Integrating Human Structure
The Recipe is the culmination of Dr. Rolf’s
lifetime work and is structured as a ten-session sequence of fascial manipulation
and movement re-education. The Recipe is not a technique. It is a process of
understanding and implementing structural balance through the body’s fascial
connections and their relationship around a vertical line within the gravity
field. Students gain a great deal of wisdom about the human structure when they
meet the challenge of applying the Recipe to an individual body. At this point,
Structural Integration becomes an art.
The Rolf Lineage
At the Institute for
Structural Integration we believe that Ida Rolf’s teachings convey a great
deal of wisdom about the body that can only be fully understood and appreciated
through the experience of her Lineage. Ida Rolf had a gift – with her
hands and her vision – and that gift was expressed and transmitted through
her Structural Integration work to some of her students. We feel it is imperative
that students of Structural Integration receive this vital transmission from
a teacher who also possesses those gifts. Like links in a chain, the essential
vitality of her teachings is passed on from one generation of Structural Integration
teachers to the next. At the Institute, we honor and respect Dr. Rolf’s
search, sacrifice and commitment that made Structural Integration available
to us today. The Institute seeks to ensure that her lineage remains intact,
and that each student becomes part of this living lineage.
The Rolf Line
Among
Dr. Rolf’s many contributions to humanity, the most important was that
of organizing the human structure around a vertical line within the earth’s
gravity field. This gravity line is the balance point of the tensional forces
in the body. Known as the Rolf Line it is a “lived experience” which
belongs to all human beings. It is our divine birthright – a potent metaphor
of profound somatic and spiritual truth – that our bodies yearn to feel.
The awakening of the Line is no less than a transcendental initiatory experience.
To embody one’s Line ultimately unveils one’s individual gifts,
and the realization of how to share them in the world.
