Testimonials
"As trained musicians, we are familiar
with those teachers we refer to as 'master' teachers, individuals
who understand the subtleties of learning that seem to mystify
everyone else. Understanding this elusive level of our learning
process is what can be gained from a Professional
Feldenkrais®
Training. The depth and
eloquence of the Feldenkrais
Method®
is profound in how it helps
musicians learn to be artists."
Steve R.
Duke, MM,
Presidential Research Professor, Northern Illinois
University,
Feldenkrais
Practitioner
"Having taught dance, creative
movement, and Laban Movement Analysis for years, my career took a
right turn when I discovered the Feldenkrais
Method®
and studied with Moshe
Feldenkrais.
I discovered what I had always been looking for personally: my
vitality, my own INNER DANCE, and a deep core of support for my own
intentions in dance and movement improvisation. I became more clear
and direct in my action and more flexible in my own creativity and
responsivness.
After my the Feldenkrais
Method training, my work with dancers deepened
as I brought the principles of the Feldenkrais
Method to their
needs and interests. Awareness Through
Movement®
(ATM) became the core of my
thinking in constructing movement and dance experiences for others.
ATM and FI (Functional
Integration®) became tools for introducing dancers
to their own inner dance and abilities that expanded their
self-image, improved their dancing and their health.
In a study I conducted on the Feldenkrais
Method and
professional dancers, they reported an expanded sense of themselves
and their abilities, ranging from enhanced creativity to improved
balance, flexibility, range, safety, and an enriched ability to
teach. Many reported more joy, and were passionate about this
learning and enthusiastic about their future."
Donna
Blank,
Feldenkrais
Practitioner and
Trainer,
M.S. (in early childhood and elementary education),
CMA (Laban Movement Analysis),
(Bethesda, Maryland)
"My Feldenkrais
training has changed how I
think about, feel, observe and sense movement, and has enhanced my
perception of both how and why I move, dancing from the inside out,
rather than from the outside in. I have a greater understanding of
what motivates me to dance and practise Tai Chi, I suffer from
fewer injuries than before the training, if I do injure myself I
heal much more quickly, and most of the time I can recognise the
warning signs before I actually get injured."
Jayne
Lee,
Feldenkrais
Practitioner,
Tai Chi teacher, dancer and choreographer,
(Flagstaff, Arizona)
"Initially Feldenkrais
brought me from pain to the
ability to continue what I had always done--dance and being a
dancer. The process has been, and continues to be, the most
expansive, exciting and rewarding learning I have ever experienced.
I have become a healthier person physically and emotionally;
limitations in my goals and dreams continue to fall away, and I
have learned how to take care of, and believe in myself.
Professionally the Feldenkrais
Method®
has become a truly
gratifying means of supporting myself financially, and has allowed
me to give back to my first profession the important knowledge of
how to train dancers in a more functional, expansive, human
way."
Prisca Winslow
Bradley,
Feldenkrais
Practitioner and Assistant
Trainer,
dancer, choreographer and dance teacher
(Taos, New Mexico)
"The Feldenkrais
Method®
has revolutionized my
teaching by giving me new ways to see my dancers and communicate
with them. The quality of their movement changes so quickly and is
so beautiful, it never ceases to amaze me and them. It has revived
my passion."
Liz
Fruits,
Feldenkrais
Practitioner,
Ballet teacher
(Taos, New Mexico)
Movement
class, is an obvious
doorway to more effective teaching of both children and
adults.
The life of a professional dancer, or athlete is filled with the
necessity for constant finetuning. The Feldenkrais
Method provides
a refreshing opportunity to re-learn familiar actions, and fit the
timing to the intent. As a professional teacher, I am proud to find
new ways to enliven the learning process for my professionals, and
celebrate their new respect for their own increased perceptions of
their abilities and talents."
Mme Peff
Modelski, RDE,
student in Feldenkrais
Training Program,
Masterteacher of Classical Ballet
(New York City)
"The day after attending my
first Feldenkrais®
workshop when I went to
practice I was amazed at the ease with which I was able to sing.
The sense of ease and freedom of vocal production that I had been
working so hard to achieve over years of lessons were suddenly
there. I realized that there was something deep and powerful in
the Feldenkrais
Method®
that I did not understand
but that had brought about real change in the way I sang.
Taking the Feldenkrais
training program and
becoming a Feldenkrais
practitioner has helped me
personally feel better and interact with greater freedom with the
environment. In addition, understanding and learning the
Feldenkrais
Method has had
a profound impact on the way I teach and approach working with my
voice students as well as with my speech pathology clients.
Learning to sing has become a mutual exploration, involving
discovering how to breathe, exploring resonance options and
discovering how fascicle the tongue can be to aid in articulation.
The Feldenkrais
Method has
shown me that singing is as much about the feet and pelvis as about
the voice."
Marina
Gilman,
voice teacher, mezzo-soprano, speech language pathologist
and Certified Feldenkrais®
practitioner.
(Chicago, Illinois)
"First, and this is in large part why I
decided to do the Feldenkrais®
training program in the
first place, is that the tendinitis that had plagued me for years
dissappeared after several months of weekly ATM classes and one FI.
(This was even before I did the training program!) Before doing the
training, my body was the limiting factor in the length of practice
time: now it is only my schedule. I can play as long as I like with
no pain or tension.
One of the unexpected benefits from doing the Feldenkrais
training program was an
interest and ability to improvise. As a classically trained
musician, I was quite shy about improvising - even by myself, in
private - but through the Feldenkrais
Training, I loosened up and
began "playing" while I was playing!
The way that I practice has changed dramatically. Now, I look for
many different ways of playing the same thing: different
fingerings, different movements of the bow, inititating the
movements of playing from my ribs, feet, etc, and the position of
the instrument. The change in tone is often astonishing.
I also want to speak about how taking the Feldenkrais
training has affected my
personal and relationship life. Doing the training had a hugely
beneficial impact on my self-esteem and opened the door to a very
deep spiritual life that continues to deepen daily. I didn't
realize how out of touch with myself I was before the Training. The
Training process gently opened my awareness and gradually softened
my attitude. I am a much more confident and gentle person now than
before doing the Training program. I use the principles of
the Feldenkrais
Method®
all the time to deal with
stress, difficult people, and everyday decisions. It has given me a
great deal of peace that I was not able to find through other
means."
Miriam
Levenson,
Feldenkrais
Practitioner and
cellist
(Madison, Wisconsin)
"There are some things you do in life
were something inside says YES! That's what happened for me
with Feldenkrais
and I joined a training
program. There were three of us violinist in that program. As a
musician in a training you potentiate the pleasure of playing
because the pain goes away. You become more efficient in everything
you do and the instrument becomes a symbol for learning efficiency.
Expending much less effort with the instrument means you enjoy it
more. Learning the work was just heaven!
I had developed a sever scoliosis from playing violin, viola and
conducting. At the end of the Feldenkrais
training program X-rays
revealed my scoliosis was completely gone.
I experienced being a professional musician as being about
compulsion. Being a Feldenkrais
Practitioner involves a lot
of discipline. Discipline and compulsion are of the same family but
they are not twins they are more like cousins. As a musician, what
you learn in a Feldenkrais
training is
invaluable."
Pamela
Cordell,
Violist, violinist, conductor and Feldenkrais
Practitioner
(Vienna, Austria)
"After my training I began learning to
play the harp. I soon found how challenging it can be to hold a
posture in relation to an instrument, move in very precise ways,
all the while coordinating fingers, brain and small black dots on a
sheet of music. My Feldenkrais
experience gave me tools to
find flexibility within the necessary position, fluency in the
motions of my hands and ways to learn more easily and creatively.
The music sounds better when I am connected and flowing from the
soles of my feet to my fingertips."
Bethany
Cobb,
Feldenkrais
Practitioner
(Denver, Colorado)