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June 4, 2004
Legacy of Feldenkrais lives on
Technique allows people to move with less effort and more awareness.
FARAH NAZARALI SPECIAL TO THE JEWISH BULLETIN
May 6 marked the centenary of Dr. Moshe Feldenkrais's birth. Feldenkrais
was a distinguished physicist, engineer and martial arts expert.
Born in Russia at the turn on the century into a Ukrainian Jewish
family, he developed a unique mind-body method that integrates self-awareness,
learning and movement. His technique has become widely recognized
for its ability to alleviate pain, and to improve flexibility, posture
and self-esteem. Moreover, Feldenkrais wrote seven books on the
Feldenkrais Method, three books on judo and many articles. His enduring
legacy is evidenced by the thousands of Feldenkrais practitioners
around the world and the tens of thousands who take Feldenkrais
classes.
Born at a time of great social and political upheaval, with the
First World War being fought near the town where he was raised,
Feldenkrais joined a pioneering group of enthusiastic young Jews
who, inspired by the Balfour Declaration, were on their way to help
build a Jewish homeland. Around the age of 15, he worked as a laborer
on the sand dunes upon which Tel-Aviv was built. After finishing
his secondary education, he went to Paris, where he studied physics
and engineering, and worked alongside Nobel Laureate Frederic Joliot-Curie
at the famous Curie laboratories. In Paris, he also studied judo
and became the first European to be awarded a black belt by Jiguro
Kano, the founder of modern judo. When the Germans invaded France,
Feldenkrais fled to England, and finally returned to his chosen
homeland in Israel around 1949.
In England and in Israel, Feldenkrais developed the Feldenkrais
Method. After an accident aggravated an old knee injury, he was
told that he would never walk again without surgery, which only
offered a 50 per cent chance of success. Instead, Feldenkrais used
his knowledge of physics, engineering and martial arts, and his
observations of how children moved, to experiment with his own body.
After several months of exploring various gentle body movements,
he regained full use of his knees and began teaching his technique
to friends.
The Feldenkrais Method is a sophisticated and unique form of somatic
education. Feldenkrais observed children in his wife's pediatric
practice and saw the fluidity with which children move. He noted
that adults lose some of that grace, ease and fluidity. As we get
older, we develop patterns of movement that become deeply embedded
in our nervous system. The Feldenkrais Method uses gentle, non-habitual
movements and guided questions designed to make us aware of patterns,
and to allow for the nervous system to learn new, more efficient
and comfortable movements. In classes, students practise movements
characteristic of children so that our brains can go back to the
stage when we were first learning how to move. Feldenkrais believed
that it is possible at any time, "to re-wire yourself."
The method in action
I approached my first awareness through movement class with a mixture
of curiosity and interest. Before class, I was told that, with the
Feldenkrais Method, less is more. There is no right or wrong way
to move and the slower you move, the more you are aware of how you
are moving. Feldenkrais practitioners create a safe environment
for learning to occur. Feldenkrais believed that "learning
must be pleasurable and it must be easy – what is learnt otherwise
rarely becomes habitually spontaneous."
In a typical class, students will practise bending, moving, twisting,
walking and other movements in a slow and relaxed manner. As we
move, the Feldenkrais practitioner asks questions designed to engage
our minds so that we think about the way we are moving and how these
movements make us feel. As we explore the movements, we begin to
notice habitual patterns and develop new ones. At the end of class,
students often feel and move differently. They stand taller, walk
with more ease and fluidity, and feel relaxed and fresh. With ongoing
classes, students report that daily tasks involving reaching, sitting
or bending become easier. Although I only attended two classes,
I myself noticed a difference in my posture – in sitting, standing
and walking. Sitting and standing tall have become more effortless.
Israel's first Prime Minister, David Ben-Gurion, a student of the
method, predicted that, "the Feldenkrais Method will be a great
benefit to all of humanity." Bernard Lake, an Australian MD
said, "the system developed by Dr. Feldenkrais has as much
potential for understanding the mind-body relationship as Einstein's
general theory of relativity had for physics." The Feldenkrais
Method has been practised by Yo Yo Ma, the late Yehudi Menuhin and
dozens of other celebrated musicians, athletes and professional
dancers.
Vancouver boasts more than 10 guild-certified Feldenkrais practitioners,
one of whom, Vita Kolodny, offers classes at the Jewish Community
Centre of Greater Vancouver (JCC), as well as in her studio. Kolodny
became interested in the method after she saw a dramatic improvement
in her husband, who attended awareness through movement classes
and several functional integration sessions after a serious back
injury. Her husband, a medical doctor, is now training to become
a Feldenkrais practitioner. Profoundly inspired by his life and
work, Kolodny, her husband and practitioners in Vancouver and Victoria
(where there are approximately eight) hope more people will experience
the Feldenkrais Method and learn for themselves their potential
to move with greater ease, comfort and awareness. Kolodny invites
anyone who's interested to attend future classes at the JCC, or
at her studio.
For more information on the Feldenkrais Method, call 604-263-1321.
A list of Feldenkrais practitioners is available online at www.Feldenkrais.com.
Farah Nazarali is a freelance writer who specializes in
articles about health. She can be reached at [email protected].
She thanks David Kaetz, a Feldenkrais practitioner in Victoria,
for biographical information. Kaetz is currently working on a book
that looks at the cultural and spiritual background of Dr. Moshe
Feldenkrais and his method.
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