One of the most important innovations of the pedagogy of Moshe Feldenkrais was his emphasis on the importance of individual autonomy on the path to realizing more universal qualities of human potential. He repeatedly urged his students and clients to listen to their own internal sense of what felt ‘right’ rather than trying to reproduce the actions of external models.
Speaking at Amherst in 1980, he said,
“Once we can learn a movement, we know it well – in every direction, in every detail We are now free to write our own handwriting.”
As practitioners of the Feldenkrais Method® of somatic education – with its vast archive of Awareness Through Movement® lessons and its incredibly broad range of applications and potential audiences – we too have to decide on our own unique paths. This is often a process of trial and error. In addition, as we build a Feldenkrais® practice, reach out to find clients, and choose the lessons we teach and the vocabulary we use to articulate our ideas, we draw on our entire life experience, not just the curriculum of a single Feldenkrais® professional training.
In this edition of In Touch, three of our colleagues share the stories of their own unique paths through the Feldenkrais® universe, both in terms of how they discovered their unique style of teaching and some of the ways that they have helped their clients to find their own ‘handwriting.’
Anastasi Siotas is a trainer candidate who has been a Feldenkrais® practitioner since 1997 and is particularly known for expertise with anatomy. He spoke with editor Seth Dellinger about how his teaching was shaped by his background as a scientist and a dancer and the influence of teachers both inside and outside of the Feldenkrais Method® of somatic education, including Ruthy Alon, the creator of Bones for Life, and the renowned dancer and teacher of kinesthetic anatomy, Irene Dowd. He also talks why he believes that the new Feldenkrais® training in New York City he is organizing will support trainees ‘handwriting’ most effectively as an entirely in-person experience despite the growing prevalence of online education.
Tiffany Sankary, an assistant trainer who first discovered the Feldenkrais Method® of somatic education in 2002, came from a background as an artist. In the course of her development as a Feldenkrais® practitioner, she explored a variety of other learning modalities and has built an online community, Movement & Creativity, where she mixes and matches a variety of offerings for her clients. Tiffany was also interviewed by Seth Dellinger for this edition.
Tim Sobie, who was already a professional physical therapist before he became a Feldenkrais® practitioner in 1996 contributes an article to In Touch, detailing his journey of reconciling his work with patients/clients at the intersection of two completely different philosophies of working with human movement. In his process of translating a Feldenkrais® of somatic education approach into a language that could be understood – and rigorously tested – by an audience more familiar with a traditional medical model, he found himself enacting a process quite similar to the Feldenkrais Method® of somatic education itself.