Feldenkrais and Dance
Awareness of one’s movement is a common characteristic of Somatics. Fitt (1996:304) defines awareness as ‘the knowing oneself from the inside out’ Bringing awareness to our movement requires us to make distinctions about how we move. Feldenkrais (1972) saw awareness as the movement between intention and action. According to him, this movement provides us with the chance to decide on an appropriate choice of action from a number of possible solutions to a task.
To bring awareness to how participants are moving, the practitioner will ask them to distinguish between different ways of initiating movement. The practitioner can offer various choices about where to direct attention, in order to direct the students’ attention to the different ways of performing the movements. Solving a movement problem is not simply a matter of copying, but understanding the intention behind the movement and how this influences choices of action.
Feldenkrais’s Awareness through Movement (ATM) has an impact on student’s self-image and its transference to concept related dance phrases, motif based improvisations, training and performances and on their daily lives.
There are at least two thousand ATM lessons and the practitioner verbally guides the student through a series of movement sequences. These lessons are mostly performed in a group setting and can be conducted individually. Most of the lessons are organized around a specific movement function, gradually progressing from early developmental movement to more complex human skills. The movements are commonly performed in a variety of positions in a manner that recognizes each student’s pace and range. The practitioner ensures that each student experience comfort, ease and quality of movement during lessons. As each student work to enhance their self-image, set aside habitual movement patterns, and gain an accurate and complete perception of the body and movement in general.
Dancers discovered the benefits of Feldenkrais’ work when the toured the country teaching workshops during the early 1970s. The work’s internally based sensing posed a radical way to think about movement. It countered the “learning by imitation” ingrained in most dance education. He was the first to introduce a roller, initiated crafted in wood and later in form can found everywhere in dance studios. The Pelvic Clock has been incorporated into Pilates, yoga and dance class to emphasize the fluidity of the lower back and pelvis.
Movement sequences from ATM can be incorporated at the beginning of class as part of the warm-up. It is a tricky process to integrate the concepts of the philosophy and structure into a dance class. Although Feldenkrais never expected his method to become a household name among dancers and dance institutions, his method speaks volume to the groundbreaking nature of his genius understanding of the mind-body connection.
Awareness Through Movement (ATM) lesson promotes improved self-organization and autonomy through asking the dancer to attend to movement feedback both during doing and resting phases. A resting phase can last at least thirty seconds to one minute interspersed between two of three minutes of verbally guided movement. Allowing resting phase frees the mover from attending to extensive and intricate information delivered during the guided ATM lessons and to integrate kinaesthetic feedback from movement. This way, the participant is given time to release reactive patterns, acknowledge new movement options and consolidate new learning.
Quieting the busy mind by prolonged periods of resting like body scanning and other restful somatic technique were designed to prepare the body-mind for the emergence of inner sensations, lively focused attention and renewed energy. In these intervals, dancers can make sense of sensory feedback (e.g. recognize the degrees of habitual muscular holding or distinguishing weight from tension.)
Within this framework, the student becomes his or her laboratory where they can learn to develop awareness of their daily actions. This awareness forms the foundation for changes in movement, sensation, feeling and thinking. The four components that Feldenkrais defined as self-image are present, to some extent, in any action. This self-image is conditioned through one’s lifespan by heritage, education, and self-education. Self-image dictates how we inhabit our bodies and how we interact with the world around us.
Feldenkrais can be incorporated into dance training beginning with ATM lessons, a transition to standing section, a dance technique section, and dance combination. Their classes differed from the image of a traditional codified dance class in that they did not situate their classes in any particular dance style. The teacher offers a generic technique class that gave priority to sensing the body, rather than focusing on a particular aesthetic. To them, their technique was not relegated to a particular style but was to enhance a wide range of skills in a way that an optimal execution of dance style can be achieved.
In task preparation within the ATM and transition to standing sections of the class, verbal cues were provided and followed and experienced by the students. During the dance technique and combinations sections, the teacher demonstrated and verbally described sequences, sensory-motor learning goals, and indicated the relationship between previous movement awareness experience and the completed task.
During tasks execution, the teacher attempted to enhance students’ movement awareness through:
· Highlighting different ways to achieve the task
· Comparing sensations of different movement initiations,
· Directing attention to the sensation of movement
· Describing skeletal movement while looking for a specific sensation
· Repeating movement
· Using tactile feedback with a partner
· Reinforcing self-questioning
Students were expected to rely on their sensations, create learning goals for themselves, learn from observing their peers and problem-solving. This demonstrates how the Feldenkrais Method can be integrated into dance education through designed class structure and pedagogic delivery.
Reference:
Diaz, H and Chatfield, S and Cox, J (2008) Cultivating Presence in Movement Student Reflections on the Practice of Feldenkrais Awareness Through Movement in Dance Training. Journal of Dance Education 8 (3) 79-93. Available at: http://web.a.ebscohost.com/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?vid=22&sid=4d0ecb1c-0bf5-4e70-9d5f-ecb4fa324b14%40sessionmgr4005&hid=4114 [10 January 2015].
Forbes, B (2006) Feldenkrais: Dancing like water, fluid & strong. Dance Magazine 80 (9) 28. Available at: http://web.b.ebscohost.com/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?sid=163f3c42-1d0c-4b66-9869-c49dba5eb8f1%40sessionmgr114&vid=16&hid=109 [Accessed 6 April 2015].
Wozny, N (2011) Moshé Feldenkrais. Dance teacher 33 (3) 52-56. Available at: http://web.b.ebscohost.com/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?vid=5&sid=844966a0-083a-4521-b411-e66a710a846d%40sessionmgr115&hid=107 [Accessed 10 April 2015].
Awareness of one’s movement is a common characteristic of Somatics. Fitt (1996:304) defines awareness as ‘the knowing oneself from the inside out’ Bringing awareness to our movement requires us to make distinctions about how we move. Feldenkrais (1972) saw awareness as the movement between intention and action. According to him, this movement provides us with the chance to decide on an appropriate choice of action from a number of possible solutions to a task.
To bring awareness to how participants are moving, the practitioner will ask them to distinguish between different ways of initiating movement. The practitioner can offer various choices about where to direct attention, in order to direct the students’ attention to the different ways of performing the movements. Solving a movement problem is not simply a matter of copying, but understanding the intention behind the movement and how this influences choices of action.
Feldenkrais’s Awareness through Movement (ATM) has an impact on student’s self-image and its transference to concept related dance phrases, motif based improvisations, training and performances and on their daily lives.
There are at least two thousand ATM lessons and the practitioner verbally guides the student through a series of movement sequences. These lessons are mostly performed in a group setting and can be conducted individually. Most of the lessons are organized around a specific movement function, gradually progressing from early developmental movement to more complex human skills. The movements are commonly performed in a variety of positions in a manner that recognizes each student’s pace and range. The practitioner ensures that each student experience comfort, ease and quality of movement during lessons. As each student work to enhance their self-image, set aside habitual movement patterns, and gain an accurate and complete perception of the body and movement in general.
Dancers discovered the benefits of Feldenkrais’ work when the toured the country teaching workshops during the early 1970s. The work’s internally based sensing posed a radical way to think about movement. It countered the “learning by imitation” ingrained in most dance education. He was the first to introduce a roller, initiated crafted in wood and later in form can found everywhere in dance studios. The Pelvic Clock has been incorporated into Pilates, yoga and dance class to emphasize the fluidity of the lower back and pelvis.
Movement sequences from ATM can be incorporated at the beginning of class as part of the warm-up. It is a tricky process to integrate the concepts of the philosophy and structure into a dance class. Although Feldenkrais never expected his method to become a household name among dancers and dance institutions, his method speaks volume to the groundbreaking nature of his genius understanding of the mind-body connection.
Awareness Through Movement (ATM) lesson promotes improved self-organization and autonomy through asking the dancer to attend to movement feedback both during doing and resting phases. A resting phase can last at least thirty seconds to one minute interspersed between two of three minutes of verbally guided movement. Allowing resting phase frees the mover from attending to extensive and intricate information delivered during the guided ATM lessons and to integrate kinaesthetic feedback from movement. This way, the participant is given time to release reactive patterns, acknowledge new movement options and consolidate new learning.
Quieting the busy mind by prolonged periods of resting like body scanning and other restful somatic technique were designed to prepare the body-mind for the emergence of inner sensations, lively focused attention and renewed energy. In these intervals, dancers can make sense of sensory feedback (e.g. recognize the degrees of habitual muscular holding or distinguishing weight from tension.)
Within this framework, the student becomes his or her laboratory where they can learn to develop awareness of their daily actions. This awareness forms the foundation for changes in movement, sensation, feeling and thinking. The four components that Feldenkrais defined as self-image are present, to some extent, in any action. This self-image is conditioned through one’s lifespan by heritage, education, and self-education. Self-image dictates how we inhabit our bodies and how we interact with the world around us.
Feldenkrais can be incorporated into dance training beginning with ATM lessons, a transition to standing section, a dance technique section, and dance combination. Their classes differed from the image of a traditional codified dance class in that they did not situate their classes in any particular dance style. The teacher offers a generic technique class that gave priority to sensing the body, rather than focusing on a particular aesthetic. To them, their technique was not relegated to a particular style but was to enhance a wide range of skills in a way that an optimal execution of dance style can be achieved.
In task preparation within the ATM and transition to standing sections of the class, verbal cues were provided and followed and experienced by the students. During the dance technique and combinations sections, the teacher demonstrated and verbally described sequences, sensory-motor learning goals, and indicated the relationship between previous movement awareness experience and the completed task.
During tasks execution, the teacher attempted to enhance students’ movement awareness through:
· Highlighting different ways to achieve the task
· Comparing sensations of different movement initiations,
· Directing attention to the sensation of movement
· Describing skeletal movement while looking for a specific sensation
· Repeating movement
· Using tactile feedback with a partner
· Reinforcing self-questioning
Students were expected to rely on their sensations, create learning goals for themselves, learn from observing their peers and problem-solving. This demonstrates how the Feldenkrais Method can be integrated into dance education through designed class structure and pedagogic delivery.
Reference:
Diaz, H and Chatfield, S and Cox, J (2008) Cultivating Presence in Movement Student Reflections on the Practice of Feldenkrais Awareness Through Movement in Dance Training. Journal of Dance Education 8 (3) 79-93. Available at: http://web.a.ebscohost.com/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?vid=22&sid=4d0ecb1c-0bf5-4e70-9d5f-ecb4fa324b14%40sessionmgr4005&hid=4114 [10 January 2015].
Forbes, B (2006) Feldenkrais: Dancing like water, fluid & strong. Dance Magazine 80 (9) 28. Available at: http://web.b.ebscohost.com/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?sid=163f3c42-1d0c-4b66-9869-c49dba5eb8f1%40sessionmgr114&vid=16&hid=109 [Accessed 6 April 2015].
Wozny, N (2011) Moshé Feldenkrais. Dance teacher 33 (3) 52-56. Available at: http://web.b.ebscohost.com/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?vid=5&sid=844966a0-083a-4521-b411-e66a710a846d%40sessionmgr115&hid=107 [Accessed 10 April 2015].
RSS Feed
