support of what I was learning in Nancy’s classes.

A lot of time in dance class was spent on the floor. A safe place to be for those of us who had a dubious relationship with gravity. And there was a form to follow, almost a ritual—movements that began over time to act on the body, teach it, speak to it, in a language it could understand. And within that structure there was time to explore and play with the body. I was looking for my body and over the years, my search became more informed, more enlightened and enlivened.

Since I was a documentary filmmaker, after years of benefiting from this work, I became interested in making a documentary about Mabel Todd. It was then that I extended my study, finding Andre Bernard who taught dancers at NYU and had studied with Barbara Clark and Sally Swift who studied directly with Mabel Todd as a young child and taken that knowledge into developing Centered Riding for equestrians. Since this was a labor of love, I didn’t have any funding, but was clear I wanted to make it educational, as well as honoring Mabel’s work. Nancy saw a final rough cut before she was killed in a plane crash on her way to Switzerland to give a workshop and gave me her blessing. After she died, I finished the documentary. I recently posted “The Thinking Body: The Legacy of Mabel Todd” on YouTube. The link for it is: https://youtu.be/3vQ98_u7cg4

– Loraine Corfield (2024)

The Thinking Body: The Legacy of Mabel Todd Explained

The Thinking Body: The Legacy of Mabel Todd Explained. Videographer: Loraine Corfield. Cover Art: Kari Lindstrom.

Bibliography for Loraine Corfield

Corfield, L. The Thinking Body: The Legacy of Mabel Todd Explained. Videotape. Piermont, NY: Teachers’ Video Workshop, 2000. www.dancehorizons.com or Teachers’ Video Workshop P.O. Box 425 Piermont, NY 10968, Tel: (914) 359-6224.