The History Of Touch Somatics #1
The pioneering work of François Delsarte And Mary Bagot Stack
For years I have explored ways to integrate touch and movement as a therapeutic method. After 50 years of exploring this I came up with a system I call Touch-Somatics.
If you are into Bodywork-Massage, “fitness” or such as yoga, Pilates, or Cross-Fit, then you need to read this essay.
An Introduction to Touch-Somatics
Touch-Somatics is a field within bodywork, exercise therapy and movement studies, that integrates personal growth, Breathwork, and internal physical perception, and structural alignment.
The term Somatics is derived from techniques used in movement therapy to signify approaches based on the soma, or “the body as perceived from within”.
The Origins of Touch-Somatics
Some of my original ideas concerning this work was published in my book Hands on Healing.
https://www.amazon.com/Hands-Healing-Lewis-Harrison/dp/1575663619
Anyone who understands the fundamental principles of holistic healing, also knows that the structural integrity of the body, and how we move can influence exactly what we are thinking. Of course which came first, the movement to the mind, or the mind to the movement? This has come to be known as the “mind-body problem”.
There are many different approaches to addressing what is generally called The Mind-Body Problem. This is the problem of understanding what the relation between the mind and body is, or more precisely, whether mental phenomena are a subset of physical phenomena or vice versa. The umbrella term often used to define many of these techniques is Somatics.
The History and Roots of Somatic Experiencing
The Roots of Somatic Experiencing is heavily influenced by the theories of François Delsarte And Mary Bagot Stack.
François Delsarte
François Alexandre Nicolas Chéri Delsarte (19 November 1811 – 20 July 1871) was a French orator, singer, and coach. Though he achieved some success as a composer, he is chiefly known as a teacher in singing and oratory.
Applied Aesthetics
While studying singing at the Paris Conservatory, he became unsatisfied with what he felt were arbitrary methods for teaching acting. He began to study how humans behaved, moved, and responded to various real-life and emotional situations. By observing people in public places and in real life, he isolated certain patterns of expression, eventually naming his approach the Science of Applied Aesthetics. This consisted of a thorough examination of breathe, voice, and movement dynamics His approach encompassed all of the expressive elements of the human body. His intention was to develop an exact science of the physical expression of emotions, but he passed on prior to achieving his goals.
Delsarte System
Delsarte coached, painters, preachers , singers, classical musicians, composers, orators and actors in the bodily expression of emotions. He felt that it was important for communicators to connect their inner emotional experience through the power of gesture Delsarte isolated, organized, and categorized ideas related to how emotions are expressed physically in the body. Remember, he did this prior to Freud or any of the psychiatric or psychology pioneers.
Delsarte took these various rules, ‘laws’ or ‘principles.’ And organized them into charts and diagrams. Delsarte was a strongly intuitive teacher so though he did not teach systematically he worked through the inspiration of the moment. Sadly, he left behind no publications on his lessons. In the United States, Delsarte's theories were developed into what became known as the (American) Delsarte System.
Delsarte's ideas were influential to the physical culture movement in the late 19th century, which has also been a huge infuence through my work and my studies with Jesse Mercer Gehman ND.
Physical Culture
Physical culture, also known as body culture, is a strength training and health movement that originated during the 19th century in Germany, the UK and the US.
The physical culture movement in the United States during the 19th century owed its origins to several trends and cultural influences.
With increased immigration to the United States, Britain, and Australia, there was a merging of gymnastics, dance and therapeutic movement, especially the work of Ling in Sweden who was integrating gymnastics, therapeutic massage, and hydrotherapy.
As a side note there is now a Museum of Gehman’s work at the University of Texas in Austin, and I have been able to supply them with some of his original papers especially his correspondence with Vincent Collura.
Mary Bagot Stack
Mary Bagot Stack (12 June 1883 – 26 January 1935), known as Mollie Bagot Stack, was the founder of the Women's League of Health & Beauty in 1930. This was he first and most significant mass keep-fit system in the UK.
This has continued as an exercise system into the 21st century.
Stack enrolled in 1907 as a trainee teacher at Mrs. Josef Conn's Institute of Physical Training in London. Conn was among the first to focus on specialization in exercises to promote health.
By1910 Stack moved to Manchester and set up her own private classes as part of a fitness center, She offered large classes for women factory workers, and used her skills therapeutically as she treated private patients.
Development of the Bagot Stack Exercise System
In the 1920s she again began to hold classes, initially for children in her own home. By 1926 she had expanded her Bagot Stack Health School in Holland Park, and was training teachers in her system.
Her system initially involved 12 sequences of exercise designed to train the body in accordance with the seven principles of her System. There were classes children and women dance as well.
She was initially inspired to develop her own exercise system after a short visit to India in India, where she studied hatha yoga and noticed the differences in movement between women wearing restrictive Europeans clothes and women wearing looser Indian clothing. She developed her series of exercises naturally fit ideas developing across Europe at the time. In addition to the vigorous group exercises, her classes were designed to create a sense of community, to the benefit of many benefited recently bereaved women.
Expansion of The Work
One of Bagot Stack’s greatest innovations was to redirect the focus of her classes from small, and private to a larger mass-market approach. By 1930 this had grown her grown her entire organization into a large commercial enterprise.
She renamed it the Women's League of Health and Beauty, and began using the YMCA's Regent Street premises a her base. She created public displays in London that gained great publicity. More centers were opened and by 1932 there were ten locations plus franchised centers all over the UK.
She had taken exercise, fitness, movement education and re-education to a whole new level including elements from calisthenics, dance, remedial movement, slimming, and rhythmical exercise using music.
Her League published its own magazine, Mother and Daughter, from 1933 to 1935 with content on feminist political discussion, pacifism, and general self-improvement. Her book Building the Body Beautiful - The Bagot Stack stretch-and-swing system )published in 1931) was a best-seller.
At the peak of her fame and influence Bagot Stack died in London 26 January 1935, aged 50 after suffering from thyroid cancer.
The Downside in Retrospect
Reflecting the view of even progressive thinkers of the time, the organization, often described as the most popular female physical culture organization in Britain, adapted eugenicist terms and philosophy and saw women as "natural race builders". Their aim was to promote "racial health" through physical exercise.
The organization grew rapidly. By 1934 there were 47,000 members and membership quadrupled to 166,000 in 1937. Over time Bagot Stack’s daughter Prunella, along with others, continued promoting the exercise system. It still exists today (2024) as Britain’s national fitness program "Flexercise".
The Takeaway
My system, Touch-Somatics is built on the work of many important pioneers in massage, dance, martial arts, gymnastics, and natural healing. For centuries there have been many comprehensive and dramatic changes in form and appearance in the many touch and movement methods. I was surprised to learn that no one had ever created a comprehensive historical mapping of this work. Till now. This is a real passion for me, and I look forward to the many surprises that await me as this project unfolds.
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About the author: Lewis Harrison, is a public intellectual and has been mentoring and coaching visionaries, world class athletes, and thought leaders for over half a century. The former host of an NPR affiliated radio show, he is the author of over twenty best-selling books on self-improvement, self-help, personal transformation, and human potential.
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