Updated Website & Class Subs

“The aim (of the Feldenkrais Method) is a person that is organized to move with minimum effort and maximum efficiency, not through muscular strength, but through increased consciousness of how movement works.” ~Moshe Feldenkrais

Hi Students:
I am excited to share with all of you, new pictures on every section of my website.  I feel the new compulation of pictures helps to capture the essence of the Feldenkrais Method more than the previous ones.  Please send your friends and families to my site when you just can’t seem to convey to them what Feldenkrais is!  Let me know if it helps.  (Thank you, Deborah Welsh Photography!) 

I will not be working from June 12-20th.  Following is my Feldenkrais class schedule:
Saturday, June 13 at 11:45 a.m. at S. F. Dance Center:  Sub.:  Pat Bourne
Wednesday, June 17 at 11:30 a.m. at Club One:  No Class will take place
Saturday, June 20 at S. F. Dance Center:  Sub.:  Pat Hendricks

Enjoy learning from the wonderful teachers that are subbing for me.
Sincerely, Donna

Introduction

Hi Feldenkrais Students,
Following is an article in it’s entirety written by Moshe Feldenkrais.  I picked out three sentences that I think, summarizes Moshe’s definition of health, from his article: 
“In short, health is measured by the shock a person can take without his usual way of life being compromised.” 
“…a healthy person is the one who can live his unavowed dreams fully.”
“The outstanding difference between such healthy people and the others is that they have found…, that learning is the gift of life.  A special kind of learning: that of knowing oneself.” 

I hope you are enticed to read the article in full, now.  I highly recommend that you do.  I think it will leave you pondering. 

My next workshop, “Dynamic Sitting in Chairs”,  will be on Sunday, August 9, 2009 from Noon - 3 pm.  Save the date!  I will give you more details later.
Sincerely, Donna

On Health, By Moshe Feldenkrais

“A healthy person is one who can live fully his unavowed dreams.”

A few years before World War II, I was teaching judo to make a living while working at the Sorbonne with Joliot-Curie for my doctor’s degree in Science. One of my pupils turned out to be a hunter of wild animals in Africa, and he invited me to his house where I was left alone for a few minutes. I was startled when a lion walked in and came over to lick me. It had been brought to Paris as a cub and had grown up into a real lion.

A few months later the lion was taken by the police to the Paris Zoo. The lion had gone into the street and an old lady with a little Pekingese dog and dim eyesight, mistaking him for a big dog, chased him through the streets with her umbrella. After refusing food and drink for about ten days, the lion died in its cage. I have shortened the story by omitting the details.

Now there was a healthy animal that died, obviously due to an emotional trauma.  But what is a healthy animal?  If a healthy lion dies ten days after a sudden change in its life, what is health?

Read more »

Workshop Details

Happy Springtime, Everyone!

I want to give you some specific details about the next Feldenkrais Workshop, “From Sitting (on the floor) To Standing and Back Again”, to help ease any trepidations you may have about it.

We will explore three different ways to move up and down from the floor.  Each way is very unique and will teach you a very efficient way to move yourself.    

During the first lesson we will explore sitting on the floor.  The lesson will be like any other lesson that you might do in my on-going class.  The last 5% of the lesson will teach you to use the new relationship between your head and pelvis moving in space, to bring you to standing.

The following two lessons will explore shifting of weight in standing and while standing with your feet and hands on the floor.  At the end of these lessons you will learn a very different way of returning to the floor. 

I hope to see you at this workshop.  If you have any questions feel free to contact me at anytime.
Sincerely, Donna

Introduction

Hi Everyone,
Workshops are a wonderful way to explore, improve awareness, and to even learn something impossible!  Following is a story that explains just that!

On the way home from the Easy Hands and Jaw workshop, last month one of my students called and left a message on my answering machine.  She told me that when she was walking home she heard some whistling.  She looked around to see where it was coming from and that is when she realized that she was spontaneously whistling.  She delightfully told me about this with great laughter because this was the first time in her life that she had ever been able to whistle.  She attributed it to her jaw being able to move in a new way because of what she learned in the workshop.

I hope to see you soon.
Donna

Feldenkrais Workshop

From Sitting to Standing and Back Again
Sunday, April 19, 2009
12:00 noon - 3:00 p.m.
$60.00 (when you pay by April 12)
$75.00 (when you pay after April 12)

During this workshop you will learn different ways to gracefully and more efficiently move from sitting on the floor to standing and how to reverse the movements when you would like to.  We will explore Feldenkrais, Awareness Through Movement lessons that will require you to bear weight on your hands and feet at times.  The lessons will help improve your awareness and the relationship between your head and pelvis moving in space.  Improving your kinesthetic sense in this way will also improve your posture, walking, and balancing.

This exploratory workshop will help to increase the length and flexiblity of your back muscles and hamstrings without stretching or forcing.  The unique movement lessons will stimulate your curiosity and enhance learning.

Donna Bervinchak will teach this workshop at the San Francisco Dance Center at 26 Seventh Street / Market St.  To sign up for this workshop call the S.F. Dance Center at 415.863.3040 x221.

“The Sixth Sense”

Moshe Feldenkrais calls the kinaesthetic sense the “sixth sense” in chapter 13 of his book “The Body & Mature Behavior”.  He explains that, ” it is a sense by which muscular motion, weight, position in space, etc., are percieved.”

I like this term because some people seem to think that there are “talented” people that possess a mysterious ”sixth sense” that makes them special from others.  And that if you are not one of “talented” ones then you have no chance to better yourself.  The good news is, the kinaesthetic sense can be learned and can be bettered through the Feldenkrais Method.  This is the gift that Moshe Feldenkrais gave us.  Learning through Functional Integration sessions and Awareness Through Movement classes are the tools we can use to attain a better “sixth sense” and sensory awareness.

Moshe goes on to say in the same chapter, “people who apparently spontaneously prefer the better way of doing are those who have the capacity to detect small differences of sensation. ”   

Feldenkrais students detect more and more of the small differences in themselves with each lesson they learn from.  All it takes is time, patience and gentleness to learn in the Feldenkrais way. 

I hope to see you soon.
Donna

Feldenkrais Workshop

Easy Hands & Jaw Workshop
Sunday, February 8, 2009
12:00 noon - 3:00 p.m.
$60.00 (if paid on or before Feb. 1)
$75.00 (if paid after Feb. 1)

During this workshop you will learn how to release unnecessary tension in your hands, mouth and jaw.  These are common parts of the body people hold unconsciously when they “try too hard” or become nervous, scared, angry or stressed.  The Feldenkrais, Awareness Through Movement lessons will help you become aware and gain control of these parts of yourself.  The movements will be gentle and internal and anyone can learn from them.

One of the reasons elite athletes, dancers and performers make their craft look easy is because they do not tighten their hands and jaw needlessly.  You too can learn to become more graceful, by applying the self-discoveries you learn in this workshop to your favorite activities.

Other benefits you will discover when you release your hands and jaw are:  improved digestion, easier breathing, better balance, as well as freedom of movement in your neck and shoulders.

This workshop will be taught by Donna Bervinchak at the S.F. Dance Center at 26 Seventh St. / Market.  To sign up for this workshop call the S.F. Dance Center at 415.863.3040 x221.

“Love Thyself as Thy Neighbor”

The Introduction to Moshe Feldenkrais’s book, The Potent Self, is entitled “Love Thyself as Thy Neighbor”.  If you read closely you will notice that Dr. Feldenkrais reversed the order of the words “thyself” and “neighbor” in this saying.   I share this with you, hoping it will help you to maintain your health and sanity, during this holiday season .  I have observed that most people become too exhausted to enjoy the holidays because they push themselves harder than they would push their worst enemy at this time of year.  If this behavior sounds familiar to you, listen to what Moshe Feldenkrais further says in his introduction:  “Love thy neighbor as thyself” should not always mean that they themselves are worse than any neighbor…” 

Have a wonderful Holiday Season.  I hope Moshe’s words will stay with you and remind you to slow down, take lots of breaks and treat yourselves gently.   

The following Feldenkrais Classes will be canceled in December:
Wednesday, Dec. 24, 11:30 a.m. class at Club One
Saturday, Dec. 27, 11:45 a.m. class at the S.F. Dance Center
Wednesday, Dec. 31, 11:30 a.m. class at Club One.

All classes will resume regular schedule on Saturday, January 3, 2009.  Happy Holidays to all of you.
Donna

Cross Motivations

“When we have relieved all the unnecessary tensions (that have been built up in the course of develpment as the only means of reacting to the environment available at that time, that have become useless at present), we can obtain a better and easier comportment.  Thus, if we eliminate from standing all that is extraneous to it such as standing manly, femininely, authoritatively, nicely, efficiently, arrogantly, proudly, or meekly and all the other cross motivations that we cultivate in childhood and adolescence with such wholehearted conviction of doing right, there remains standing as dictated by the structure of the body and its nervous mechanisms.  A stance that is rare, but which we are all capable.”  ~ Dr. Moshe Feldenkrais

I chose to share this quote from The Potent Self,  because I thought the timing was appropriate since we all put away our masks and costumes from Halloween.  I think it is easier to feel how our stance and posture changes when we put on a costume and assume a character than it is to feel the stances we live with everyday.  As Moshe Feldenkrais states above, once we can recognise how we stand and the cross motivations that fuel it we can than give it up.  Coming to this place of self awareness can lead to letting go of alot of physical and emotional pain which will allow for greater ease of functioning. 

Have a wonderful Thanksgiving.  Thank you for choosing me to share this wonderful method with you.

Donna