Honing in on Limon.

The studio is boisterous with piano and singing. The dancers are swept up in suspensions, then suddenly falling, exhaling, and rushing into undercurving runs. They take another breath, another turn, a momentary pause, and then plunge through the space. The Limon technique class is ending with a sequence combining the various principles the class worked on that day. The students are throwing themselves into mastering it, and many now feel a new freedom and musicality in their movement. The next group surges across the floor, and the next. Sweat flies. Everyone is smiling.

How can such a thing as Limon technique exist when every teacher offers different material? While it was never codified into a specific movement series, it is based on the principles of weight, succession, and breath. "This exploring ... aims at giving the student full kinesthetic equipment, so that, realizing the almost infinite possibilities latent in the body, he may view his art creatively and not dogmatically," wrote Limon in describing his approach to classwork. The dancer is an expressive being, who with the "most miraculous of instruments, the human body, makes you see yourself with new awareness."

EMERGENCE Jose Limon moved from his native Mexico to the United States at age 7. As a child in California, he had talent in both art and music, but eventually he decided to study painting in New York City. His life changed dramatically after he saw a dance concert given by the German dancer Harald Kreutzberg and realized that dance was his true destiny. He attended classes at the newly established school of Doris Humphrey and Charles Weidman. When Limon began to teach his own classes, he naturally integrated Humphrey's principle of "fall and recovery" and Weidman's floor isolations. The pull of gravity on the body, the effort involved in rising, the way that the breath informs movement all derive from Humphrey-Weidman.

RELEVANCE Yet the technique is not merely exploration of principles. As Risa Steinberg, who teaches at Juilliard and the Limon School, says, "Limon training will align the body and tune it to a high level of articulate communication."

By integrating an active use of breath and gravity, the technique prepares a well-tuned body that is responsive to various movement styles. Limon Institute school director Alan Danielson puts a particular emphasis on its application to contemporary choreography: "By allowing them to move with efficiency and abandon, Limon technique provides dancers with the tools they need for today's demanding and everchanging choreography."

ASPECTS OF THE TECHNIQUE A typical class includes: Attention to alignment and core strength throughout the class.

Bending, swinging, and head rolls, to warm up and articulate all the joints and muscles.

Plies, brushes, extensions, rotations, and kicks with the lower legs coordinated with arm gestures and torso articulations.

An observable use of the breath, involving falling and suspending.

Side bends, arching chests, off-balance tilts, lunges, suspensions, and turns on all levels.

Traveling across the floor with weight dropping and rising in undercurves to achieve flow.

Specific sequences such as the "pumpkin," a series of side bends and space carvings (with the imagery of embracing a large pumpkin and scooping out the seeds) that eventually adds leg gestures, locomotion, and turns.

Extended movement phrases that cover space, involving the full body, with elevation, turns, and falls.

Excerpts from repertoire by Limon and Humphrey, as well as choreography by the teacher.

Complex rhythmic sequences, contrasts in dynamics, and musical understanding are a constant focus in every class. "Limon must be sung first inside the body," says Anne Marki, a current student in the Professional Studies Program in New York. "For me, it makes the body understand what we want it to do. Or as Carla Maxwell, artistic director of the Limon Dance Company, says, 'If you have the rhythm, you already have the exercise.' "

Many of today's Limon master teachers performed with the Limon Dance Company when he was still alive. Some now incorporate other disciplines into their classes. Betty Jones early on began to integrate her work in ideokinesis with Lulu Sweigard. Laura Glenn combines Laban principles and Bartenieff Fundamentals in her classes at The Juilliard School. Jennifer Scanlon brings principles from Alexander Technique to her classes at Boston Conservatory. She exhorts students to "Go beyond technique. I don't want you to all look alike. Find the courage and the imagination to really mean what you're dancing."

Since the technique puts so much emphasis on individual expression, Limon students don't just learn through their eyes, but from within themselves. They respect the actual weight and mass of their own bodies, and the rhythms of their breath. They cannot be browbeaten into learning from within--anxiety only tightens muscles, constricts breathing, lifts shoulders, and interferes with flow. Self-assurance allows a releasing of held muscles, an expansion of breathing. Only with confidence can they find a willingness to sail into space while off-balance or to occupy the space around them. So any Limon teacher must first create an environment of trust.

Valuing the physicality of each individual, the technique engenders self-awareness and acceptance. Limon's legacy is more profound than the materials the teachers use; they communicate with language and metaphor, intuition and imagination, insight and example. They are teaching people first of all, and Limon technique is the vehicle. See www.limon.org.

Ann Vachon studied and performed with Jose Limon from 1955 until his death in 1972. She is the director of the Limon Institute and producer of the documentary film Limon: A Life Beyond Words.