FELDENKRAIS BLOG


Karate? No. Surely not? Not You, Vic!

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Karate? No. Surely not? Not You, Vic! Is often the response I get, when I finally tell someone I am a student of Go Ju Ryu Karate.  If I had said I was doing T’ai Chi or Chi Gung or even Aikido or Judo there would be less surprise. Sometimes the surprise is because I weigh less than 50kg, am built like a bird and am known for being rather the opposite of confrontational. Continue reading

No, that actor is not on drugs: they’ve just had a Feldenkrais lesson

The wonderful thing about doing an FI (Functional Integration session: hands-on one-to-one) for an actor is that they are usually already half way there. If they are a student they are hungry to learn so they come really ready to learn something. If they are a seasoned professional they probably only come when they are in pain unless they already know the value of this work – but if they are open they simply can’t help learning something more along the way. I defy any truly curious actor not to get interested when they start to feel in vivid detail more of what they are doing and get a sniff of what else they could do as well. Continue reading

Walking With Ease Workshop Jan 27th

There is a lot of emphasis around at the moment on being stronger in a muscular sense. In general if someone comes to see me they tend to say ‘I am not strong enough’, ‘my back  is weak’, ‘my core is weak’ as an explanation for whatever it is they are having difficulty with. We also have a very exercise oriented culture in which things need to be done ‘strongly’ and nothing is any good unless you are using lots of effort and working very hard.

Now I should lay my cards on the table at this point and say there is nothing wrong with exercise and nothing wrong with using lots of effort and working very hard. Continue reading

Feldenkrais, movement and creativity.

Someone recently asked me about the relationship of movement to creativity. She had chosen to write something about it for a course. Interesting question. It has stayed with me for quite a while and there are so many ways you can think about it. Here are a few that came to mind and how Feldenkrais relates to them. Continue reading