The Feldenkrais Journal #5 The Arts

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I{E FELDENKRAIS IOURNAI NO.s I!'TNTER 1990

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TheArts

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The Feldenkrais Iournal is published annually by the Felder.rkrais Guild for its members. Material for publicatiorr can be sent to: The Feldenkais Guild, r4 Corporate Woods, B7r7 W. 11oth St., #r4o, Overland Park, KS 662ro USA or directly to the editor.

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Additional copies of this Journal are available through the Guild office for $ro.oo US each (includes postage and handling). Bulk rate fees are availabie on request. Back issues ofJournal Nos. z, 3, and 4 are available for the same price.

Subscriptions to the Journal are nor,t, available. This plan rvas clesigned for people r,r,.ho are not currentl-v receir.ing the Journal through their Guild. A three Iournal subscription is szl lor N. American residents, $35 for overseas. A flve issue subscription is g+o/$so respectivelv. Please send your monev in US dollars to the Guild t-rffice directly if you are interested in a subscription. The deadline for submissions to the upcoming Iournai is May r, r99o. As of this is.ue n'e are mor ing ro t\vo is\ue\ a ) ear, so September r r.vill be the deadline for the following issue. Please w,rite to the Cuild office or the Editor lor a cop--v of our rvri-

ter's guidelines for inforrnation about format, length, computer compatibility, etc. Feldenkais@, The Feldenkrais Guild@, the Feldenkrais Method@, Functional Integration@ and Alvareness Through Nlovement@, are all registered servicemarks of the Feldenkrais Guild.

Editor: Elizabeth Beringer Editorial Board: i-arr_v Goldfarb, Iack Heggie, Paui Rubin, Arlvn Zones Design: !largen, Cantor Copy Editing: Nlaura Da11, General Assisting a Prooflng: Louise Chegwidden, iim Hauer Drar,r,ings: l,ouise Chegr,vidden

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The Feldenkrais Iournal number s Table of Contents 2

A Letter from the Editor

3

Letters to the Editor

4

Another

7

Gentle Dance-A

lO

The Daphne

fB

ExpandingAwareness Sharon Starika

14

An Interviewwith

23

Poem

24

Expanding into Vocal

30

Three

32

This is the Nature of

33

X-Ray

36

Poem as Constraint Louise Chegwidden

37

Interviewwith Doris

4l

Feldenkrais for Actors (and

48

Contributors

Voice

Larry Goldfarb

Collaboration fohn Graham

Blossom

a Garet Newell

Carl Ginsburg

GabyYaron

Elizabeth Beringer and Edna Rossenes

Helen E. Nordahl

Poems

Expression Michael

Iohnson-Chase

Helen E. Nordahl

Fingers

Work

Chris Bennet

Iack Heggie

Staffel

Anna Smuckler

Acters)

Michael Purcell

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THE FELDENKRAIS IOURNAI NO.s

Dear Colleagues, Welcome to the Fifth issue of the Feldenkrais Journal. The subject for this issue is "the Arts" and it includes a variety of articles on this theme. I am particularly pleased with the fact that in this issue the authors come from a number of different countries in addition to NorthAmerica. I certainlyhope that this trend continues. AIso you may notice that the Iournal has been redesigned for this issue by Margery Cantor who handles that side of the Iourna-l's creation. As of fall rggo we will be expanded to two issues a year, one in the fall and one in the spring. Larry Goldfarb is going to join me as a co-editor and we will be producing the new journals together in the future. The theme for the next issue will be "stories." We're interested in receiving a wide variety of "stories" from tJre trade. This can range between a full study of a particular case to anecdotes or a discussion of a particular lesson or moment when some-

thing important happened for you and/or your students. I'm expecting this to be a particularly fun issue. The journal following that will focus on theoretical models and ways of conceptualizing and talking about our work. As always articles on any subject will be considered for all issues. I was somewhat disheartened by the almost total lack of written response to the last issue. Why is this? Maybe people cotrld write in and tell me why they're not writing in? Are there no responses or opinions out there? I'm beginning to fear that there is some kind of virus nrnning around affecting the critical or expressive faculties of the members of our community. I would like to suggest that in fact the format of most trainings may have something to do with this. An environment is created in a training for the students to have their own personal learning experience. This is mosfly a private event. There is a lot of time spent listening to one teacher and without necessarily dialoguing with them. Most people could go through their entire training never articulating their experience and certainly never having to write about it. This may be a good thing for individual participants in a training, but I doubt very much it is a good thing for a developing profession. Is the distance between the verbal and the non-verbal simply too wide for most of us to learn to navigate? What do you think?

I hope that you enjoy this issue of the Journal and since it is late getting to you I can take this opportunity to wish everyone reading it best wishes for the

newyear!

//ry

Sincerely,

Elizabeth Beringer The Editor

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THE FELDENKRAIS IOURNAI NO.5

To the Editor:

Criticizing the Method in the way that Ioseph Delagrotte does in his article "An Undeveloped Dimension of the Feldenkrais Method" (FI xo.4) is off the mark. It is something like criticizing the science of chemistry for not explaining the motion of the planets around the sun. Feldenkrais explored in great detail one particular aspect of human functioning: learning and movement in the gravitational field. Bv con{ining himself to this one aspect of the universal puzzle, he was fbllorving in the tradition of great scientists of the past. Throwing a lot of psychotherapy into the Feldenkrais Method would be like putting a class in astronomy into a chemistry course. (Besides, what brand of therapy r,vould we use? There are hundreds in California alone.) As for the "emotional problems" of Moshe and his Israeii assistants: \ioshe and his assistants come from a very different r,vorld than our or,vn. Gror,ving up in a world of r,rrar and death camps, and maturing in a country surrounded by enemies who outnumber you by ten to one, and r,r,hose main concern seems to be the destruction of your own people, is bound to produce a very different psychic structure from that which rve experience in our comfortable late zoth centuryAmeri-

can existence. Iack Heggie

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Dear Elizabeth, I r,rrant to congradulate you for your work on the lournal. The recent issue on the'Emotions'begins to explore the further reaches of the

Feldenkrais Vlethod,

as

well as the interface between movement and

feelings which have long been downplayed, even avoided, in Func-

tional Integration. Josef Delagrotte

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NO.5

TIIE FELDENI(RAIS

11'TNTER

1990

'OURNAI

As a member of the editorial board of this journal, I am committed to

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the development of our craft and the furtherance of our skills' In order for our Guild to grow, both in terms of members and level of proficiency, I believe we must participate in a community-wide conversation about what it means to be a teacher, a conversation where we each can make a unique and invaluable contribution, in which we face the possibility of learning from one another and teaching one another' The Journal selves as one of the vehicles for this inclusive conversation. It permits us to listen to one another's ideas and to reflect on them. Those who have contributed so far are to be appreciated not onl1, for their ideas and perspectives but especially for their initiative and courage in r,l'riting and, thereby, beginning the conversation' I have had the privilege of r,vatching the development of each issue' article bv articie. With every issue, I an'ait the arrival of the articles' Each submission arrives in a packet, accompanied by a cover letter from Elizabeth. Even before I open the large envelope, I know that some of the articles will be familiar since we discussed them during prior conversations and that others will come entirely as a surprise' I mull over the collection, noticing how I experience the article as a reader, reflecting on the starting premise, pondering the usefulness of the approach or the validitv of the claims, and considering some of the ideas r.vhen I teach class or give a table lesson' Some articles I think need improving, either in terms of correcting the grammar, cleaning up sentence structure, or clarifving the underlying intention' Some uiti.l", I disagree with. I notice I take exception to the author's general approach or attitude, or that I'm resisting a conclusion made with little ,".p".t to the evidence and argument offered' And some articles' some articles are so flne, speaking so clearly about the essence of our work that I am proud to call the author a colleague' We consider every submission seriously and we publish much of what is sent to us. One of our main functions as an editorial board is to consider how well an article invites the reader to participate in the reading. VVhether we agree with the author or not is not of great concern; we aim to continue our collaborative conversation' lndeed' there are occasions when we select articles with which lve disagree, understanding that the expression of a rvide spectrum of perspectives is more important than the adoption of any one "correct view"' There are times we ask authors to re-w, ite an article, making what we hope will be helpful and useful suggestions. We don't send rejection form letters and generally r,ve deliver our comments over the phone, person to p"rrot. Even in these conversations we remember our purpose is to further the conversation between us. In order for this conversation to be fertile and productive, it will require the participation of many voices. With this short article I am adding my voice to the record. I speak up for tvvo reasons'

THE FELDENKRAIS ]OURNAI NO.s

WTNTER 1990

First of all, I speak up to ask you to jump in. Join the conversation. \\rithout your contribution we may miss an important piece of zle. Without your contribution, we won't know how you'r,e taken the rvork further, made it yours, expressed it in your own "handwriting." There is room in this Iournai for many contributors and for a variety contributions: photographs, dance reviews, letters, silly questions burning questions, poems, short case studies, excerpts from your journal or from letters you've written to others, letters or, perhaps, articles orjournal entries your students written. join To make it easier for more people to in the circle authors, I will be collecting short pieces to be presented a more en format. We, the rest of the editorial board and I, r,vant to ecially encourage submissions which are not fully formed and do not flt the normal paper-in-a-journal format. We particularly t to encourage responses to articles in previous Iournal issues. Secondly, there has been an unfortunate tendency each issue of from the the Iournal to be seen as an independent package, previous edition. It hasn't included ongoing debate, nor one idea as the base for building a conversation. If 1,ou'll permit, I'm going to cross the line from my role on the board and from mv viewpoint as an editor to express my personal observations. Though what I'm about to discuss relates to the recent issue, my comments have as much to do with the many .u,ersations I've had about that issue of the Journal as they do specifrc articles.

In particular, I'm interested in the r,vay we use the word " and how that useage influences the wav in which we "work with emotions." I'd like to draw an analogy between the ways we learned from Moshe to understand and the ways in rvhich \,ve, as practitioners and teachers, can

work

rvith emotion. Of course, as Feldenkrais teachers, lve don't work with posture, per se. Our approach is to see a person's posture, or stillness, in the context of hor,r, he or she moves. A posture is a snapshot of a person's ongoing movement. A habitual posture is the resting place which the person retlrrns to between rnovements and it is the launching pad for new movements. One of the aspects that makes our work unique is our refusal to r,vork directl-v on the position a student uses to sit or stand as a thing-in-itself; instead we see the position, sitting or standing, in the context of activity. We turn a "position" or a "posture" into something someone does rather than someplace someone holds. This shift from a static to a dynamic fiame of reference is central to our work. So, is it in keeping with our general approach to work with an emotion as if it rvere a thing-in-itself? I think not. I propose that the idea of u'orking rvith an emotion is equivalent to working with a posture and that, in keeping rvith our approach, we lvould best apply our perceptions and our skills to working with the activity of "emoting" or "emotioning." These term are rather cumbersome and I don't propose them as a serious new piece of jargon. Rather I'm trying to point out hor,v we reifr. or nominalize the process of feeling into having a certain feeling or emotion. To view an emotion as a thing is to make it an artifact, a fossil. I \vant to suggest that it is most in keeping r,vith our tradition to

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rather than n orking

empahsize hor,t, the student goes about r,rrith

199O

what s/he feels.

To take this ar-ralogy further, many of the come up dr-rring or after a lesson seem to be problems people come to see me for: r,r,hile of pain or physical limitations, lvhat I plaining about is a consequence of hor,r,r Often, a student comes asking for me to get example, to ease pain in the lor,ver back having chronicaliy stiff hips and feet doing to bring this about. The same is for persistent unpleasant feelings : the

responses that Iike the kinds of ts ma-v complain

thev are comhabitually.

uence-for uence of of what she is

upsets or unhapp-v rvith the the activitv of feeling and is

result of how they habituallv engage usually unaware of the actual process. For example, if the analogv I suggest ap then rve can easily apply our mode of r,vorking r,vith the "hol,," nlovenlent to rvorking r,,r,ith the "horv" of feeling. Just as rve the relationships that make up the morrernent \\.e are lvorking we can guide the student differentiating tl-re relationships, in terms of micro-movements and sensations, that con-rprise a certain feeling. In so doing, the stltdents' awareness begins to shift from r,vhat they are feelir-rg to hor,r, they are feeling, from the result of their habit to the \,\ray they carry out it out, enact it. As lve begin to make these distinctions, \\,e move in the direction of greater ease and comfort. In so doing, the student begins that s/he is not the victim of emotion but rather the author analogy, and others like it, are rnost useful rvhen they ofi'er ner,r, and ne\v directions to explore. We could ask what the to ideal posture r,r,ould be. If ideal posture is the ability to in any direction,,vith equal ease, could we flnd ways of teaching ability to move into any erlotional direction with equal ease? this be a r,vorthrvhile aim? Hor,r, -uvotild this notion apply to a ATM class? How r,vould it differ if you rvere working with actors? kinds of ATM or FI would address the functions of feeling? Horv you understand feeling functionally? Could we applv the same and effectiveness that is the hallmark of our lvork rvith to working r,vith emotion? ore technical cluestions also emerge: Would ollr wavs of working with people move have direct corallaries to working with horv people feel? For example, would the notion of supporting and taking over the work the student is doing apply to working r,tith feeling? What I'm is that we consider working rvith emoting rvithin our skills and approach rather than relving on other and theories. I'm proposing this not because the other a are wrong nor because I believe is sorne form of Feldenpurity. I propose this in order to expand the scope and depth of our own work into the territory of feeling and emotion. Er,,en though I'm duly trained in other approaches, I ha-,,e felt disturbed by some of my colleague's seeming enthusaism to abandon our method and apply another when emotions surface. Within the tenets of our method, we have nruch work to do exploring the domain of emotion so that we can expand olrr approach and, perhaps, even invent lte\v \va\rs of rt orking.

6

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THE FELDENKRAIS JOURNAL NO.s

D4oc.,_

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\\,'e met in the spring of 1980 at Coloman, a long-established therapv and gror,r,'th center in West Germany, where we were both guest teach- fohn Graham & Garet Newell ers. We discovered that we had experienced many of the same dance teachers and teachings in the United States, including Anna Halprin,

Andre Bernard and the Mabel'1'odd work, the Alexander Technique and that \,ve were both about to embark on the adr.enture of a Professional I'raining Programme with Dr. Moshe Feidenkrais begirrning that venr slrmmer in Amherst. We decided to offer a Dance/Movement Ai,vareness workshop togetl-rer. \Ve wanted to bridge the gap between the sensory-awareness oriented r,l.ork and the teacher-student oriented r,vork of the dancer/ performer. We lvere particularly interested in how to integrate the Iearning experiences in "attitude" and "non-habitual learning" which \vere enrerging for ali of us in our work with Moshe at Arnherst. lohn had experience with Moshe in California previous to the flrst American TraininJl and had already begun to infuse his teaching rvith an "aimless plavfuiness" ivhich included a bit of "fiddling around" rvirile developing the talent for serendipity in movement and thinking. The name "Gentle Dance" arose fiom the special nature of his ivork. We felt it r,vas descriptive of attitude more than str.le, and continued to use it. We \\rere not producing gentle dances; \\re were gentlv dancing, be it porverful, expansive, forceful, restiul or in stillness. The gentle, small, and thoughtiul movement of the Ar,r,areness Through Nlovement lessons expanded one's choice of rnovement into a greater field of awareness rvhich included moving through space rvith a sensation of time, control and organization of effort used by the dancer in pure or applied dance perforrnances. Very important for us rvas the belief that anyone can dance, gir.en a supportive and encouraging atmosphere. We offered Alvareness Through Movement lessons dail1r r,,yhi6h g.hanced the participants' potential movement quality and gave them confidence in their attitude. We supported the ATM experience with basic information in anatomy and kinesiology- where appropriate. The participants also found the dance experience heightened r,vith a neu,lv discorrered (or re-remembered) sensorial field of resources, developed through directed experiences in observation, visualization, rr.riting and drar,ving of their individual experiences and discoveries in ATivl lessons. For example, the students were asked to draw a picture of their spine. They shared these drawings and they obsen'ed one another's spine movements of flexion, extension and lateral bending while noting the shape and quality of the execution. We followed this with a gentle (FI cluality) touching along the processes and surrounding tissrle. Then r,ve gave an Awareness Through Movement lesson rvhich Ied to discoveries of the potential movement of each vertebra (ie. the "back necklace"). The students became more successful in differenti-

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ating vertebrae they didn't feel in previous experiences. Ther-r the\- u'ere asked to drarv their spine again. Their drau'ings \\ ere no\\-larger, more detailed, with more colors used to express the erperietlce. and the actual presslrre of the crayon to the paper \\'as more varied. In other words, they r,vere more involved in the experience, their field ol arvareness had expanded and so had their sense ofself. Ther had touched, through movement awareness, "a funnv thing to see, " as \loshe rr-ould say. Although he was referring to some movement u-e had ir-rst noticed, he was, of course, referring to the new and funnY $ra\- i11 rvhich \\-e \\'ere experiencing ourselves, and we loved ourselves and him for the discovery. Needless to say, the participants in our r,vorkshop improved tl-re range and quality of their spinal movements and enjoved the sensations and feelings that accompany something re-discovered. The Cvcie of Creative Re-discovery was complete. Elements of the Cycle of Creative Re-discovery were flexible ar-rd interchangeable, like an exciting improvisation. The Cycle alrvavs included ATM lessons and the attitude tliat they promote' It r'vas not the ATM movements that became the dance (as seen in the Arnherst "Dance"), but rather the sensorial experiences that equipped the mover with the awareness, attention and response that is necessary to the dance/artist and performer. Our students used this fuller arvareness to help re-infuse their dancing u,ith the aesthetic experience' Art is the forming of some material to give us the enioyment of the material for its expressiveness. As Iohn often suggested, "the body is an instrument of expression and movement is the material. When we allow ourselves to explore our movement possibilities, rve enrich our self-image and give form and individualitv to our expression." A form is expressive rvhen it manifests the qualities inherent in the material and the feelings that are intrinsic to the qualitl'. Dance is the art of movement. In our "Gentle Dance" lvorkshops, conducted in West Germany and in London for four and a half years, we worked lvith the same group for five or more one-week meetings. During each flve-day meeting, we would arrange to give each participant an individual Functional Integration lesson and invite the other participants to obserue. It became an invaluable lesson in awareness, in observing, in learning and in sharing. The students gained respect for observing small movements almost imperceptible to the untrained eye. They learned to give feedback with greater accuracy. They also experienced the profound state of "being" brought about by a change, a newness, a recovery or the seemingly simple effortlessness that can be a part of our Functional Integration work. In giving these individual Functional Integration Iessons, rve believe that we rvere able to make our teaching more eflective and efficient. It rvas also a full, rich and stimulating experience for us as practitioner/teachers. Each time we interacted with a participant, it was as if for the {irst time, meeting a ne\\r being, finding something rvhich was similar in the previous meeting and opening to something rvhich r'r"as now different. It encouraged us both to act in a synergistic manner and to endeavor to maintain that. The Awareness Through Movement and Functional Integration lvork never became the subject for dancing' Thel' did become the resources for creative thinking, the ground for increased intelligence so that

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THE FELDENKRAIS JOURNAL NO.s

movement impulses can be felt and expressed to achieve what we call "organic" dance form. \.&4ren a dance is to be composed, it is through these experiences that the sensorial life of the dancer remains alive. The experience of r,r.orking together, of sharing our individual expertise and our separate discoveries and explorations in the Feldenkrais Method, gave us a unique liamework for teaching. We gained the sense of accomplishment that comes with guiding others through a process of re-discovery, of allowing to re-emerge that which is already known. The atmosphere we sought to create was one of playfulness and support, of safety in which one can learn to know boundaries and limitations, as well as discover new possibilities. One of our students described us, in an article she published about our work, as having "expertise in humor and loving awareness and diplomas in acceptance." Other comments verifled that the approach benefitted the participants and their attitude: "You gave me back my bones;" "I feel more contact with my inner quiet, my self-trust;" "I reached a joy in movement I haven't known since childhood;" "l have a new experience of my body, of new possibilities of movement and new dances are emerging;" "I can now allor,v myself not to be perfect. " Our workshops attracted some rvho were quite advanced in the fleld of movement and dance, as well as those w'ho came for their first experience. We delighted in the former for their "readiness," and in the latter for their "innocence." Without any previously-formed ideas about u,hat dance is, the latter group endeared themselves to us all with their courage and inventiveness. There was a richness in our experiences together which is difficult to describe, a depth reached in our contact with students and their creative endeavors. We have discovered that the Feldenkrais Method is an important sensorial resource for the aesthetic experience of the dancer. To consider sensorial resources for the presentation, performance or execution of movernent is a connection which is an obvious one to those of us r,vho are teachers and students of the Feldenkrais N{ethod. We remember lying on the floor at Amherst and, after a long silence, the voice at the far end of the room would encourage us to "make it nice, make it aesthetically pleasing." This has enlivened our creative work rvith dance and dancers, and allowed us to be a part of the growth and flowering of human beings, rvhich is the most touching experience.

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THE FELDENKRAIS JOURNAT NO.s

Carl Ginsburg IR,

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Mr. Todd-Ashby appeared at the door, tall and solid in a long dressing gown and white rylindrical fez. He was an astonishing eighty six years old considering he had lived the last third of a century missing his right lung, and with the other lung working at two thirds capacity. He greeted us warmly and we followed him into the house. The bush was in flower. It was early spring. From Mr. ToddAshby's windowyou overlooked the thick bush of shrubs and gum trees in flower on its descent down to the beach. The ocean beyond was rough - a heavy surf breaking some distance from the sand. Adele and I had driven up through French's Forest, past Narabeen and Mona Vale. After the turn off to Bungin Beach we were on the peninsula with the Pitt Water to the west and the Paciflc on the east. We had to drive up a narrowroad that snaked between tall eucalyptus. A sudden squall with a fine but heavy rain broke as we got out of the car. I had met Mr. Ashby two years before. He was having difficulty swallowing, a condition apparentlyrelated to the operation to remove his lung. Adele rang me up and insisted I see him. "He's very bright and lively," she said, "in spite of his condition. I've been his doctor for a number of years now. He's really very lovely to work

with." "What can I do in one go?" I said. "['m leaving for the States in two days." "Oh, you'll think of something," she said. "I knowyou can help him." Adele had more faith in my abilities than I had in myself. Mr. Ashby barely had the strength to get up the stairs at the flat where I was staying. Despite this, I noticed that he had a lively energy. We spoke very briefly. He then lay on his back on the low table I used for lessons at the flat and literally put himself in my hands. I quicklyobserved his situation. The right side of his chest and the compensating twist in his neck resulted in a pressure on his throat which prevented his swallowing. I saw a need to expand his ribs on his right side. But how? I reasoned that even if his lung had been removed, he still had the muscles in his chest. It was obvious, however, that he didn't use them. I decided that it must be his knowledge of the fact of his missing lung that led to his collapsing his chest. What he needed, I thought to myself, was a lung, an imaginary lung. I even had a proc-

in mind. It was a gamble to expect Mr. Ashby to accept the strange exercise I was to propose to him. I was sure he would question it. The one thing I knew of his background was that he had been a well known architect in London before he retired to the bush. However, the exercise went beautifully. I had Mr. Ashby explore the good lung as if ess

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THE FELDENKRAIS JOURNAI NO.s

it moved from the inside. When hewas clear as to the nature of the movement, I had him imagine a right lung that moved in the same way. His chest immediatelybegan to expand. "Very clever," he said to me afterwards. "I thinkl'll enjoyworking with your method. [t certainly made a difference to me." Adele called me three or four times in the intervening two years to tell me of Mr. Ashby's continuing improvement. I was pleased about his progress, butwas even more astonished at his remarkable intelligence and perceptiveness. He understood completely that we had made a successful fiction together. He knew how to use that fiction to his advantage, and it onlytook a single session. Now Mr. Ashby was undergoing a new crisis. Adele suggested we see him at his home. This time he had apparently pulled a ligament between his rib and the connecting vertebra. His pain was very apparent in his attempt to move ever so carefully and avoid bending or twisting. Despite his pain and labored breathing, he was cheerful and talkative. His words came in short pufr, breaths as he led us to his bedroom. Adele said, "Mr. Ashby has designed this room for himself. You must see his bed. You can raise the bottom half or the top. Mr. Ashby has designed these special pegs for the purpose, which fit into different holes to create different heights." The bed not only adjusted, but Mr. Ashby had designed a swivel arrangement with a hook that allowed the bed to tre wheeled into different positions while also itaying attached to the wall. As interesting as I found the bed, I was even more attentive to the two framed photographs above it. These were both of Mr. Gurdjieff. One which I had seen before showed Mr. G. looking fierce with his bald head, penetrating eyes, and turned up moustache. In the other he was smiling, wearing afez and, showing an unexpected sweetness in his face. I peered into the adjacent part of the room. There was an English oak, Chippendale desk over which hung two more photographs of Mr. Gurdjieff. One of these taken in Paris in his last year showed him fully erect and present eating his dinner. To either side of these were two photographs of Madame de Saltzman. On top of the desk sat a smallgold Buddha, perhaps Burmese orThai. Mr. Ashby sat dor,rrn on his bed and invited us to bring chairs and sit for a moment. "Did you know Mr. Gurdjieff personally?" I asked. "Ah, yesr" he said. "I was fortunate to have been one of his pupils. An extraordinaryman." He paused to catch his breath. "I have a group here, you know. I have been teaching his work for years." "Were you at Fontainebleau?" I asked. "No, no. I met Gurdjieff much later, in his last years in Paris, just after the war. He was at the height of his powers." Although Mr. Ashbywas audiblymaking short and distinct gasps as he spoke, his voice was steady and clear. Adele watched as I gave Ashby his lesson. This time I worked without words. It was my hands that spoke. I asked him to lie on the bed on his side and placed a pillow under his head to make him comfortable. Byplacing one of myhands on his lower ribs and the other on his hip I could gently remind him how his ribs moved, how

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indeed he could allowmore movement dffierentiallyand subtlty between his chest and hips, chest and shoulders. He felt immediate relief afterwards. Slowly he got himself up from the bed. I asked him to walk alrout a bit and feel the differences in himself. He did this with ease. He then left us a short while to order some coffee and cookies for us. Somewhere in the other part of the house there were servants and Mrs. Ashby. I was to meet her on my next visit a week later, when I gave lessons to both Mr. and Mrs. Ashby, and was served a dinner of caviar stuffed into avocado halves, washed down with a glass of Armanac. Mrs. Ashby was a small tidy woman who was equally a devotee of Gurdjieff. She had accompanied Mr. Ashby all over the world in his pursuit of teachers. In fact itwas an accident in the jungles of Venezuelawhile a Gurdjieff community that led to limped for twenty years, and now she her crippling her leg. more easily. Thus we had the reason for wanted me to help her my lesson with her. With each move I made with myhands to She too was an apt immediate response. As I guided her connectwith her, I her healthy uninjured leg, I saw how freely how she to led her to understand what I was she stood up after the lesson, one asking ofher. to place her weight more evenly on knew could see that she easier and more confident. too was her legs. Her cookies, MrAshby took me aside. coffee As waited . "As I don't generally tell anyone with Mrs. left to words are foryou andyou alone." about " Mr. Ashby said, a gift. Mr. Ashby spoke first then that I was to I everyone's. Pain was a pain, his perhaps, and more attending to. He, meaning part of life and everything in life was himself or Mr. Gurdjieff, learned from pain, and therefore it was of no more consequence than anything else. Mr. Ashby then related a story about Mr. Gurdiieffand a wrench that Mr. Gurdjieffhad used with extraordinary force. Mr. Ashby described how Mr. G. placed that wrench back on a table. He reproduced the gesture for me with his or,rrn hand. It was exquisite. Mr. Ashby repeated it three more times. The powerful force of using the wrench dissolved into a movement of such grace, such delicacy, that I can still see it, still feel it, as if some after-image was held in my own

musculature. Adele returned with the refreshments. We chatted lightly. I felt a need to be alone a moment. I wandered into the living room. Near the doorway the lower ceiling was cut away in a large oval and I stood under a very deep blue recess in the oval space. It was like standing under a night sky. I watched the ocean and the heavy clouds rolling in. A large black bird with a long, slightly curved beak perched on the outer window sill. He had a yellow circle about his eye. We watched each other for what seemed a long time. He flew off as Adele fetched me for the return journey. It was dusk. The rain had stopped. Adele said, "Iust look All the Daphne blossoms. I'll get you one." She walked to the end of the drive

t2

WTNTER r99O

THE FELDENKRAIS IOURNAI NO.5

and picked a large blossom. She returned to the car. "It has such a lovely smell," she said. The fragrance was intense. [t permeates my memory of the drive back. I thought again and again of the gesture. I saw in it the essence of what I know in my hands, that utter delicacy that I learned from my own teacher, Feldenkrais. I saw too that it was the innocence and openness of that gesture, its freedom from any thought, any preconceived constraint, its purity of intention, that led to its possibility And that possibility is the possibility of the heart. This was Mr. Ashby's gift to me.

my awareness in art. From expanding my awareness through movements, I have pos ties that exist are I see myself opening up to unlimited amounts of options. inflnite. \tVhile working on a project at work, I find myself S different pathhow space and ways to resolve a problem. I no longer see iust word, but I space, objects work together. It's amazing to me that I now can center things on page without measuring. Of course I always check my accuracy by measuring and it' almost always perfect. I no longer see just objects on a page, but I see shapes and forms inthewhite shapes, forms and space. And I've begun to have emotions stimulated by the crea a page. How one small space. Furthermore, I now see so many ways of placing page. Iust like one movement adjustment can and will affect the whole layout for the will affectthewhole skeleton system. Such awarene made mywork as a designer much more exciting, creative and fun. I'm enjoying my body and my work a lot more. Sharon Starika

Graphic Designer Feldenkrais Trainee

r3

THE FELDENKRAIS JOURNAI NO.s

WTNTER

rggo

AN INTERVIEW WITH GABY & VICTOR YARON Paris, zoth August rg88

z zri lr,

F

On the third of February, rcBB Gaby and Victor were in a uery serious car accident. The story of Gaby's recouery process has been inspiring and mouing to many of tts and I thottght that it wottld be important.for other people in the community to hear abottt it as ruell. The accident took place in Arizona and Gaby and Victor were helped greatly lry the support of Carla and John Reed and Elizabeth Keith, tuho yott will hear mentioned often. Tltis interuiew took place in Paris on Augltst 20, six months afier the accident. Edna Rossenes and I did the interuietuing. Beringer

{ { -H -I

EB: Let's begin with with you simply telling

A IJ

W:

LAJ

EE

b o ri o

F

F

o

z

-Elizabeth

us rvhat happened.

This lvas February and we were in Arizona. Gaby finished working on the second and we were scheduled to fly to Washington on the fourth, so on the third we had a free day. We decided to go to Sedona. In the afternoon r,vhen we were coming back I rvas driving and Gab-v was in the passenger seat and she even went to sleep, for a time. I don't know exactly what happened. I only knorv one thing: at a certain moment I sarv a car stopped before us, and then I put on a very hard brake. I was able to avoid to have a clash with the car in front. But at that time, we were already...

GY: Battered on my side. ER: What do you mean?

W:

The bad luck was that the car that hit us had a trailer, and this trailer, so far as I heard, hit our car repeatedly.

GY: Bumped into my side of the car.

VY: Yes, so where this trailer bumped us, on the right side of the car, n here Gaby rvas sitting, no longer existed. That side of the car was completely taken off. It was impossible to think that this is a car. It was terrible. EB: Were you were asleep when the trailer hit you? \\4ren the accident happened? GY: I was awake... Here is something that I explain myself, but I didn't want to see it. I got very scared when I saw it coming and then I closed my eyes. Happen what will happen. And probabl1,.... I just left reality. I had the feeling that I wanted to leave realitv.

t4

ER: You know, your closing your eyes reminds me of the story of a student of Erikson's. Bob Pearson, who's a doctor, said he learned how to do hypnotic anaesthesia the instant a brick hit his temple. He learned how to do it, that instant. Maybe you did something similar.

WTNTER l99O

THE FELDENKRAIS JOURNAL NO.s

GY: Maybe I did something so I didn't have to be there. I woke up in the ambulance, but I don't remember when they brought us into the hospital. Probably I lost consciousness because the pain was really bad. ER: Were you both wearing seat belts? GY: Yes, both of us. And the seat belts- look here, my ribs were broken diagonally where the seat belt held me.

ER: The seat belt did some of the damage? EB: The seat belt kept you from going broke your ribs.

the windshield, but

it

GY: It's usually r,r,hat happens. EB: So, once you were admitted into the hospi

what did they flnd?

GY: Ten broken ribs, and from these, two that more two places. It means twelve fractures, in in my left wrist.

been broken in ribs and a fiacture

EB: \&4rere your lungs GY: Punctured and how! them for a long time. They move, I couldn't even open rvith allthe morphine, the hard. On the third day Carla it rvill ease your pain." I said, me on my side, on mv right you knor,r,, what happened? pain. Apparently with the

don't t'eel anyhing at all.

had to drain

me

and

the But still there. " In order to

It

very

to

didn't

uid out of I couldn't is that even much. Very an epidural, had to turn like this. But I felt the

you

You

r,vith the

it.

EB: We spend so much time trying to feel biock it out!

it's

hard to

GY: That's right, unless you flip out completely as I cident. And in a !vay, at that montent I was also prepared u/as a surprise for me that I was still awake.

the acdie. So

EB:

So, there you were, lying there. And what did you feel? -vou

GY: First of all I said, "My God. \t\4ry

it

\Vhat did

't I die?"

EB: The pain? GY: Yes...the pain \,vas so bad. Then it I have to do something. On the second "Did self through life, because Carla asked you'd be able to vou'd recover? That said, "No. I didn't doubt. I knew d have and r,vork hard for it. And really, Iohn gave me acupuncture, he said that it someone recovering so quickly as I after On the third or fourth day they me nurse. And then Carla showed me

that if I

die,

T

will not ever

my that

I have to work day and he'd never seen needle he gave me -rays; Carla and the to the ribs. And now do it.

r5

!!aNTER r99O

THE FELDENI(RAIS JOURNAI NO.s

the ribs on the right side had been dislocated. But the flrst three days they hadn't been.

ER: Hadn't been dislocated? after the ep-

GY: It wasn't like that. Only on the x-ray on the idural they saw it. ER: So yoll think it ma1, have been from turning too soon. GY: Yes. that's right. Most of the nurses were very I remember, killed me. I told her to put the pillow couldn't lift my arms. "OK," she said, "Lift your She said, "\&rhat's the matter? Only your ribs are

on

side nurse,

,,I

I "I can't." t's nothing

rvith your neck."

W:

BuL most

EB:

So,

W:

For three days only.

ol lhe nurses were very nice.

Victor, meanwhile, you're also in intensive

EB: Only!You had a lot of pain in Your chest?

W:

couldn't erplain it, because really nothing was \,vrong. They made me have a lot of x-ravs and tests. I rvas protesting, "lVhat are you doing nith me?" I didn't knorv that with her, they did probably ten times as many. So after six daYs they let me out and I took a room near the hospital so I could be close to Gaby. Yes, and they

ER: Were they giving you oxTgen, Gaby? GY: Yes, I was with oxygen all the time. I was with oxygen, but not on a

respirator.

EB: I remember holt'weak your voice sounded on the phone when I talked to you at the hospital. It was so shocking. Your breathing must have been very shallow.

r6

GY: Not exactly. John came to me and said, "Look here, Your lungs are But you know hor,rr to use your diaphragm. Use your comsense." So my breathing was, I can't sav that it ll'as shallow, beI r,vas concentrating on breathing dorvn. I can really feel in a new horv important it is to use Your abdomen! I just started to think to breathe. lohn helped rne r,vith this by giving me information' I started to think about horv I can improrre it. Even with the broribs. Something was there. There was sonle movement. I was imjust pushing those ribs apart, because they have been, they did and they passed one over the other one. And now, in my mind, to take them apart with my breathing. Push them apart and I them together. And there was some very slight movement that alreadv able to do. And when I did it, it was even easier on my I But every time I looked somehow to organize mv chest in order p it the possibiliry, because I kner,r'that as long as the ribs, the end ribs, will be so apart, they can't. I need a lot of callouses in order putting them together... So my idea was of visualizing it and on to on putting the ribs apart, pushing them a little bit side so that the ends can meet again, to inflate the chest. Then John

WTNTER r99O

THE FELDENI(RAIS JOURNAL NO.s

told me, "Look here in your right side, the lower lobe is not breathing enough. " So they started a little bit to give me some stuff to do, a thing to blow into, I don't know how it's called, I forgot, it was very difficult. EB: \Vhere you push up the ball? GY: Exactly. The ball goes up, it was very difficult to do it. But I did it mv way. And then, when I did it myway, r,isualizing, air in, visualizing the space I have in the lung, and visualizing I bring it in the middle lobe or in the lower lobe. And, you knor,v, quickly,I felt that it started to work. And they saw it in the x-ray. It' the lower lobe in the right side, the upper, middle and lower lobe I was focusing a lot on the right side, but then the doctor told me the left side, the lower lobe doesn't work.

EB: Because your right side had been hurt GY: I was focusing on the right side all time much that the breathing was now on didn't you tell mel?

it improved side. I

s

EB: That's great. I like that. GY: So I started to work on the left side. it much more serious on the right side and it \Mhen I finished it was numb. I had here like a thing that you can hit and not feel. On the left but still it was stiff. Then, by the way, John told ist. Do you \,vant to have a prognosis?" And so I cialist and a very nice young doctor came. I my prognosis." And he asked, "Are you are a "Yes." "So," he said, "you'll feel OK. You'l}be

it

really

more p less,

for

chest speIike to know person?" I said, Only the shape of

your chest will be completely changed, it rvill be Because on the right side, where the ribs are crossed, the chest will be caved the left a part of it, your chest, will be very stiff. You r,vill be able function, but it will take a long time, maybe a year, but oK." GY: And I said, "I have no time. It's much too

W:

She was veryweak, and in the I had to manage all the workshops and things that were planned. In the I couldn't speak with her. There were eight workshops and I arranged for them to be cancelled. Ned took many of the ones in Europe. Then there was the training in Germany, and that I didn't touch without speaking to her. And then, probably the twelfth day or so Gaby told me, "No, don't cancel it. I want to have a goal. That I'll do

that training.

ER: !\4ren was this scheduled for Victor?

W:

April nine and the accident was February third. In the meantime, we were told that, in any case, we are not able to fly before six weeks.

EB: Gaby tell us some more about the visualizations and breathing that you did. GY: The breathing that I did is the breathing that I evolved from all those lessons that I gave. Feeling, breathing, in the upper lobe, in the

t7

!!'TNTER 199O

NO.s

THE FELDENI(NAIS 'OURNAT

front, in the back. Breathing in the middle lobe, breathing in the lorver Iobe. The breathing was onl\, as much as I could, much of it r,t as visualization. In the beginning most of the movement r,vas doltrt in the diaphragm. But still, after a nhile, I could visualize my breathing in the back, towards the ribs in the back. And then I u,as abie to do even this movement in my back, very slight. ER: You mean moving your ribs from side to side? GY: Moving the ribs from side to side. And it's again the funny thing, because I was so much in pain, and so much obsessed u.ith the right side: moving the ribs on the right side rvas easier than morring the ribs on the left side, that were also broken, but not ir-r such bad shape as the right ones. Because I so much didn't \\,alrt to have mt-chest caved in on the right that I rvorked rvith them all the time. And r-ou kno\\,, "caved in" would mean also very stiff.

ER: But you said vou worked a long time, rvhat does that mean? How long before you could move your ribs like that? GY: I was able to move them like this after i left intensir-e care r'r,hich would have been somewhere around tu,elve dar-s after the accident.

ER: So how much of your day did you spend doir-rg r-isualization? How much time? GY: A lot. It's difficult to say because if vou're in a hospital, vou have no dav, and you have no night.

EB: Plus you were taking pain killers. GY: N{orphine for the lirst eleven days and then ther-put me on codeine. So, but I have the feeling that even in mv sleep I dld it. Because 1 rvas ner-er, never I woke up, it - /as never really a deep sleep, completely ar,vake. By day tlvelve or thirteen, \\'as more arvake. I of u-hat I nras doing, could move and I was able to be more all the time. but until then, it was between being ar,vake and ust busy And so, because I couldn't keep my eyes e\.en open, all the time visualizing, interiorally to some tapes. Was that time that you were visualizing or did vou do

ER: You this at the

different

S(

that r,r'ere very helpful. I 't hear them. my ears, frequencies that them.It the sea, r,rrhen I r,voke up rn,ere good for I fell asleep I did it in my sleepl" I r,r,as breathing deeply. And time. So you see I was GY: Yes, listening to but I didn't

r8

gave me a

lot, but

Care. This was terGY: They made me sit up a ferv times Intensive care untii I sat ribly painful. But they couldn't move rne started rvith me up. Then when I was in the intermediary care still quite an ordeal sitting on a chair for half an hour every day. It ow vou'll harre to for me to sit for half an hour. But then thev said, walk." It was a joke.

THE FELDENKRAIS ]OURNAL NO.s

WTNTER r99O

So, the physiotherapist came, and Carla wanted to be there. She talked with the physiotherapist, and you know how they are, they are very proud, and they sent out Carla.

EB: They sent out Carla? GY: She's a physical therapist, and the hospital physiotherapist u,anted to be alone. It was okay. But I was able just to stand up and to iean on the walker. Then on day thirteen, they brought me into the other department and there came another young man, a physiotherapist. And he took me, I was still rvith oxygen and all my tubes and drains attached, and I was able to walk something like up to the door, outside, and again to the bed. And he said, "Marvellousl You have such a good sense of baiance!" So I started to walk. But still when I left the hospital I hadn't walked more than five or seven minutes at a time and I left in a wheelchair in an ambulance to the apartment Victor found for us.

W:

It was near Carla's home. I ordered a hospital bed and everything that Gaby needed. There was also a pool there, so after the cast came off her arm she r,r,as able to swim. GY: \\hen the doctor took off my cast he asked, " So, holr. do you feel?" "Wonderful." I said, "The r,vrist is a piece of cakel" Reallv the arm lvas nothing compared to eventhing else.

W:

You know, for healthv people the pool r,l.as much too hot, it

like

a

u..as

tub, but for her it was fantasticl

GY: In the water I could do things that I couldn't do othenr,ise.

ER: In positions you \&'eren't comfortable with otheru.ise? GY: Yes, Iike on my stomach or standing in the water I r,vould pick up my foot and take my knee inside and outside my elbor,r,,. All kinds of things were easier in the water. The ribs r,vere still very painful and it was a real achievement when I was able to lie on my right side and then much later when I could lie on my stomach. Each thing I had to r,vork hard for. I did a lot standing on my knees. I couldn't stand on my knees and put my hands on the floor. It was too much. So I found a table and I stood on my knees in front of the table. Then I put my elbows and forearms, like my paws, on the table. And again a lot the breathing. Breathing in the front, in the back, to the left and in different positions. Similar to lvhat we did together in the training. This is the rvay that I started to use my spine differently even before I started swimming. In the bed also I did the work, bending my knees a lot. The movement was very limited, but by using the breathing in different parts of your chest you already have movement, r,r,,hether you like it or not.

W:

There were many things she couldn't do.

GY: Yes, even

\Y:

a

book was too hear,y to lift.

And a chair was impossible.

GY: But, the nice thing is that I discovered everyday something new that I couldn't do before. I didn't rush myself into doing things that I

r9

THE FELDENKRAIS JOURNAI NO.s

I,/I7TNTER

r99O

knew I wouldn't be able to do. I told myself, "You have time. Take it easy. Day by day." So every day there was a surprise, a discovery of something new, and then I could move a little bit more. This in combination with the ATM's, very reduced ATM's, rvith a 1ot of irnagining.

EB: Did Carla and Elizabeth r,r,ork rvith you as r,r.ell during this time or were vou doing mainlv movements on your orvn? GY: I would instruct them on things to do rvith me and rve rt ould lvork together. Also John continued to help me r,vith acupuncture and some cranio-sacral work.

\Y:

Everyrthing was helping a little bit. By now she r,vas going twice a day to the swimming pool and staying for half an hour. Then we

started walking. Maybe something like the third week after coming to the apartment. We would walk quickly for as long as an hour every day. So on March seventh we u/ent back to the chest specialist to see if we We needed his benediction to flv

GY: He did vet another X-ral. and u,hen he sarv it he r,rras astonished. He called us back in u.ith \lictor and Caria. He put the X-ray on the screen ar-rd said, "Its amazir-rg rvhat vou didl I'r,e never seen anything like it." He remembered that in the hospital he'd told me that rnv chest rvas going to change its shape and be caved in on the right side. He shor,r,ed me, " Look, the left and right side they are symetrical. It's amazing what you did! I don't know what you did, but keep it up. It's wonderful lvhat you achieved!" And at the end he said, "I can't give you any advice. You seem to know better than I do." This was very nice of him. And by the way, Elizabeth and Carla were asked to give a presentation at the hospital. They got interested because they really saw what happened.

W:

Then we \vere given permission to flv, but Gab.v still had trouble sitting iong, she r,vould get pain in her cl-rest. So \ve \vere r,r,orried about the flight back to Munich. But reallv it rvorked out flne.

GY: I was amazed, it was flne and I erren had three seats to lie dolvn on through half the flight.

EB: And you were able to reach your goal of teaching in the Munich training. GY: Yes, I was weak when I started, but each day I got stronger. I think my recoverywas helped through the teaching as well.

EB: I remember calling you in Sweden and you told me you'd just stood on your head a few days earlier for the first time since the accidentl

W:

We've been doing for some time nowATM every morning together. lVhen we were able to we immediately started doing this after the accident. So, in Malmo one day she said, "I'11 try the headstand." And she stood. I had a camera in my hands and took pictures.

20

GY: InApril I was in Munich and on May eighth I started in Malmo. It was during the second week I discovered that I could do the head-

THE FELDENKRAIS ]OURNAI- NO.s

WTNTER t99O

stand. It was a little scary because I thought about falling and

my ribs.

W:

And I stood near by.

GY: I found a way and I found that I was strong enough fall back. The biggest achievement was after the S and rolling. I was York trainings when I discovered that I could do the I get experirnenting all the time and when I was teaching I U ideas after I had taught something about how to do it, but I it in these things you experiment and then yotr for both ways. I was watching the students and so much them to do a movement. Then I saw them and learning and I'd go home and try it a new \,vay, moIn my opinion, our strength is not the pelvis so much as bility of the chest. The more I work the more I see how central this is. Every morning Victor and I get up at 6:3o and do an hour of ATM. Doing ATM oneself is so important in this work. My overall really has improved from this experience. People in Paris who hadn' seen me for three years commented how I looked better than three years ago!

EB: How do you feel about

thisiz Do you feel that your

functioning

better now? GY: I feel itl I feel stronger. I get less tired norv. Sometimes still i feel my ribs, but mainly when I'm tired.

EB: I feel that this has changed your teaching and tioned this

as

knor,r, vou've men-

well.

GY: Well first of all I've gotten much more sensitive. And as I told you, I have a different feeling about the importance of the rib cage. The knee, the hip, the legs, the breathing, r,vhatever, the rib cage is so

important.

W:

It's important not to have accidentsl This is first of all important. You know, after the accident happened and Gaby was again r,vell enough so that she could speak, because she was not conscious for some time. I was brought by a wheelchair to her bed and we established that she hadn't wanted to take this driving trip to Sedona, but she went because she thought I wanted to go. And I didn't want to go to Sedona, but I thought she wanted to go. So, no one wanted to go, both of us were therel

ER: So, neither of you wanted to go? That's really interesting.

W:

No. No one wanted to go and everybody thought he's making the pleasure ofthe other one.

ER: \.\hat a good lessonl GY: I didn't want to go, and he didn't want to go. It's like the story about a couple, you know, that they were married for fifty years, and she used to give him the...

W:

The black meat of the...

2t

THE FEIDENI(RAIS IOURNAL NO.s

WTNTER r99O

GY: ... of the chicken. She loved it, but she gave it to her husband. And he loved actually the white meat. And she ate the white meat, the breast of the chicken, that she didn't like. And he loved the breast, but he ate the leg of the chicken, because he thought his r,r.ife liked the breast. And after fifty vears of marriage they discovered thisl

ER: Its such an moving story, Gaby. You took yourself from the point of death and through you own efforts made vourself u,hole. The interuiew utas actually very mouingfor all of us and its hard to do justice to the spirt of it in thisform. None of us were left utith dry q,es! Gaby called later to ask that her thanks to all the people who extended thentselues to her

during this experience

be included. Letters and flotuers utere sent from all ouer the world and many people offered to come and utork witlt Gaby. She utanted to rnake sure that eueryone knew that this g'eat\,contributed to her and Victor's recouery.

-ElizabethB.

22

a

WTNTER 1990

THE FELDENKRAIS IOURNAI, NO.s

(FELDENKRAIS)

Malmo 26.10.88

It moves. I move from the big toes to the top of my head.

continuous flow. wonderful feeling telling me that

A A

it's alive, not dead

which lies between the thought and the walk or kneeling or handling. A

ripple

has replaced

angulous jerks. Strain of civilized and pain

living

is being stretched arrd rolled out. Touch ar-rd go! We're going back years

in a day, pulling offgarments

ofhabit, cloaks of dismay. A renewing process

beneath the skin

with creaking joints and a trembling chin. But slowly, slowly we master the years of growing stiffness, increasing fears.

I roll like a baII, I breathe with the wind. The world opens out to the depths down within. I walk like a being born just now

with

a gracious step and an easy flow. I'lI turn my eyes to the heaven above, and thank my God I am here and I am now.

Helen E. Nordahl

23

a THE FELDENKRAIS IOURNAI NO.s

Michael Johnson-Chase

WTNTER r99O

"L\,/hat I call a good uoice is one that is open and reueals the person. It is when the whole physical being of the person is reflected in the uoice." Cicely Berry

-

EXPANDING INTO VOCAT EXPRESSION

EXPANDING INTO VOCAT EXPRESSION

EXPANDING INTO VOCAL EXPRESSION

24

Just as each of us organizes our self to move in uniquely and specifically habituated patterns that both define us and limit us, n e each use

our voice in specifically deflnitive ways that have a great deal to do with how we express and experience ourselves and others. Voices can be strident or passive, vulnerable or closed, lively or plodding, strong or frail, monotonolls or multifarious. Voices can command respect and engender disrespect. Hon lrre speak is so close to who we are that it can be r.ery difficult for us to accept criticism of our vocal behar.ior. \A/hen u.e do rnanage to speak non-habituallv, it feels as unfamiliar as mor,'ing non-habituall\,, and is no less of a challenge and potential upset to our self-identities. It rvould not be unreasonabie to speculate that most of us use only about live percent of the nuances available in pitch, pitch variation, projection, volume, and rhyhm in our speaking. And since the production of speech and sound is created through movement, we can stimulate growth in ourselves by developing our speaking voices. In short, hor,v we use our voices is an important aspect of how we use ourselves, and very much deserves our attention as Feldenkrais Practitioners. \\hen we work with performers who rely on their voices for their livelihood, then tliis recognition becomes even more critical. There is a grorving interest in the Feldenkrais communiry in the voice as an aspect ofself-use. Because I rvork in a professional actor training program, I must "keep an ear out", as rvell as "keep an eye out" for the constant integration of physical and vocal skills in my students. I am blessed by the luxury and affliction of instructing my students very intensely over a two year period. Therefore I must focus on the steady integration of skills over time, as opposed to the workshop method of helping students taste their potential. This has forced rne to obsess as much about what skills I need to teach as about horv I will teach them. Learning to learn is the beginning, but learning "what"? comes next. I've emphasized the following question: \\4rat does artistically facile movement look like and what does an artistically facile voice sound like, and what is the desired relationship of such facility to the expression of thought and feeling on stage? That rnav sound esoteric, but I don't think it is possible to be effectivelv engaged in the training of actors without grappling with such a question. After all, the historical polemic of theater training-and the arts in generalis the relationship between form and content. \Arhat's more, in the theater, functionai ability is judged by elements of taste, rnaking such

I i

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things as the reduction of pain, increase of comfort, or even potential for learning, secondary considerations. Given such a viewpoint, how does one use the Feldenkrais Method in an actor training program to help develop vocal facility? As practitioners, we are fortunate that what happens in a well-taught FI or ATM in our pursuit of physical facility is alreadv helpful and significant for our voices. Most Feldenkrais practitioners have probably noticed their voices drop in pitch and become more resonant as a by-product effective ATM or FI lesson. Most practitioners have also probably noticed similar result in their students. A few years ago I became mv intrigued by the relative consistency of this response in myself own students and sought to understand it better so that I could it to the training of actors with greater focus and intent. The is my analysis of lr,,hat happens to create the temporal change in texture following many FI or ATM sessions. One typical effect of our work in FI or be thought of like the of muscle tonus throughout the body. It stock market, where some stocks go up and some down on a given day to create an average. The averages may differ ways seen relative to lvhat the starting average was. Simply lying dornm begins a process of tonus reduction, as does yielding to confident and gentle hands. \&tren n e add the investigatorv and communicative skills of a good practitioner, u,e har,e a process which rvil1 no doubt reorganize overall tonus relative to \\,hat the starting average t'r,as. Because l"u,e are mostlt'a societv of overdoers in terms of effort, most of us go into an FI on the high side of rvhat is functionallr'useful overall tonus. Even though the direction of a good lesson is torvard a function and not relaxation, u'e usually end up feeling more relaxed as part of the result. Our sense of rela-xation is related to the general reduction of tonus that has occurred. Granted, much more than that goes on in a good lesson,

but these general effects have a significant effect on the voice. Consider the effect of a reduction of muscular tonus on the skeleton. We have all experienced feeling taller after an FI. This suggests that when we reduce overall tonus in the pursuit of achieving a balance of tonus between muscle groups, then our skeleton is able to spontaneously reach its full length. And yet we feel like we are doing less to stand tallerl We are, quite literallv. Because this reduction of muscular tonus is experienced as doing less, it can be described as a release. So when we get off the table and feel open, soft, and tall, we are, in a functional sense, releasing into length. Since muscular conflgurations are multidirectional, and the release and balance of tonus must occur in all directions within a configuration, when lve release into length we also release into width and depth. If we address ourselves to those parts of the skeleton rvhich are involved in vocal production, we can see that what happens to the whole skeleton in a good Iesson will similarly "inspire" the rib cage to become larger in all directions. An increase in size of the rib cage through a reduction in tonus allows for greater freedom of movement. Greater freedom of movement creates the potential for superior oscillation in those parts of the rib cage which amplifu sound, thus improving vocal resonance. But u,,hat about the lowering of the voice? Although pitch is primarilv a function of relative degrees of tonus in the vocal chords, it is also

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related to the resonating chambers we use at any given time in the production of sound. Most voice teachers agree that there are resonating chambers in the chest, mouth, face, and head. As these chambers rise in location toward the head, their use causes pitch levels to rise correspondingly. And although we fundamentally modulate pitch from our vocal chords, we tend to limit ourselves to pitch lerrels most easily made in concert with out habits of breath and placement in a given resonator. In other words, a deep voice resonated mainly in the chest, whereas a high voice resonates mainlv in the face and head. Since n e tend to unconsciously adjust our pitch level to correspond to those resonating chambers which are most responsir.e to use, \\'e naturalh' speak in a lower voice when our rib cage is more resonant than usual. Our brain then self-selects the resonator which is functioning the best for sound projection and we unconsciously begin to use this resonator more. Because this resonator is most responsive to the lorver pitches in our particular vocal range, we unconsciouslv select lou'er pitcl-res to speak from, fulfilling a kind of feed-forward loop. Consequentlr-, at-t immediate general eft'ect of a good lesson is to reiease the skeleton from habituated tonus, increase our resonance, and drop our pitch level. For a time our voice is richer. just described usually occurs as a br-The influence on the product of a Feldenkrais How can we more fully integrate the and more resonant voice, so that \ve can ability to speak with a we want? Although there are probablr access this abilit"v I would like to concentrate on a particmany answers to t for some years with actors in trainittg. I have ular exploration in the Alexander Technique, it is a Although the ach has the release I have described to the act and useful way to of sp AI

stimulated by a re-balancing of or-era1l in a Feldenkrais lesson, the ace in the skeleton can be cultiabilitv to sense and is upright and in motion. It is r-en' vated and actively it is so essentiallv kinesthetic, difficult to describe release of the bodr, in all oufirard the but imagistically my initial understanding ar-rd directions developed by work in the Nexander aptitude for with FI andATM has ripened and Technique, I believe this kinesthetic image has intensifled my with erformers to avoid unnecessan'and everyrthing to p of an action, particularlr- rvhile distracting effort speaking when emotional and vocal production denands are intense. A person familiar rvith Feldenkrais r,vork may be able to imagine minimizing muscular tonus by remembering a time immediatelv after an FI when he or she felt a sense of expansion and rela;iation simultaneously. The breathing improved, and one had a feeling of increased confldence, ability and overall well-being. The lesson naturallv inhibited the tendency to contract or tense in the meeting of one's environment. There was no increased effort, but instead a sense of internal space and a qualiry of "rightness." Recalling this experience mav help to create an image that describes it. Another rt av is more Alexandrian: let your head gently release away from your torso n hile allort'ing the the

passively

26

a

bya

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torso to gently follow the head in its trajectory. Allor,v the shouiders to r,viden softly outward r,vhile the torso increases its depth. Experience the image kinesthetically on as many levels as possible so that it matures. I once heard a very fine teacher of the speaking voice tell an actress to "breathe in the next thought". As I nratched and listened, I began to understand that this teacher meant for her student to experience breath and the next thought to be verbalized as one and the same thing. It lvas clear to me that she intended thought to also include emotion, and that she lvanted the actress to actually breathe in the full content of what was next to be conveyed to her audience. Not the speciflc words necessarily, but the spirit of the communication. This set me to listening to others and over time I began to understand that we all breathe in relationship to our thought and feeling processes, and that good speakers naturally take breaths that support and sustain the next thought phrase for as long as it takes to express it. original idea, it was an important recognition Though this our breathing are intimately connected-they for me. Our thinking same thing. Although this phenomenon is inare actually one and and express thought, the harmonious trinsic to the rvay rve thought is most noticeable as an aspect of relationship of breath fails to engage it. good vocal use r,vhen speak in such a rvalr that their recall You did not coincide; if so, you will rethor"ight it to listen because the speaker seemed which did not florv from thought of to har,e erratic

impatient, n hich probably happened phrases more organically based -YOu found had the impulse to finish phrases in rn vour the speaker did. Conversely, the exyour p someone who uses breath well in the concert of of is not only intellectually but sensorially and is as rooted in the sensual life satisfi,ing. is one of the many things that is of the bod-v as IS who speak well. to satisfying about breath are an organic whole in good Accepting that concept of release that accompanies a vocal use, Iet us return most FI's. Alexander taught that breathing change in muscular lve allorv the skeleton to take up its full happens most an event rvhich naturally inhibits habitspace by releasing or action which cause us to contract into ual tendencies in feeling, or expression. In his own way, the effort of breath, release in habitually held tonus as a Alexander sought a overall use and the function of breathing, I means for the essence of this discovery and the release from strongly believe are effectively the same thing, the only differa good Feldenkrais Alexander work makes use of a deliberate technique for ence being that using it in action. Combining this kinesthetic skill with the recognition that breath and thought are organically connected led me to wonder if we might be able to continually enhance vocal resonance and pitch variation by actively creating space for breath and thought over and over again in the act of speaking. By releasing into length, width, and depth, one might be able to

Y

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28

WINTER

lggo

to improve conditions for the occurrence of breath, thought and verbal expression. This strategy would necessarily have to be applied again and again as a phasic event in that t\\dnkling betrveen speaking and the formation of the next thought r,vhere breath and thought come together. If properly applied, one could constantl\. renew one's self organization for the best possible verbal expression. As I watched good actors with this in mind, I became convinced that I was on the right track. Excellent speakers naturallr. erpand and into thought phrases. This allows them to simultaneousiv open into strong emotions and vocal demands lr,hile protecting thent from the technical vagaries of psychological and phvsical tension. this skill do not diminish in physical size or emotionai intensity over the course of a performance because thev constantly renew their freedom, breath, and emotional connection to their u,ork. They have an organic talent for getting out of their o\\-n \va\,, so that the emotional and intellectual content of their message can be received. Their artistry coaxes audiences into an involr,ement rvith the content of what is being said without distracting them u,ith particular characteristics of how it is being said. Many aren't to achieve this. Poor speakers have a tendencr. to contract rep into the action of their expressions. Ther-do not release from to moment, so that the speaker never has the opportunity to internal space in the formation of thought or the of who contract into the act of speaking lack a to their material because thev har-e no means the first place. They sound as if ther- are on and the test (rvhich is indeed rrtrat they doing), of the text as if it is being thought for the first and U begin their training in serious of reeducation in this organic skill. NIost peopie, acting students and many actors, are socialized habitual physical and psychological behavior of the expression of strong emotion. Actors with this difficulty unable to be physically simple enough to let their physical serve them as a vehicle through which strong emotion and thought can be expressed. It is very common for them to confuse the sensation of habitually created tension, as a to an emotion or complex thought, as emotion training, students often feel that these conflicting sensations same thing. They are not. The habitual contractive tension we face of strong feeling is actually our way of diminishing the emotion so that it doesn't overwhelm us. Cultivating the skill of creating space for breath and thought is a technical means for expressing emotion in a performance context. Its attainment rewards actors with a of craft r,r,hich allows them greater freedom in verbal Feldenkrais practitioners can no doubt appreciate the dilf,culties across something so "elusively obvious." To clarifiz further, I would like to include an outline that I have used in my classes over the last several years to orient students to this way of working, and suggest an exploration for any readers who would care to pursue this idea more deeply.

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Thought and feeling come together to inspire expression. What allows this to happen? We all agree that one has to be open to generate honest and integrated expression. What is open? Open, by deffnition, means never-ending space. Closed, by deffnition, means, limited space.

How do we become open? On a physicat level, we can create never-ending space by ex-

panding again and again and again. In a way \{e do this rvhen we breathe, but as actors, we need to cultivate this more and more. Expansion, by deffnition, happens in all directions

simultaneously. One way of expanding is to allow our head to deHcately move

forward and up offour torso, allowing our torso to follow our head. This can be done through releasing into the upward direction. (This is anAlexander approach; Feldenkrais teachers may wish to develop their own kinesthetic image.) \.{rhen should this happen?

Because expansion, breath, thought, and feeling are all simultaneous events, (ultimatel-v the same event), the best time for expanding is before and betrveen expressive phrases.

In monologue, each thought and feeling affects the next thought and in dialogues the other character affects one's next thought and feeling. So one can create space deliberately (either as an image or

movement, or both) as a means to be affected by the previous expression, allowing breath, thought, and feeling to create the next expression,

Although this process is necessarily quite active at first, through practice it can become second nature. The following is Sonnet CX\,a by Shakespeare: Let me not to the marriage of true n-rinds

Adnrit impediments./Love is not love \&Ihich alters when it alteration finds,/ Or bends rvith the remover to remove:/ O, nol/ It is an ever fixed mark, / That looks on tempests and is never shaken;/ It is the star to every wand'ring bark, / \i\rhose worth's unkrrov,.n,/although his height be taken/ Love's not Time's fool,/though rosy lips and cheeks Within his bending sickle's compass come; Love alters not with his brief hours and r,veeks, / But bears it out even to the edge of doom./ If this be error,/and upon me prov'd,/ I never writ, /nor no man ever lov'd.

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Although we will experiment with this sonnet independent of its scansion, I have marked thought phrases as they appeal to me. In this case I have been helped out a bit (and perhaps limited in my creativity) by the punctuation added by the editors of the Oxford Edition of the rvorks of Shakespeare. In the original folio there was very little punctuation; the Elizabethans spoke in more complex and more freely extended thoughts than lve use today. Other readers may have different interpretations of rvhat the thought phrases are-which is not only good, it is essential. The sonnet can only be spoken well as it makes organic sense, in the moment, to its speaker. That is why it is quite possible to spontaneously change one's thought phrases as one speaks the piece. It is here that openness is so important-a physical and emotional openness which continually allows for new emotion, neu, a new gestalt in the moment. believe that we create a muscle memory as rve learn a ne\\r piece so whatever muscular configuration \,ve utilize in the memorization exploration of a piece of r,vork are likel-v to stav rvith us and be very to eradicate later if u,e u'ish to ren ork and impror,e it. An muscle memon'can limit our creati\{n-. To create the potential freedom it is helpful to memorize the rvork in the fashion. Lie on your back with vour knees comfortablv supported. If nothing is available for support (which is often the case in classes with actors), place your feet on the floor seeking alocationwhich will allowyour legs to balance comfortable upright with as little effort as possible. Support your head so that there is no strain in the front or back ofthe neck. Allow yourself to give into the floor, surrenderingto gravityand enjoying the sensation ofspreading out in all directions. At some point just prior to taking a breath that you

(To Jola)

NIaImo 3.11.88

Helen E. Nordahl

Last night this new detective found

mypent-up anger, three poems

and it was released in mydream. I stamped my feet and cried and protested (which I never did before because I was a nice child.)

and all thewhile myleft side discovered a new freedom. In the end it heaved a sigh-of relief? I lay on my back -and and rested.

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will

use for speaking, amplify the image of spreading into all directions in your mind and body, so that the creation of space becomes even larger and more focused. Remember that this image is based on release, so that there is an active reduction of tension felt throughout the body. As the release occurs look at the first thought phrase (vou can simply hold a copy of the poem in front of vou), and take in its meaning. Ideally you will take in only the amount of air you need to express the thought vou are digesting, although until you have some skill at this you may take in more air than you need. Speak the thought, intending only to express that which you understand and feel about it. After the thought has been expressed, renew the image of release, allowing vourself to create new space in all directions simultaneouslv. As vou do this, aJlon,breath and the next thought phrase to be expressed to enter vour being. Let the expression ofthe thought be as simple as your understanding of the phrase is at that moment. Use only the air you need. Use only the phvsical and psychological effort the thoughts require. Keep it simple and honestl Go onto the next phrase, activelv creating space for the breath and the thought, expressing it simply, and moving on to the next thought phrase. Ifyou have the impulse to change the thought phrases or extend them because ofa new perception about the text, feel free to do so.

After spending some time at this lying dor,r.n, you can add increasing layers of complexity by practicing this while sitting upright and rhen by standing upright. In each case it is important to begin with an active and clear focus on the exploration, although in time expanding into expression will become second nature. After r,r,orking with the text in this manner a nunlber of times, you will flnd that you can root the text in physical and emotional sensation and that you can express it openly and fully without a contractive response to its intensitv. At that time you will have joined the ranks of many great speakers-those \{ho can speak their thoughts rooted in the full phl,sical and emotional polver of their feelings and beliefs.

To Gaby

Commentaryto today's lesson.

(after today's lesson)

(Another)

Malmo l1.1l.BB I broke myhip, and sprained my knee, and hurt myshoulder too. "Organize yourself," you said, and that I tried to do. I picked me up and moved about and "played" a little too, and after iust

alittlewhile, I was as good as new!

Malmo 11.11.88 I have a skeleton inside

supporting all the rest. The muscles do not count, she says. Let's put it to the test!

I take away my quadriceps, and then my hamstrings too: the lorees theybuckle under me, but function still I do! Awaywith muscles in the back and hips and stomach-all, but still myhead is vertical, and still I sort ofcrawl. But take away the neck and arms and all their muscle "tonesr" and there I am, a ragged doll in one big heap ofbones!

3r

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THIS IS THE NATURE OF WORK

Shifting my senses softly inside myself. Listening, seeing and feeling. Moving a small amount only, without effort. My breathing...my heartbeat... The very pulse of life throbs and ripples through my body and mind. Darkbecomes light,

pain becomes joy. Inner space expands like water overflowing from a river, cascading down a mountain-side to form a stream somewhere down below, or perhaps another river. My skeleton, and nerves are all enthralled by the dance which seeks harmony. Legs and pelvis now know head, shoulders and spine as never before.

Relationships form everywhere Like new friendships sparkling at some wonderful celebration. I stand. I walk free.

Spirits liftedhigh. My feet caress the ground like the hands of a child stroking soft fur for the flrst time. Yet my stride is long and sure... my spine is free to move easily within a powerful column of consciousness that provides both support and graceful movement. Such power, such beauty, such freedom.

I feel my own genius again. this is how I would have been if only life had been kinder to me. Nowthere's no "if only." This is the nature of work. So

Chris Bennet

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X. RAY FINGERS X. RAY FI NGERS xr ELt rr sKtw&ffiK$ a*rlft.I X. RAY F I NGERS X. RAY FI N GERS During the early part of the Amherst training, Moshe was talking about Functional Integration, and he made a curious remark: "\.Vhen you can pull on someone's arm, and feel which rib is stuck," he said, "then you can really do Functional Integration. " I remember thinking that if that were true, then I had even more to learn about the Feldenkrais Method than I had thought. Later in the training, I began to hear a phrase that greatlv aroused my interest. The phrase was "X-ray fingers," and I understood it to mean that it was possible to see inside of someone's body r,vith your hands. There were even workshops offered which purported to teach "X-ray fingers," although I didn't attend them. Was this what Moshe was talking about when he spoke of "feeling which rib is stuck?" After the third year of the training, I returned home and asked some of my friends to come lie on my table while I poked around on their bodies for an hour. Thus began learning Functional Integration. After a few weeks of practice, I had an unexpected experience of what had to be "X-ray fingers." My client was a 32 year-old r,voman. She was trim, healthv, played tennis and skied r,vell. \,\hen I asked if I could do anvthing for her, she said she didn't have any pains that I could get rid of, but she r,r,ould like to have arches in her feet, which were flat. I told her that I rvould see rvhat I could do, and asked her to lie on the table. Toward the end of the lesson, she r,vas lying on her back and I was sitting above her head. I lifted her head -"vith both hands, and began to move it slightly. Somehow, holding her head, I perceived the bones in her neck in a very peculiar way. I felt as if I could "see" them, but it wasn't an),.thing like rvhat I usually call seeing. I also could feel that her neck didn't want to bend to the side, so that she couldn't move either ear easily to its corresponding shoulder. Curiously, with this perception came the knowledge of r,vhat to do. My hands moved quickly, touching her head and neck, and in a brief time her neck became free and her breathing changed, becoming slower and deeper. I released her head and lifted her up to sitting. I could see that I had done something, even though I wasn't sure what. I felt that for the flrst time my "poking around" had coalesced into a lesson. She stood up, and was amazed to discover that her feet were no longer flat. I modestly took credit for giving her arches, all the while hoping that she wouldn't ask how I had done it, since I didn't know. That night, I began to try to characterize for myself what I perceived with my hands. Although my hands were on her head, I clearly "felt" the r,,ertebrae in her neck. But "felt" wasn't quite the right rvord. It was more of a visual sensation, yet I didn't perceive it with my eyes. I r,vanted to call it "feeling/seeing," but that didn't seem quite right. Finalll, I decided that my experience must have been an instance of

fack Heggie

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"X-ray fingers." I had never before experienced the r,t'orld in that way, as far as I could recall, and I couldn't get the memory out of my mind for weeks. I felt certain that this "X-ray fingers" u,as a key element in Functional Integration, and had something to do r,,r.ith N{oshe's statement it was possible to feel a stuck rib rvhile holding someone's arm. the next fewyears, I experienced "X-ral'fingers" several times, and time I gave a dramatic lesson. \Vhatever u,as happening, it just in my imagination. The client felt it too. Once, ,"r,hen I -,vas with a client in the sitting position and r,t as in close ph.vsical I even perceived colors inside of her bodl'. to wonder if there might be some kind ol phi,siological exfor this unusual form of perception. A little research provided of the answer In the early part of this century Sir Charles Sherrington, one of the of neurophysiology, used the rvord "projection" to describe a function of the nervous system. He noted that the act of consists of the nervous system interpreting patterns of iight on retina as events occurring "out there" somer,r,here in the tvorld. is no sensation of activity on the retina tvhen u,e see. The patof light are "projected" outside of ourselves. To sonre ertent, this with the sense of hearing also. \.Mhen I u,as using mt'"X-rav fingers," I had no direct feeling of activity in my hands. It felt as though I had perceived the neck vertebrae directly, b1, "projectiltg" n1\r kinesthetic sense into my client's body. Thus, the idea of projection seemed to provide a possible basis for the unusual sensation fo X-ray fingers. If the sense of touch could be projected like the senses of sight and hearing, it might accollnt at least partly for the sensation of X-ray fingers. But can the kinesthetic sense be "projected?" The r,isual sense seems designed to be projected, but the kinesthetic appears to sense only the body, or the surface of objects with r,vhich \ve are in direct physical contact. I looked for and flnally located an experiment in u,hich the kinesthetic sense was projected.l A device capable of giving a light mechanical shock is placed on each knee of an experimentai subject. The relative timing of the shock on the knees can be r,aried bt fractions of a second. After a period of training, the subject perceives the shock as being located in the empty space betr,veen the knees. "This experience," remarked the scientist who performed the experiment, "is a very

peculiarone..."

34

Other experiments were performed along this line, and ali showed that the sense of touch could be projected, just like the senses of sight and hearing. That is, sensations of touch or pressure on the skin can be perceived as originating outside of our body, just as we perceive light faliing on the eye as representing objects outside of ourselves. By far the most startling of these experiments invohres something called Tactile Sensory Replacement. In TSR, a blind person isfltted with a tiny TV camera mounted on a pair of glasses. The TV image is converted into a pattern of dots and transmitted to a device '"t hich vibrates points on the skin of the back. After a period of training, blind people have learned to "see" well enough to find objects in a room, read an oscilloscope, and even to assemble small microcircuits.2

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Here is a simple experiment that provides the feel of this "projection," The help of a friend is required. Sit at a table, blindfolded, holding a pen, or a short stick with a sharp point. Have your friend place an object on the table in front of you, and then guide your hand until the end of the pen is touching the object. The object should be something familiar. It shouldn't be extremely small, or extremely light. A coffee mug will work, or a vase. Other possibilities are a pair of eye glasses or scissors, a shoe, a bowl or a pitcher. Using the pen to explore the object, trv to flgure out what it is. Do not touch the object with your hands, only r,vith the pen. You rvill probably flnd that in a few minutes -vou will be able to recognize the obiect. \\4-rat happens at the moment of recognition? Do vou feel as if you "see" the object? Afterwards, think about how you were able to recognize it. You did not see, hear, taste, smell or touch the object, but somehow you were able to figure out what it was. This is an example of projecting the kinesthetic sense, which, I believe, is partly the basis for "X-ray" fingers. These experiments provide at least a beginning of an explanation of the experiences I had while doing FI, yet they do not satisfy completely. The subjective experience was so powerful and peculiar-so far outside my usual rvay of experiencing the world-that I feel the idea of projection is not the whole story. \4lhat else could be involved? I somehow managed to perceive a kinesthetic sensation "visuallv." This seems to be an instance of what is called synesthesia: a process r,r,herein a stimulus in one sensory channel is perceived simultaneoush, in orlo,ner. This way of perceiving the world is rare, at least in our societ\', and raises questions I will leave you lvith for your consideration: Does the Feldenkrais Training enhance this ability? And, is it latent in each of us?

References: 1 Bekesv, G.

von. Sensory Inhibition. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1967, in Pribram, K. Languages of tlrc Bra.i.n. Nlonterey, CA" Brooks/Cole, rg7r, pp. 168-170. 2 Hechinger, N. "Seeing Without Eyes". Science Bt. Nlarch rg8r, pp. 38-43

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POEM AS CONSTRAINT

A long

history of effortful (troo, hiss) resistance to any form or structure........ where constraint equalled repression.

...... and then there was

ATM-ahhhhhh.

does the form intrigue me so? does it reform, shift, relocate faster than I can aim and fire? . does'it'become me? .

.

. .

am I rather seduced to attend and notice and remember? am I too busy tracking my movement experience, internal dialogue, metalogue?

Now, Konstraint is Kween of Kreation! (born again, again...... this too will pass)

Still perceiving constraint everywhere, only now revelling, in lieu of rebelling.., (keyboard komrades!) .'. .....and so to Poetry - thee follow me? ... exploring as I see: . confines scribing to chosen matter . refines with each 'approximation' (gentler to the palate than'mistake') . abhors cliches: stimulus to seek non-habitual word configurations meeting, fertilization of images

repetition with intent . may insist on rhyme-nor reason . dabbles in punctuation and cuts in line length . prefers wide margins each side: blank space-eyes to breathe . detests parasitic cement: what happens to repetitions of 'on', 'but', 'to', 'and'r 'the' ? dropped into pits ofobscurity to fire the Kiln of Kreation! . offers descriptions sans conclusions . requires- nay, begs reflection. . uses

the little city Black woman strolls twixt

dandruff-dusted pinstripes,

pushingherlife in

a steel cage no longer carrying salmon and cigarettes.

Walkie-talkies pumping thighs claimed by spandex, a splash of prism lime and pink blurr by bleary, blinking....... fingers clutch styrofoam idols white souls cushioned by Reebok.

Louise Chegwidden

36

WTNTER 1990

THE FELDENKRAIS IOURNAL NO.s

This spring I interutewed Doris Staffel

to

discuss our work together ouer a o.f years. Doris is a pro.fessor at

period

the Uniuerstty o.f the Arts in Philadelphia. She works with charcol on paper as seen here and also with oils and pastels. I began working with Doris

A.

Doris, I'd like to discuss lvith you the evolution of your creative process over the past four years, and how that might connect to our u,ork together during that time.

D. It all stems from the herniated disc which put me flat on my back for over five months. It slowed things down, and put me in touch with many aspects of ml,self I had not been in touch rvith before. The experience of being irnrlobile began to open up obseruations, some thinking, about the fact that I had alu,ays been immobile. \Vhen you began r,vorking u,ith ne, I reaiized that I had been cut off. I lived in my head and didn't knor,r, mv body or respect it, and I didn't understand hor,v direct the connection is betvrreen body and mind. I hadn't been cognizant of hou, frightened I had always been of any kind of movement.

A.

It sounds like a metaphor for fear of moving out into 1ife.

D.

Yes, taking responsibility for a movement. All those months I meditated a great deal of the time and observed myself in a \\,ay I had not

been

us

ing what I had

le

arned fonn both th e

Alexander technique and Rubenfeld Synergy. As I progressed throught the Feldenkrais training my worlc transitioned rnore and more into Feldenlcrais. Wten we jirst began to tuork together my intention was primarily to help relieue her back pain, but the impact of ottr work ruent far beyond this. As D oris des crib es in the follo w ing i nt eruieut, le arning to tttou e in n ew and

mfaniliar

w ay s h as b een a c at aly st

for

significant changes in her thinking abottt herself as a tuoman, and her process of artistic creation.

-Anna

Smuckler

uilling to do, nor had an opportunity to do. \Atren we began

rl,,orking simplr'on der,eloping my sensory awareness, I noticed some

fascinating things. \Vllen you pay attention, to the most minute movement, to the rnost minute change, something is altered after that kind of obsen'ation. From those little details. . . they're not minor, I began to get the erperience, rlot just the thinking, of a rvhole world opening up from moment to monlent. And this brought me into the territory of being a \\'omall. For a u'oman trained in a man's."vorld, r,r,ith a man's thinking, u-e think we can step back and out of an activity, and that we can anah-ze it intellectuallv and knorv it. I began to realize that my woman's \\'aV meant I had to deal and knorv as rt ell as think. \.\4ren I moved prerriously, mV way \,\,as to get through it and past it as quickly as possible.

A. With no experience D.

Anna Smuckler

interviews Philadelphia

artist Doris Staffel

of the event itself. . .

in its unfolding, and I think our work together enabled me to listen and feel and know where my body was, and horv it was. And when I began to move alittle more. . . I mean, I resistedmoving. You remernber how I really resisted any suggestions you had about more activity than I was comfortable with, and I lvas comfortable with a rninimum of activity. I think in my rvork this manifested itself by holding onto very known forms, and the narrative aspect of my work was solidifying things. And then I would flnd that after a lesson, I would go back to the studio, and I would have a range of gestures and a range of mark making that surprised me. I'd always said that basically I was interested in movement, but I didn't want shapes of objects moving in relationship to a ground. Working with vou, I discovered ...

37

\1'r\TER 199O

THE FELDENKRAIS IOURNAI NO.s

that nothing is really isolated, that one thing produces another. I began feeling m-vself in rny body, and being in touch r,vith horv it was more of the time. . . where my head was, where my arms were, how tightly they were pressed to the sides of my frame, what my legs and back lvere doing. That kind of observation was the kind of observation I began to make more intentionally in my work, that each part lives on its or,vn as well as being part of the whole. Strange, but rvhen you can reconstruct or identify the process of making a mark, making a line, a tone, a shape, a volume, you get more precise and then vou go through kind of a strange accuracy and then it dissolves; but it doesn't dissolve until you go through all the stages. an ATM sequence lt'here you break a process of movement down into very discreet, precise, nloments and then the process begins to make itself knorvn, but it onllr hspr"rrs r'r'hen vott can allort' yourself to trust not knowing rvhat it all means or tl'here You're going.

A. It sounds like

D. Yes. One of the most interesting things \vas that vou'd gi,,'e a direction and I would decide in my head beforehand hon'it rvas going to be, and that's a trap that painters fall into. \Vhen !'ou conceptualize beforehand, you are only dealing rvith r,vhat vou have knon'n or done in the past. If you allow the process to take You grazing, \'ou get into territory you didn't think n as possible. You begirl to discover that -'vhat you experienced in your bodv is aiso rvhat l'ou erperience in vour head. \r\rhen you know something in one area, vou knon'it in other areas, even though you may have to go through a period of acquainting Yourself with different languages. do you experience the difference betr,veen a private lesson and a group lesson?

A. Horv

D. I do experience a tremendous difference. In a one-on-one situation I can be verv still, listen to you, and tune in, in a very special way to the feelings and changes in my body. In class, I'm busy relating to the other people as much as to you. The cognitive aspect rises to the foreground, and you seem different. The group situation stirs up a lot of competitiveness in me rvhich I don't like.

A. If you dislike it so much, there's probably something valuable in it for you. ii

:

of my reiationship r,vith my father, and authorities, and gror,ving up in an enrrironmetlt r,vhere nothing was good enough. In the Feldenkrais rvork, vou tell me "It's O.K. to move any way you want to, there's no \\Tong way to explore." And that would set into motion the tremendous cluestion: Hat'e I Iimited myself all the way along? Has there onlv been one r,r,ay to do things, one tradition, one sense of aesthetics? I r,vas r,villing, I thought, to go into something in depth, but stay in one place, do the same thing again and again. .

D. No doubt. It makes me think

.

A. And avoid the risk of making any possible mistake. Yes. You know, do you take a chance, do you have the lightness that allows you to? I think it's only possible when you're not holding onto anl,thing, and it's a wonderful feeling.

D.

38

WINTER 1990

THE FELDENKRAIS JOURNAI NO.s

A. Anat talks about Moshe's extraordinary ability to notice, and his claim that there is no limit to a\,vareness.

D. I think that the art of noticing where

you are in body and mind. . . I really want to say body/mind, that kind of noticing may be all we really need. I think that kind of opening allows you to give up ignorance, and ignorance is basically ignoring, just closing out huge chunks of stuff. \Vhen vou start to do the kind of work r,ve've been doing together, or studio rt,ork, or to really love compassionatellr, you are in a noticing n-rode all the time. People ask "Horv can you have that kir-rd of attentiveness?" I don't know horv, exactl\,, but I kr-rorv it's painful not to have it, and there's a dullness nhen \.on don't.

A.

Earlier you referred to hou, it is being a woman in a man's u,orld.

D. That's very important to me. We women

harre been brought up to think our minds have to work in the way society says that a man's

mind is.

A. And that this is the onlyviable

way.

D. Absolutely. I mean that I'm not just talking about a woman, but the feminine aspect of a male as well. My method of grazing and taking circuitous routes is a rvonderful rvay because it collects a great deal along the uray, whereas so often, a man $rants to come to the point. And sometimes the ans\ver is that I don't _vet knor,rr ivhat mv point is.

A.

You're talking about process.

D. Ihat is exactly

right. And \,vomen harre a rvonderfui abiiity, partl.y societal and partly intuitive, of being able to deal with complex relationships. I mean we deal with a bunch of kids and our parents and ourselves and our community. And I think I felt that I should feel as a man, and hold myself as a man, and the men I was closest to were very rigid, muscle-bound men.

A.

How did developing a more inlimate sense olyourself manilest itself in your r,vork?

D. I began identiffing with the body part of me. \.&hy do you think all the drawings I do norv start with the breast? \.\4ry do you think I can dissolve awav most things, but not the breast? They stay very apparent in these drawings. First of all the circle is a marvellous shape. You know, egg, ovary, stomach, uterus. This didn't come out of my cognitive sense. This really came out of identi$ring i,vith the body part of me. And if I may add, body/soul, because I had to develop this knowing of my woman's soul. \Mhy the hell I'm using the word soul I have no idea.

A. It sounds

quite Jungian, and the |ungians associate the body with the unconscious, so that if you access the body, you're going to access the unconscious repressed parts ofyourself.

D. And it's true. Listen, after lessons r,vith you, I have come home and I've been flooded with 'ahas'. I'r.e gone into my studio and the work has been perceptibly different. You know., I've alrvays had incredible inruition but I never trusted it. With the ability to move in a balanced and light rval , I'r e become more responsive lo nry intuition, and also

39

WTNTER 199O

THE FELDENKRAIS IOURNAI NO.s

to my shadow aspect, and it seems to me if r,ve can't deal rvith ottr shadow we can't deal r,vith anl.thing. If you don't trust vourself vou look around for authorities constantly and now, it seems, I \\,ant to divest myself of a great many authorities.

A. Tell me more about the dralvings you've been working on the past four years.

D.

M-v last period of abstract work ended with the herniated disk, and then I was really in touch and felt and knelv and experienced my bodily self. \A{ren I started to work again, I had no idea that I rvould work with the flgure. I hadn't worked with the flgure in over 35 years, since I'd been in graduate school. So it took several -years to learn lr,hat I needed to learn, almost to go through the histon. of art and replicate the history of art with theflgure so that at first the figure n as isolated and very concrete and as I mor-ed along uith the process, or the process mor.ed me alorrg, I for-rnd tl-rat I couldll't r.1se one flgure, that there had to be hr-o, and then I four-rd that trr-o is not enough and that as I began to explore the idea of u'omanness, figure, bodv and nlovement, it became almost as if the figure rvas a landscape. I began to see a rhlthmic movement in the way I r,vas clustering the figures that reminded me of the way of the sea. I had gone down and sat for a long time at the edge of the water and it seemed to me that what I wanted from my figures was that sense of undulation, that from the vast expanse there is a movement which brings in a shape, an object, and then as it moves into a concrete form it begins to dissolve just as the waves do. You have the appearance of a lu,ave and then you lose that and then the water moves in a different pattern and I thought, that's r,r,hat I n ant. Horv in the u,orld can I get that? And that has to do rvith morrement. But it has to do u,ith not a thing moving. It has to do rl,ith . . . eveq.thing is alrvavs in movement. So the pull nor,v is for self and individuation which is a lovelv rt ord that you use, and then the cosmic sense of oceanic. . . you knorv, the movement from the separation from the r,vhole, to the separated thing going back and becoming part of what it ah,vays -"vas . . . the whole again. I think norv, I want a very strong sense of pattern in this. I lrrant to hold on to that multilayered overlapping, and a sense of transparency. I use the r,vord 'transparency' because it's just like the bodv. There's mor,ement of the skin on the outside, there's the movement of the bones, the blood, and the cells r,vhich lve can't see. So there are layers of movement in one's life, in one's rvork, and certainlv in relationships. And if we're talking about relationships, rve're talking about being real, whatever that means. Being truthful, which I think we have some idea of. Being aware mav be the most important kind of movement I can think of.

40

WTNTER r99O

THE FELDENKRAIS IOURNAA NO.5

Feldenkrais for Actors & Acters

Using Action Itself as a Vehicle to Increase Stage Presence

Some years ago I did a little acting. I rvas not very good at it, but eventually I had the grace to stop inflicting my ar,vkwardness on audiences. Years later, shortly after completing the Amherst Feldenkrais training program, I decided to try it again and was delighted to find that I had improved during the hiatus. I had had plenty of opportunifi, to grow personally, and my increased kinesthetic awareness seemed to help rne feel more comfortabl and "in charge of myself" on the stage. I also felt my understanding of Feldenkrais principles helped

Michael Purcell

me to keep improving. In a u,a\. the theatre has always been my first love, and the desire to use Feldenkrais with actors grerv in me. I knew Moshe had worked lvith Peter Brook and had done that wonderful interuiew for Tulane Drama Rer-ieu'. Nloslle's own sense of timing and theatrics was of course alu'at-s superb. A

Question of Relevance

From man\-pers1lecti\-es it seems obvious that ouruvork has tremendous value for all perfonners, including actors. For example, lessons designed to help free the breathing apparatus by using the erector rnuscles of the spine more properly, many lessons involving the mouth and jaw, and lessons deaiing with orientation are all certainly important. Still, early on I discovered that the overall functioning and developmental need of acting students was not predictably different than other groups. I did, however, run across a problem particular to this group. There are "actor types," who have little money to spend on anything that does not seem quite relevant, and who were not immediately enthralled rtith my attempts to introduce them to the method (as opposed to The Method, a generic name for all the blproducts of Stanislavski's teachings, rvhich American actors now consume so voraciously). The Alexander Technique, on the other hand, is much more accepted, at least by professional actors and acting teachers. Perhaps working primarily in the vertical makes more sense to thern. The application seems more direct, and the basic ideas are easier to grasp. Besides, Alexander, like Stanislavski, cante upon his discoveries through being an actor. N4oshe only professed wanting to be one. Interestingly, the one lesson reported on by Kristin Linklater (revered for her own voice work in theatrical circles) r,vho attended one of Moshe's seminars at a major arts schooi, was done standing. (Linklater, r97z). Moshe may have been aware of the need to relate to performers in their own medium, or Linklater found it most easy to relate to and remember such a lesson out of several given, which says

4r

1!-INTER 199O

THE FELDENKRAIS IOURNAI NO.5

the same thing. In either case, connecting with students in a familiar environment flrst can be a functional lr,'ay to begin, even if other compelling reasons would Iead the practitioner to want to take them early to the floor. Actors will generallv come to the method through classes, since they are used to that modalitv. Because of issues of affordahility, there be little opportunity to address individual differences with FI, means dealing with the varietv of functional abilities and pace learning in a beginning ATM class yet keeping e\Ieryone in the group orvering for them. The ATMs will in what is for all participants, but for this theoretically have equal cohesive group, flnding a common ground is essential. I found myself focusing less on the speci{ic body-oriented issues (rvhich, nevertheless, can be of interest to them) and drart'n more to the question of rvhat it is about reallr'flne actors (or musicians, or dancers) that allows them to produce a perfornrance that has a profound (dare I say moving?) effect on an audience. Is it ph1'sical, emotionai, psychological andi or spiritual? Is it a function or set of functional abilities? can Feldenkrais possibl)'help them to do it? Without fully understanding, and yet knorving I had to start somer,r,,here, I began to think and speak of this mysterious abilin- as It was only after more r,vork rvith actors, and continuing mv o\\rn of acting, rvhile recognizing that my fascination w-as also based need, that I realized that presence, lvhich seems to referent in people's minds, is misunderstood arld differlike a diamond, it is multi-faceted and its bec its shine. ent andAttuning has Weiner, in leading w'orkshops for quotes \1o as "being present/or another." Marty that an essential aspect of his work rvas "allorv the and me to them." (Weiner, workshop FI beca brochure.) This idea is interesting for acting as IS major part of what tnake a stage performance betrveen change between the performers, and be ence. Might lve even go so far as to say that the doing a kind of FI r,vith each other and rvith making a difference in their functioning? In a It r,vould be easy to make a case for the point. great artistic performance. Still, it is pro ably firnctional \.Vhat Carl Ginsburg calls the biological (small but we integration (Ginsburg, 1987) may be process of a clear practitioner/student relationship. things becoming a Feldenkrais practitioner, there let's back presence for another that the actor needs to develop a bit. up AnActor's Training

been fivo main idea most closeltThe schools of thought about learning hor,r, you get very deepl-v in touch associated with "N1ethod" acting is

At least since the time of Stanislavski,

42

WTNTER r99O

THE FELDENKRAIS JOURNAL NO.s

with your inner feelings, responses and personal experiences with little or no regard for how vou look on the outside. In this vielv, no nlatter what role you are playing, you are alr,vays plaving yourself. As you build the character, you unr,vittingly uncover those features and attitudes inside yourself that give the role uniqueness. This approach dominates in the U.S., probably because it rvorks so well on the screen. But playing vourself is not as easv as it sounds because the idea is to be more or less transparent. It is extremely difficult in our culture to remain totallv in the process of sensing-and not censoring-our own feelings. Ihis is something that most of us learn frorn a young age not to do. Acting is probably the onlv profession it-t the world r,vhere -you (might) not on11r make a living but also become an icon primarily through your r.ulnerabiity. Marilyn N,Ionroe is the obvious example. The second main approach to acting is sometimes called the English school. The idea of this great stage tradition is to be able to take on any physical characteristic, mannerism, vocal trait or accent, and to manifest flrst lt,hat the role looks like from the outside, then deepen it by learning to experience who that person r,vould be inside you. Certainiy one of the greatest exponents of this style was Laurence Olivier. In reality either method can be overdone, as we see in Brando's over-indulgences, and on the other side even in Olivier himsell particularly in earlier fllms rvhere i-re is all shou,iness and glitter. The best acting probablv comes from both sides at once, u,hiche\.er means the actor used to rlllrture the art or the specific role. Both approaches help the actor develop presence, but I think it is useful to discem them as tr,tro distinct facets of presence, both of r,vhich need to be ar,ailable to the fully developed performer. Also, a third facet mav be related to what happens kinesthetically in an FI and generally is not easily developed before the other tvvo aspects. How do I distinguish theselr If the third, more interactive form of presence is being present for another as part of theiruvorld, inward presence is the ability to be present r,vith oneself, and outrvard presence is the ability to manifest action in the world. The magical combination of these which rve coulcl call true stage presence provides the abilitv to absorb the observer's interest and emotions totally in the reality projected by the performer. \\hich of these can Feldenkrais help us develop? Although by no means a substitute for acting training, I think all three. Let's try to understand how. The Source ofPresence

People have all sorts of ideas about what "presence" is and where it comes from. Presence is often thought of as a deep spiritual or psychological phenomenon. Students rvill perceive the practitioner as "open" or "heart-centered;" the performer described as "speaking to my being, " and this may be seen as the source of presence. As much as these qualities can appear as attributes of presence, it is also possible to have them and not be able to perform rvell on stage. By the same token, one can portray antagonistic anger and even evil with magniflcent stage presence, but applying some version of "the dark side" to FI is generally frowned upon.

43

\VINTER I99O

THE FELDENKRAIS IOURNAL NO.s

Developing awareness will not necessarily lead to a more powerful presence. "Awareness of what?" is a key question. I remember how stunned I was once when a bright young physician, after looking briefly at some written material I handed him and listening to my description of the Feldenkrais Method, nailed me immediatelY on a potentially serious "achilles heel" of the work: that making people more aware of movement and their bodies mav mean r-r"raking them more self-conscious. V\hat about the apparent danger of vour students becoming only more aware of flaws that stand out, their aches and pains, or more uncomfortable rn ith their vulnerabilit]'? Alntost even' practitioner has had such moments of concern. I rvill come back to this question later, after you have had time to consider vour o\\'n answer. Suffice it to say for now that self-conscious acting is one of the absolute worst kinds of acting, and probably the most devoid of atlrkind of presence. If Feldenkrais makes an actor self-conscious, s/he should avoid it like the plague. Self-consciousness may in fact be the antipathl, of presence. if so, there are a pair of real demons, the Past, and the Future, that forer-er take us away from ourselves. They are an actor's mortal enemies. Conversely, many people have deflned presence as simply "being present in the present." My own deflnition above implies this. We knou-horv many spiritual, psychological and self-improvement paths are based on this pursuit. Does this suggest that the source of presence lies somer'r,here itr the actor's state of being or essence, as one popular notion would have it? Yet if you have ever seen a famous actor off the stage or screen, \'ou y have been surprised to notice how unassuming he or she appears. ,, where does it go? If p and Being

for acting students is, that a common It iS "Don't acti this idea literally onlr-muddies Unfortunately, very useful to think in terms ol a For reality it is shifting. Perhaps a rock, a e being is of being Humar-r even a human body might and therefore human action, is different. The aphorism arises from one of the most colnmon problems in acting: overacting. Bad actors are always doing rvhat thev think they should be doing instead of simply doing. Thev are overloaded u,ith what Moshe called "parasitic activitv." One.,vay to get them to stop and to do only what is essential to the action at hand is to tell thetn not to do anything, just to be. But this being is meaningless except as part of the process of action. Humans cannot help but act, on the stage or in the world. Being the human sense means doing. Choosing and Authenticity

44

The fact that we are constantly doing means that rve are also constantly choosing, so at some level presence is indeed a choice one makes. Making that choice is less simple than it sounds because first we must know how to choose it and feel safe enough to choose it. And we have to really choose it, not just pretend to choose. For certain

t

WTNTER r99O

THE FELDENI(RAIS JOURNAL NO.s

aspects of acting, Moshe's dictum about "knowing what you are doing" is serious business. On the stage if you try to "project" presence by an exterior act of will, an audience may agree to pretend they are impressed, but in fact they are bamboozled, and their act will be just as

phony as the performer's! By the same token, if you spend all your time trying to "be present in the present", you may find vourself adrift in a great Sea of Being. The concept sounds fine, but it is not very rvorkable as a process. As much as we try to deflne presence in terms of being, rve still work with it, develop it, through doing, through action itself. Feldenkrais as Presence in Acting

Thus the source of presence for the actor-or any act'er-is doing, not being, and certainly not overdoing. One could hardly flnd a more distilled notion of what Feldenkrais work is about. We are attentive to and accepting of our inward process even as we are manifesting action outwardly. In FI we are also joining with the process of another. How does all this apply to the acting student, or anybody? Much of the time, people choose not to be present with the "doings" of their feelings, their inn'ard process. They face other people and even themselr.es uith "bodr-arnrour" and other defense mechanisms. As practitioners \\'e see that there are often very good reasons why people do not feel sale. Feldenkrais teaches people to knou, lr,,hen thev are safe and then hou to continue to feel safe n hile thev iearn to feel more. Thet' learn that it's okav to be affected by their or,r'rr feelings, that they can be vulnerable u,ithout giving up the possibiliw of safetl, because ther. retain the freedom to reverse their actions. Haring said that, I must also state my observation that for most people, the Feldenklais Method proves not to be enough by itself to establish a profound inner presence. For this we are obligated to confront the material of our inner lives. Feldenkrais can make it more possible, but ultinrately rve must be willing to enter into the center of the storm, to lace ourselves unmasked. Sometimes we may need to violate Feldenkrais principles and let go of safety to take a leap. There is an obverse to the coin of emotional transparency. There are actors rvho are so solidly and uniquely "personalities" that their presence is a statement. In fact, a tlpical pitfall for any performer (or anvbodv) u,ho has not discovered his or her own uniqueness is the " acting" or mimicry of the style of one who has done so. Notice, for example, the tremendous impact certain actors have had not only on other actors but on the culture. We might wonder, did Iohn Wavne merely fulflll an archetype for his time-or actually create it, such that several generations of men wanted to "walk in his shoes?" At times perhaps even ]ohn Wayne found the need to play Iohn Wayne? ! By the 1960's a new breed of actors like Robert Redford and Paul Newman were doing the same service for a changed, less singleminded culture. (And how many mini-Moshes have we been, running around in the shadow of the Great One?) \.\4rat were all of these performers doing? For us they were providing an image of a hero who has or discovers the capacity to act powerfully from a clear, fully integrated self. The actor must kinesthetically know and be able to engage from that image. This is what I call outward

45

\e.rNTER 199O

THE FELDENKRAIS IOURNAL NO.s

much more than this. It is no accident, of features-a fully integrated self and the rvhile not the first elements to be learned,

r,vonder to behold is tr,vo or [rore present r,vith themselves leads to other and hence be affected bv

palpable form or demand

is the

presence, manifesting action in the of presence. Many scripts-and

these cap

those trtro

pou,erfui actionof the r-rltimate

Being

1n

to be Add to

each

their self

intention towards action as a have the potential fbr real each other. In the same way, delineated characters whose Also, although I will not go in same understanding can to s music and dance.

As in Fi,

comedy and in it here with any extent be

)-ou

learn to out of are

I

to

the

of

The Integrated self

Let us now return to the apparition that waylaid us earlier that ghost of self: self-conciousness. In truth, " a misleading term that should not be confused with actually a lbrm of dissociation lvhere one watches perspective. Holv does one do Feldenkrais

path, is

It is

conscious? of ATII har,e Consider the following questions: Does a 1ot of qualifiers, are presence? Is it interesting to the observer? horv thel' are doir-rg it. of course, depending on rvho is professional interests of a Generally I have found that, to do than to \\'atch. Onlookpractitioner, ATM is far more the fumblings of the learner. ers often get bored and fail wherever possible, that rvhoerrer For this reason, Moshe at least in their imagination. ATN{ was in the room do the goal is either unknon'n or kept is an open-ended process and failure can open far off Allowing room for closed possibilities for learning. In this settilrg one could how to move a lot of different body parts in a 1ot of different also ways and still never integrate the capacity for powerful action. Iust doing ATM, any old way, will by no means guarantee the development of presence. Ironically, as any acting teacher u,ili tell You, stage presence is ignited only rvhen there is a deflnite goal to action. It is only integrated action that is dynamic for the obsen'er, and it is only an elegantly executed, integrated movement that rvill be totally unself-conscious and communicate presence. The ironv is that the Awareness that develops Through this Movement is not finally for the movement itself but for the intention and the function that is meant. It is important, therefore, that we distinguish the process of learning about action from purposeful action. In purposeful action we are commited to a result, and we bring all we need-and no more-of our

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developed self to bear. The fact that r,r,e know what we are doing means that we can act as powerfullv as we need to accomplish the goal. The function is integrated. The process of learning requires only that we be open to exploring possibilities. We mav have the option to treat a particular movement in a purposeful, integrated way, and in an ATM, it is in fact important to make sure this happens at points along the way. DoesltWork?

It sounds good, but does it'ut ork? This is one of the most examples I have: I ask a pair of actors to go through part of a them thev're working on together at the beginning of class. Then I Moshe to The in it social, as used to do an ATM synch-making students are at once required to integrate inner, outer together functions. Almost invariably, r,vhen I ask them to do the it r,l,orksl again, there is a remarkable increase in their presence. In Conclusion

One peculiar beauty of the Feldenkrais teaches the student, Iittle bv little, how to moment to the next comfortable, present moment, eliminating those

that from

present the next of the Past and a major impact on a can do r,r.hat is required

the predetermined Future. That student's-and particularh, 311 o.,o.' to live and perform u,e11: to act with that to be in the the My thesis here has re-",olved the moment is actuallt, an existential only moment, and then it is gone. Action is ground for human eristence, and since arts reflect our is tto ing of existence, Feldenkrais equally means Presence also is not a thing. It is simply we are lives-and our art-through contact, outer and interactive doings of Bibliography

Feldenkrais, M. (rg66). "Image, Movement, and Actor: of Potentiality." KellyMorris, (Ed.), Ttilane DramaReuiew, Vol. to, I'lo. g, Spring, 1966, pp. 111-126.

Ginsburg, C. (tgSZ). "The Roots Of Functional Integration : Part IBiology and Feldenkrais." Feldenkrais Journal, ltlo. 3, ig97, pp. t3-24. Linklater, K. (rgzz). "The Body Training of Moshe Feldenkrais ." The Dratna Reuietu, March, tg7z.

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THE FELDENKRAIS IOURNAL NO.s

Contributors is just about to from the flrst Sydney Graduate training program. He is a long time practicant of the martial art of wing Chung and lives in Perth, Australia.

Chris Bennett

Elizabeth Beringer lives and works inAlbany, California. She is codirector of the Somathematics training program and edits this Iournal.

Louise Chegwidden

is originally

from Tasmania. She is currently living in California, working as a physical therapist, doing contact improvisation as much as possibie and attending the Somathematics Training Program. It is her art work you see throughout this issue of the Iournal.

Carl Ginsburg, Ph.D. received his doctorate in organic chemistry from the University of Ohio in 1968. He is an assistant trainer and travels frequently to work in various training programs around the world. He w,rites frequently for this Journal and in addition edited the Master Moves. He lives and works in Albuqurque, New Mexico.

Iohn Grahmn

has achieved international recognition for the unique

work that he has developed with dancers and non-dancers. He teaches his "gentle dance" seminars throughout Europe and the United States and currently is centered out of California and West Germany.

Iack Heggle received his B.S. in physics in 1967. He goes skiing whenever he can and has recently completed a new expanded edition of his book The Aware Skier. In addition he has authored a book applying the Feldenkrais Method to running entitled Running with the l\rhole Body. I ack lives in Boulder, Colorado and maintains a practice in both Boulder and Dallas, Texas.

4a

Michael Iohnson-Chase taught Alexander and Feldenkrais work to professional and student actors at the Nationai Theatre Conservatory and the Denver Center Theatre Company for five years. He and his wife, Anna Johnson-Chase, and children have recentiy moved to Milwaukee where Michael has joined the faculty of the Professional Theat re Training Program at the University of Wisconsin at Milwaukee.

Sharon Starika

is a graphic artist and a participant in the Somathematics trriining program. She lives and n orks in San Diego California. rvas a member of Moshe's fust training program. She is

GabyYaron a senior

trainer and travels through-

out the world with her husband Victor teaching in training programs and leading rvorkshops. She is currently centered out ol \lunich, West Germal_v.

Michael Purcell

is a graduate of the

Amherst training and currently lives and works in Carmel, California. His work with actors includes the Forest Theatre Company in Carmel, CA and Olympia Dukakis'\Vhole Theater in Montciair, N.J. He has also presented the Method to groups of actors, dancers, singers and musicians at several national arts conferences.

Garet Newell is a long time dancer and Feldenkais Teacher. She has brought the two together in her collaboration with Iohn Grahmn. Garet currently lives in London where she is co-director of the first Feldenkrais Training Program in England.

Helen Nordahl is a students in Gaby's program in Malmoe, Sweden. She lives and works in Fauske,

Norway.

Edna Roseness is an assistant trainer and currently is spending much of her time teaching in training programs worldwide. She lives and works in Muir Beach, California. Anna Smuckler is a student in Anat's East Coast Feldenkrais training

program. She was originally trained in the Rubenfeld-Synergy Method and is gradually integrating the Feldenkrais Method more directly into her work as her proceeds with her

training.

This issue of the Feldenkrais Journal was set in the Adobe Original typeface UTOPIA, designed by Robert Slimbach. It r,vas formatted in Aldus Pagemaker 3.oz and Aldus Freehand on a Macintosh II. Final copy r,r,as output to film directly from disk on a Linotronic aoo, at Bacchus Press. It was also printed at Bacchus Press

in Emeryr{lle, California.

rraNTER 1990 THE FELDENKR{IS IGURNAI NO.s

\r

TheArts

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