My journey started in 2017 while studying Japanese Noh Theatre in the UK. Katja Vaghi, a Gyrokinesis® teacher and colleague of mine, upon watching me moving, suggested I would benefit from the method. She then showed me some exercises for me to practise regularly in order to improve my range and quality of movement. At the time I used to have some chronic tensions in my upper back and I was nurturing the desire to explore torsions and spirals as I found them very challenging. The few times I had deliberately ventured into spiralling movements I would encounter resistance, blockages and frustration. That little set of exercises sounded very intriguing to me and resonated straight away as something which could help me and lead me into exploring a completely new territory. Upon Katja’s suggestion I started taking classes with London based Gyrokinesis® Master Trainer Jane Von Bieberstein.

 

Following Jane’s guidance, I began to understand more and more how the body works and how I could re-educate it to move in an intelligent and integrated way. Above all I realised how the tensions and restrictions I had got used to and gradually accepted as a normal condition, were in fact abnormality and totally reversible. I too had the possibility to live in a healthy body and be able to move efficiently, fully and freely. How much pleasure comes with it! and how enormous are the benefits on our mood, our mental health and our ability to open ourselves to the beauty of world. 

 

When I moved to Portugal for a extensive acting job in 2018, I wanted to continue my training and I came across Espaço Equilibrium in Lisbon. There, I took weekly classes in both Gyrokinesis® with Master Trainer Bernardo Ricou Gama and Gyrotonic® with Olivia Secchin. It was a great way to keep working on my body’s dynamic strength and flexibility, qualities which are fundamental for everyone, but especially for an actor. 

 

During the first term of the pandemic in 2020, I seized the opportunity to do classes online with Bernardo. I did up to three sessions a week for 5-6 months which gave me the time to delve even deeper into the method and quickly see the benefits of it. Gyrokinesis® gave me purpose, it kept me sane in the mind, healthy and strong in the body, and made me feel connected and grounded. It boosted my energy and my creativity. It was then that I started to contemplate the idea to become an instructor in order to master the method for myself and to pass it onto others. Among other things, I wanted to use it to help my mother move more healthily and contain the effects of ageing, and to offer actors a powerful insight on movement during my drama workshops and theatre rehearsals. Finally in the fall of 2020 I completed my Level 1 Foundation course at the Espaço Equilibrium in Lisbon, and thus my teaching adventure began. I am forever grateful to Bernardo Ricou Gama, a superb teacher and practitioner, for his generosity in sharing his expertise with me and for masterfully pointing me towards a direction full of potential.

In June 2021, I finally got my certification as Gyrokinesis® instructor from Specialized Master Trainer Lucrezia Caricola at her studio Gyrotonic® Roma. It was a fantastic experience to meet Lucrezia, one of the few people who has been working with Juliu Horvath since he started to share his method in the ‘80s and ‘90s. With her help I got further insight into the design and evolution of many exercises and could focus more on experiencing the sensations rather than remembering the sequences.

 

As a fully fledged trainer I started to teach online to my mother and her friends, a group of elderly citizens in their early seventies. It was a good challenge as I had to attune some of the exercises in order to find a good balance between their body capability and the movement progressions and flow. I could clearly see how beneficial this practice is as it really allows people to get in touch again with their own body, to rejoice of moving and breathing with it and enjoy the effects of lifted energy levels and mood. One of my clients said once: “You know Marco, it might sound trivial, but I don’t have to use toe separators when I apply nail varnish anymore”. It is, in fact, a very meaningful observation: her foot soles started to widen, which improved her stability, gait, posture, and muscle tone, reducing the chances of injury by falling.

In January 2022, I had the luck to book the last available place at the course ‘Gyrokinesis® Application for Children: The Wonders Of The Zoo’ at the studio Gyrotonic® Mestre. The training was conducted by Russian Master Trainer Victoria Savelyeva who has elaborated a wonderful way to present Gyrokinesis® to children through playful imagery and the world of animals. I am very glad I could attend the course as it gave me yet another powerful confirmation that the method really is for everybody, and that there are ways to support children through conscious movement in the delicate phases of their growth.

 

Later in February 2022, I completed the ‘Gyrokinesis® Cardiovascular Breathing Courses – Progressions 1 and 2’ that were offered to the community for the very first time. I travelled to Freiburg in Germany to learn from Specialized Master Trainer Miriam Friedrich Honorio. Miriam’s knowledge is so vast, her understanding deep, and she has a wonderful and effective way to transfer the information to her students and help them experience the sensations in their body. This was also one of the very first times that a specialised course included students teaching to one another as part of its design. The material was powerful and, in a week of training, I felt my whole body opening up, getting energised and enjoying an overall feeling of wellbeing.

 

My intention now is to find a studio in London and start teaching in person in the UK where I am currently based. I want to keep exploring and expanding within the Gyrokinesis® method in the years to come. I sincerely hope I can pay forward all the knowledge and guidance I have received by motivating, inspiring and helping my students feel at home in their own bodies and (re)gain confidence in their ability to move freely. Movement is pleasure.