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Megan Burke participates in a Feldenkrais class as instructor Michael Moore verbally guides students through an Awareness Through Movement lesson.

Feldenkrais raises body awareness

By: MEGAN KOJIMA

Posted: 4/5/07

Those intimidated by yoga poses and bored with step classes may want to pursue another avenue of physical fitness.

It's called Feldenkrais, named after the guy who invented it.

"There's nothing out there like Feldenkrais," he said.

Unlike pilates, which strengthens the muscles, or yoga, which stretches them, Feldenkrais is concerned with fluidity and awareness of everyday movements.

"Most don't feel the orchestra of ourselves throughout the day," Michael Moore said, emphasizing the natural forces that make our movements heavy and tense in a stressful world.

He began training in Feldenkrais in 1994 and has been practicing ever since, dedicated to the health benefits it offers.

"Everybody gets out of it what they are ready to learn," he said. "Those who are more in tune with their bodies, such as artists and musicians, and people engaging regularly in right brain activities are more available to the movements in my experience."

FELDENKRAIS CLASS

When: noon every Friday
Where: Healing Arts Center on Prince Ave.
Cost: $60 for six-week sessions, $14 for walk-ins
More information:
www.healingartscentre.net

A typical class with Moore begins with a body scan, a meditative check on the sensations in every body part.

Instructions may range from "check in with your spine, can you tell which vertebrae are touching the floor?" to "which side of the pelvis feels heavier against the floor?"

The classes then become unpredictable, as Moore chooses from 5,000 lessons of Feldenkrais teachings. Each movement is designed to help the body develop new avenues to move through life in a more efficient, graceful and aesthetically pleasing way.

As infants, Moore said, people learn how to navigate their surroundings using only a sense of touch. They teach themselves how to roll over through trial and error, etching those neurological pathways into muscle memory.

Feldenkrais is an attempt to guide people back to that organic process of learning how to move and increase the possibilities of movement in the future.

Moore gave several examples of how Feldenkrais changed people's lives.

When he began training, he witnessed a 14-month-old boy diagnosed with cerebral palsy sit up on his own within eight minutes of his father's Feldenkrais teaching, and after four months of practice he was standing and walking like a normal 18-month-old child.

Moore mentioned that doctors aren't very receptive of the ideas of Feldenkrais because they think it sounds like "woo woo," but Feldenkrais himself was a student of science.

He studied physics, engineering and mathematics. Through his own invented method, he taught himself how to practice judo without any cross ligaments in his left knee.

"Feldenkrais is based in scientific principle," Moore said. "It is a realm of study that few people pursue."