I loved this book at the start. 

I recognized and resonated immediately in the distinction of Wendy Arbuckle‘s work and practice….freedom, flow, whole-body fluidity, fascia-releasing-movement; her embrace, reference and application of differing movement modalities as opposed to the rigor, confinement, and hard-rule focus of a single, particular practice or method of movement.

Her Pilates mentors and teachers (all elders; Grant, Bowen, San Miguel and Fletcher) are a distinctive set of genius movers whose teaching, style and practice always seemed to me, uniquely blended and always a tad outside the “lines and structures” of Joe, Romana and “Contrology.” I was, once again, at home with the freedom evoked in her words, thoughts, phrasing, examples and tools.

I thoroughly loved the genius design of inserting QR codes at the end of each of the seven chapters to numerous video clips for further exploration of the content. I saved them all to a playlist with the intention of returning for practice.

One such clip in Chapter 1, for example,led me immediately to purchase the Arcus bar from McEntire Pilates. It wasn’t even being used; simply visible on the Cadillac.  OMG! A curvilinear rollback bar! It spoke loudly to me. She responded immediately to my DM inquiry about its source. 

My studio is filled with a wide array of movement tools; many of which have nothing to do with Pilates, yet everything to do with movement that I lovingly call “toys” and the Arcus bar is now a part of my “tool toy chest”.

The book found me by way of a teacher/colleague’s post about it. Her name “clicked” as a result of another teacher/friend/mentor (Clare Dunphy-Hemani) who referenced Wendy with a movement she learned from her and used in a session (prone single leg hip opener/release).

All at a time when my right hip required more of my attention than had ever been necessary before.  I knew in my gut that it was fascia that was stuck or rigidly tightened. This was at a time when I began exploring using vibrational tuning forks and re-energized my ‘self-massage’ practice with Yamuna Zake’s Body Rolling for myofascial release.  

Wendy states, she was

“inspired to write Moving Beyond Core to expand what we think of movement to include a whole-person way of being. This way of being invites us to sense Core as Relationship, a relationship with gravity, with ourselves, with one another, and with our living (natural and social) environment.”

Having had the privilege of working with Blossom Leilani Crawford (in particular) as well as several of Kathy Grant’s students, I recognized and could feel Grant’s influence in Wendy’s playful exploration through the book and embodied work in the videos.

Wendy’s conscious choice of using “props as tools for change and transformation,” such as ankle weights, stretch band, balls, non linear tools like the Arcus bar, etc., are all consistent with her stated goal of “planting seeds of inspiration in working with clients or mentoring teachers….. to move beyond just doing exercise to find an enlivening, energizing conversation with our bodies.”

Thus, I found the book, its message of unique shape-shifting biointelligence, whole body biotensegrity and all the accompanying video support as a gift and hug from Wendy that no serious movement teacher should pass up.