Experience the Feldenkrais Method in Portland Oregon this summer! Coming to Our Senses, the 2007 Feldenkrais Method Annual Conference, offers public workshops and free Awareness Through Movement® classes — July 28–August 3, 2007.

About the Feldenkrais Method®

The Feldenkrais Method is for anyone who wants to reconnect with their natural abilities to move, think and feel. Whether you want to be more comfortable sitting at your computer, playing with your children and grandchildren, or performing a favorite pastime, these gentle lessons can improve your overall well being. Read more about the Feldenkrais Method.

More about the Feldenkrais Method®

Learning to move with less effort makes daily life easier. Because the Feldenkrais Method focuses on the relationship between movement and thought, increased mental awareness and creativity accompany physical improvements. Everyone, from athletes and artists to administrators and attorneys, can benefit from the Feldenkrais Method.

We improve our well being when we learn to fully use ourselves. Our intelligence depends upon the opportunity we take to experience and learn on our own. This self learning leads to full, dynamic living. Ordinarily, we learn just enough to function. For example, we learn to use our hands well enough to eat, our legs well enough to walk. Our abilities to function with a greater range of ease and skill, however, remain to be developed. The Feldenkrais Method teaches—through movement— how we can improve our capabilities to function in our daily lives.

The Feldenkrais Method was named after its originator, Dr. Moshe Feldenkrais, who was a physicist, judo expert, mechanical engineer, and educator. His books as well as other Feldenkrais Method educational materials, will be available for sale during the Portland conference in the Feldenkrais Educational Foundation of North America (FEFNA) bookstore located within Gray Campus Center on the Reed College Campus. For a catalog of products visit www.feldenkrais.com/shop.

Free Awareness Through Movement® Classes:

Every morning, Monday-Friday July 30- August 3, 8:30-9:45am, choose from six different classes. Classes are organized by theme so that you can focus your learning over the course of the week. If you prefer, mix and match for a diverse sampling throughout the week. Some of the themes include:

1. Going Back to Basics: Lessons from the book Awareness Through Movement by Moshe Feldenkrais.
2. Senses, Sensing, Sensation: Experience our world fully by integrating our senses.
3. Hands in Motion: We continually use our hands in daily tasks and self-expression, often paying them little attention. In these classes we explore the unique and expressive ways we use our hands. Study the intricacies of hands in motion. Experience how your hands connect to and express yourself.

How to participate in a FREE Awareness Through Movement Class
Free events do not require pre-registration. Please arrive early, park in the west lot (enter from SE 28th) and walk toward the Gray Campus Center (GCC). Look for signage.

More About Awareness Through Movement Lessons
Read more about what happens in an Awareness Through Movement lesson?

How do you learn in an Awareness Through Movement Lesson?

• Using slow, gentle movement and directing students to move within the limits of safety by avoiding pain and strain.
• Orienting to the process of learning and doing rather than working towards a goal.
• Directing awareness toward sensing differences and perceiving whole inter-connected patterns in movement.
• Allowing the student to find his/her own way with a lesson.

Free Evening Presentations:

Free events do not require pre-registration. Please arrive early, park in the west lot (enter from SE 28th) and walk toward the Gray Campus Center (GCC). Look for signage.

SUNDAY, JULY 29 ~ 7PM

Making Connections: Hasidic Roots and Resonance in the Work of Moshe Pinchas Feldenkrais

David Kaetz takes us to Moshe’s intellectual and spiritual roots, with words, music and humor, with Hasidic stories, with archival video, photos and maps. David reveals the red thread of paradoxical thinking that was carried by an ancient lineage right through to the Feldenkrais Method® as practiced today. The spiritual revolutionaries who launched the Hasidic movement taught that the Divine could be worshipped here and now, in the world of the senses. It would no longer do to punish the body to purify the soul. Moshe Feldenkrais, like most of his fellow pioneers on the dunes of Tel Aviv, abandoned traditional practices; nevertheless, he felt very close to the wisdom tradition of his ancestors in the Ukraine. In a lineage of iconoclasts, Moshe fit right in. His life was devoted, not to using the same answers as his kabbalist forebears, but to answering the same questions. In not imitating them, he was most like them.

David Kaetz teaches the Feldenkrais Method on Vancouver Island. He is also a klezmer musician and storyteller, and has a degree in Religious Studies. For eight years he has been preparing a book on the Hasidic connection in Feldenkrais’ work, and exploring the wisdom tradition from which Moshe sprang. MAKING CONNECTIONS the book, will be launched at the conference.

MONDAY, JULY 30 ~ 7PM

Research Forum: Sentire et Sensus Both the Feldenkrais Method® and the research process encourage us to feel, to experience, and so find meaning. Osa Jackson Schulte and Meena Narula will demonstrate these parallels, review published research, and acknowledge barriers to conducting research. Narula and Schulte will discuss the advantages of a simple case study design. This method can contribute to personal and professional growth, foster research collaboration among practitioners, and promote within practitioners a deeper awareness of and attention to their own reasoning process used in planning and delivering lessons. Come early and stay late to see and discuss posters presenting recent Feldenkrais Method research activities.

Workshops

Full day workshops run 10am-5pm and cost $75. Half-day workshops run 10am-12:30pm and cost $40.

SATURDAY JULY 28

Freeing the Head and Neck
Arlyn Zones
Full day workshop, 10am-5pm, $75

The freedom of the head and neck is vitally important for our sense of orientation and equilibrium in the world. In this workshop, you will learn through Awareness Through Movement® lessons, how changing the relation of the head, neck and eyes to the chest, pelvis and spine can lead to a dramatic improvement in posture, balance and spatial awareness. You may also expect to leave with a better understanding of how you can decrease or eliminate chronic neck discomfort. When the head is free the quality of all our movements improve and we feel free and light.

Arlyn Zones, MA (1983) has taught workshops for health professionals, performing artists, and the general public for over 25 years, and has brought the Feldenkrais Method into schools, hospitals and clinics. As a trainer she has taught, and has directed her own programs internationally. Arlyn maintains a private practice working with infants, children and adults.

MONDAY JULY 30

Learning to Read Your Own Tracks: The Feldenkrais Method® for Walking
Annie Thoe
Full day workshop, 10am-5pm, $75

An experienced tracker can look at a few details of a scene or track, have a composite picture of what happened and predict an animal’s intention. Using tracking inquiry for Feldenkrais® work, what could we learn about how we walk? What tracks can we find in our movement patterns that reveal our limitations and intentions? What details in our posture reflect how we interact in our environment? This workshop provides the nuts and bolts of sensory observation using tracking and Awareness Through Movement® lessons. Explore outside the familiar tracks of the body. Learn to walk softly and in harmony with nature.

Annie Thoe (1996) is an assistant trainer from Woodinville, WA. She studied tracking with Tom Brown, Jr. and at Wilderness Awareness School, where she serves on the Board, and recently tracked wildlife in South Africa. Annie has an extensive martial arts background and over 20 years experience teaching numerous forms of bodywork.

TUESDAY JULY 31

The "Sense" of Humor: From Banana Peels to Double Takes
Lavinia Plonka
Full day workshop,10am-5pm, $75

The successful physical comedian relies on a superbly organized skeleton to make us laugh. Repetition, timing, spontaneity and the element of surprise are key ingredients in both comedy and Awareness Through Movement®. This workshop combines both for a unique approach to this ancient craft. Performers will learn key lessons that provide the suppleness and dexterity needed for successful physical comedy. Everyone will enjoy a somatic peek into a rarely demonstrated skill. Not to mention a lot of laughs.

Lavinia Plonka (1994) authored two books featuring the Feldenkrais Method®, helps edit SenseAbility, and writes a humor column for WNC Woman Magazine. Lavinia got her first laugh at age 8 when another ballerina accidentally stepped on her tutu during recital. Her credits range from an Emmy nomination to teaching for the Guggenheim Museum.

Following the Easy
Darrell Bluhm
The morning segment is offered to the public as a half-day workshop,
10am-12:30pm, $40

"The best leader follows."—Lao Tzu. According to the Standards of Practice, a Feldenkrais® practitioner "meshes his/her movement with the easiest directions in which the student moves." Enhancing this skill will be the focus of the workshop. In the morning we will focus on Awareness Through Movement® lessons as a means to discriminate preferences in our movement, discovering what is easy. In the afternoon practitioners will apply that capacity to recognizing students’ biases, and find ways to move with them in Functional Integration® practice. Following what is "easy" can then lead us into deeper realms of mutual discovery.

Darrell Bluhm, (1996) 6th degree Black Belt, Aikido Shihan, is Chief Instructor of Siskiyou Aikikai in Ashland, OR where he teaches Aikido, Iaido, Tai Chi Chuan and maintains a Feldenkrais practice. The past four years he has worked with the Oregon Shakespeare Festival providing lessons to the acting company.

WEDNESDAY AUGUST 1

Finding Freedom and Uncovering Creativity Through the Feldenkrais Method®
Jeff Haller
Half-day workshop, 10am-12:30pm, $40

In this imaginative and fun workshop, we will examine how habits we formed early in life can actually interfere with our ability to be creative and enjoy our lives. Awareness Through Movement® lessons offer a profound opportunity to discover how bound we are to habits of thinking, sensing, feeling and moving. Simultaneously the lessons provide an arena to "learn how to learn," and disengage from habits that no longer serve. As we learn to remove the obstacles that we have to free movement, we discover a template readily usable to spread freedom and creativity into other parts of our lives.

Jeff Haller, Ph.D. (1983) a Trainer since 1993, has directed eight teacher training programs and has extensive international teaching experience. With a background in athletics and martial arts, he is noted for his understanding of function. Jeff creates the environment for his students to think for themselves and act based on their direct experience.

Making Connections: Hasidic Roots and Resonance in the Work of Moshe Pinchas Feldenkrais
David Kaetz
Half-day workshop, 10am-12:30pm, $40

As Moshe took the essence of Judo off the mat and into daily life, so he took some of the essential motifs of his own tradition and put them on the mat, to be explored through muscle, nerve and bone. In this seminar we go in greater depth into the thought structures and philosophical premises which Moshe brought into his teachings from his intellectual and spiritual background in the heartland of Hasidism. It is recommended that participants attend the free presentation on Sunday night July 29.

David Kaetz (2001) teaches the Feldenkrais Method® on Vancouver Island. He is also a klezmer musician and storyteller, and has a degree in Religious Studies. For eight years he has been preparing a book on the Hasidic connection in Feldenkrais’s work, and exploring the wisdom tradition from which Moshe sprang.

Feldenbike: Choosing, Fitting, and Riding Bicycles the Feldenkrais® Way
Michael Wolk
Half-day workshop, 10am-12:30pm, $40

Through Awareness Through Movement® lessons and lecture, this course will help participants experience the most efficient and comfortable riding positions and techniques. We will learn about the many permutations of bicycle styles, sizing, equipment and fitting that makes riding a bicycle pleasurable. No bicycle is required to attend this workshop.

Michael Wolk, P.T. (1997) is a graduate of a Canadian training. An avid bicyclist and bicycle builder, he teaches efficient riding methods and adjusts bicycles utilizing principals of the Feldenkrais Method® .

THURSDAY AUGUST 2

Improve Survival Abilities
Moti Nativ
Full day workshop, 10am-5pm, $75

This workshop will bring you important knowledge about Moshe’s ideas, practical work in Judo and self-defense, and the strong connection of martial arts to the development of the Feldenkrais Method® . By experiencing and analyzing self-defense techniques as they arise from the Awareness Through Movement lessons, you’ll understand the effectiveness of the Feldenkrais Method from the survival point of view.

Moti Nativ (1994) served four years as the Israeli Guild president, and as EuroTAB Council representative. He is Shihan (Master teacher of martial arts), head of the Israeli Bujinkan Dojo and has taught martial arts since 1978. Moti is proficient in Budo-taijutsu (Japanese ancient fighting arts), Judo and Krav Maga (military combat system).

FRIDAY AUGUST 3

Drawing From Life
Vicki Robinson
Full day workshop, 10am-5pm, $75

Bringing pencil to paper to draw involves seeing, perceiving and coordinating movement with precision. Have you ever noticed how challenging it is to create a round circle? We’ll explore drawing with the help of Awareness Through Movement® lessons, and participants will understand what it takes to make exact, concise lines found in a Da Vinci drawing as well as the bold, free-flowing line of a Japanese scroll painter. Whether you’re a novice or an experienced artist, you'll walk away with a very different sense of how to approach the drawing process.

Vicki Robinson (2001) earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from Colorado State University, 1979, and a Master of Fine Arts degree from the University of Colorado, 1990. She has been teaching Awareness Through Movement classes in Seattle, WA since 1999.

Power and Grace: Living From Your Center
Kathy James
Full day workshop, 10am-5pm, $75

What is the relationship between power and grace, and how can we embody these qualities in our work, relationships, and lives? How does the principle and practice of centering relate to these two qualities, and what is the role of the pelvis, lower abdomen and hip joints in centering ourselves with power and grace? We will explore these questions experientially through Awareness Through Movement® lessons and practices from Aikido. We will learn how centering is a way to interrupt our habitual patterns and develop new ways of acting with greater power, grace and connection to the people and things we care about in life.

Kathy James (1983) is a practitioner and assistant trainer. She has a second degree black belt in the martial art of Aikido and trained as a dancer. She is also an adjunct faculty member at John F. Kennedy University, teaches through Kaiser Permanente and has a private practice in Petaluma, CA.

Workshop Registration

First, read the descriptions for each workshop in the Learn More about Workshops section above to determine which workshops interest you.

Next, proceed to online registration, which is handled by Acteva.com and put the quantity of tickets you are purchasing next to each workshop title (or discount pricing option if the registrant is a Friends of Feldenkrais member). Before registration, please read the refund policy at the bottom of the registration page..