Moving Towards An Ageless Body

Picture thisa woman in a red bodysuit, back arched on a narrow perch. A bar holds the base of her neck, a seat holds the small of her back as her body, well-toned, flexible with full musculature, secures itself onto the perch. Her left leg, straight and taut, is held high off the ground by powerful back and thigh muscles. Her hair, thick and dark, swoops towards the floor, revealing a strong, firm neck. Nothing in the pose, skin or face belies her age. She is 69.

Meet Emilie Conrad, the woman with the Ageless Body. Founder of the Continuum Movement, Emilie has been tapping into the body’s wisdom since her early years. Even as a child, she had a strong intuition that life was imbued with a unifying spirit. A fortuitous visit to Haiti confirmed her intuition; enchanted by the undulating movements of the Haitian prayer rituals, she sensed its power to connect the human body to a primal fluid rhythm. She saw the earth speaking through the feet of the prayer ritual dancers.

Haiti was an epiphany for Emilie Conrad; it showed her the vast discrepancy between western culture and the thick, aqueous, molasses culture that has its roots in Africa. Western culture abhors the body’, says Conrad. Body wisdom is ignored in favor of more repetitive, mechanical and dissociated movement that is characteristic not only of our western concept of fitness, but also of the boxed-in, 9-5 routines of our society. The body in the western world is controlled, bound to an agenda.

More at Ageless Body.