Artistry of Fluid Strength: online feldenkrais course

A series of 10 unique Feldenkrais® Awareness Through Movement Lessons with Sarah Baumert

Moshe Feldenkrais’ own personal experience of sustaining injuries on both knees led him to develop a strong interest in human movement and health, and what we can do to improve it. He defined health as the ability to recover from shock.

“Health is measured, not by the capacity to stay standing, but by the ability to be knocked down and then return to standing.”

This thought became central to building his method.

Feldenkrais believed that humans have a natural capacity for movement, but that this capacity can be inhibited by habits and patterns that we develop over time. These habitual tendencies can be due to historical circumstances that may include injury, trauma, or shock. While developing his method, Feldenkrais wrote extensively on the topic of human movement, how we navigate through time of disharmony, and the resilience needed to overcome upheaval in our lives. 

In this Feldenkrais Series, The Artistry of Fluid Strength, we will explore Feldenkrais' unique definition of what it means to be strong and resilient; where concepts of physics and artistry will intersect during the experiments of our Feldenkrais Awareness Through Movement research. 

Using the playground of our own bodies and the surfaces that support us, we will study themes of skeletal support, distribution of effort, and proportional tone. Oftentimes the outcome of lessons can be perplexing to students. It can seem paradoxical that a movement can become so much easier and smoother without trying harder. 

“Can sensitivity and awareness really make me stronger?”

“Why did my head get so light at the end of the lesson?”

“How did the movement become so easy?”

“What do you mean, to do the movement with an absence of effort? My muscles have to work!” 

We will practice building the strength of our internal resources, so we can enjoy moving with both ease and confidence in most anything that we do. 

*This course was originally taught live online over zoom. It can now be purchased as a self-paced online course with lifetime access to the recordings.

A healthy nervous system is a state of being that allows us to move and function with confidence, and to adapt to change with resilience.

“The human nervous system is eminently suitable for change.” -Moshe Feldenkrais

$200
Pay as Able and Full Scholarships available.
Please inquire directly with Sarah. No questions asked.

What is Included in the Series:

Movement:
• This series includes ten 60 minute Awareness Through Movement classes. 

Educational Talks:

• Pre lesson Anatomy lessons
• The philosophical framework for ATM 

Connection:

• Recorded Q & A to listen to questions, connect with the other students, and discuss the method and tools we are learning about. 
• Optional 10 minute consultation with Sarah
• Online forum to connect and ask questions if you are doing the recordings   
• Email support

Ways to keep practicing:

• Stream recordings indefinitely   
• Option to download recordings

Lessons Included in this Series:

Lesson 1: Games of Counterbalance and Weightlessness
Lesson 2: Lifting Your Pelvis and Finding Your Back
Lesson 3: Baby Rolls
Lesson 4: Balancing Weights of the Legs, Head, and Pelvis
Lesson 5: Reaching and Freeing the Pelvis
Lesson 6: Spiral like a Staircase, Power From the Pelvis
Lesson 7: Organizing Your Torso to Carry Your Head
Lesson 8: Heel Clock Roll Up
Lesson 9: Connecting the Limbs to the Center Through Rotation
Lesson 10: Falling From the Ground Up

Live classes and recordings will be accessed via the BODY MATTER studio platform using Marvelous software. Once you have purchased the series, you will have access to the livestream classes and recordings.

How to use the Marvelous software for livestream and recorded classes.

A little more context for where my interest in this subject matter is coming from:

Moshe Feldenkrais was a Jewish physicist and engineer. In 1930, he settled in Paris, where he worked in the Curie lab and began to study judo and self-defense. At the time of the Nazi invasion in 1940, Feldenrkais managed to smuggle his working documents and materials to England with Curie, just as the Germans arrived in Paris. During his escape from France, he sustained injuries to both knees. 

This experience led him to develop an interest in human movement and health and how it can be improved. Moshe Feldenkrais defined health as the ability for the system to recover from shock. He said, “Health is measured, not by the capacity to stay standing, but by the ability to be knocked down and then return to standing.” 

In his book The Elusive Obvious, he wrote:

"The human being is a fighting animal, and he is also a thinking animal. He is the only animal that has the capacity to fight and to think at the same time. This is the source of his power and his weakness."

Feldenkrais was interested in creating a method that could help people develop a preparedness and readiness during times that felt unsteady. When we practice Feldenkrais Awareness Through Movement, we learn to listen to our bodies and to identify the areas where we need support. We also learn to trust our own ability to move and to be supported. This can help us to develop a deep sense of inner resilience and self-reliance.

In times of challenge, we can access the sense of support that we have developed through Feldenkrais Awareness Through Movement. This can help us to stay grounded, to stay calm, and to make clear decisions.

By bringing awareness to the sense of effort in a movement, one can free themselves of habits that interfere with true strength, learning to completely access muscles, and use them fluidly for any activity.

In his Amherst training Moshe said: “I’m teaching you to be strong”. He wasn’t just speaking in terms of athletic power, but also in terms of the ability to be in a quiet place and have the flexibility to act with choice rather than compulsion. He was teaching the ability to have the internal resources to meet the necessity of the changing moment and to be able to respond to what is in front of you.

I hope you can join for this exploration in finding internal strength and fluidity!