The Feldenkrais Store: Quest Seminar: New York, 1981

This audio recording represents five days of training with Dr. Feldenkrais, part of a series of public workshops that culminated in some of his most creative teaching. The lessons are unique and compelling and the lectures provide clear insight into his thinking.

In this course, we hear the evolution of how Dr. Feldenkrais presents his Method and its principals to the public. Moshe is clearly inspired by his new ideas regarding induction and how to effectively bring the nervous system into a state of parasympathetic dominance. This is shown as the first lesson begins with a gentle lesson of rolling the arms with interlaced fingers. Variations of the bell-hand lessons become a repeated theme through the five days of training.

While this workshop was originally taught as a public workshop, we highly recommending it for Feldenkrais Practitioners and Trainees as well as those who have had significant experience with Awareness Through Movement® and are familiar with the teaching style of Dr. Feldenkrais.

"The brilliant teaching of the Quest workshops mark the transition to Moshe Feldenkrais's most mature teaching and are argueably some of his best."
- Dennis Leri, Feldenkrais Trainer

Program Contents:

1.   Introduction
2.   Finding lightness and ease in the arms and in yourself; rolling interlaced hands on the back.
3.   Rolling interlaced hands continued: coming to stand.
4.   Lifting the head on the back; simple flexion, one side in imagination.
5.   Rolling from sitting to lying and back again.
6.   The bell hand: soft opening and closing movements of the hand.
7.   Perfecting the self image: tilting the legs and lengthening the spine on the belly.
8.   Rolling from sitting to lying on the back continued, including taking the legs over the shoulders.
9.   Discussion: Habits. Fear. We are not interested in movement but in how the movement is performed.
10. Lengthening through the arm to roll from the back to the side.
11. Rolling from sitting to side-lying.
12. Lecture: Learning, Free Choice, Individuality.
13. Increasing ease in the head, neck and shoulders: A. Sitting; rolling the head. B. Bell hand, rotating arms on back. C. Sitting, rolling the head continued.
14. From straight leg sitting to rolling on the back, opening and closing hand.
15. Discussion: imagination, the unconscious and memory.
16. A. Pressing and lifting on the side, opening and closing hand to stand. B. Variations in standing. C. Pressing again on side, making a wave.
17. Discussion: Relationships, Change and the Self.
18. Softening the neck affects the whole self; Lifting the head with lapping movements of the mouth and tongue in many different positions.
19. Lecture: Learning is doing things in a different way. Even in simple things, we have lost contact with ourselves.
20. Lecture: Change, Habits and Good Posture. Includes demonstration of helping a man touch his toes more easily.
21. Hands-On Functional Integration Session with a woman with cerebral palsy.
Feldenkrais talks very little during the lesson but does describe it at the end.
22. Rolling from the belly to sit, bringing in many themes from the five days.
23. Tilting legs on the belly to sit. Whole group moves together at the end.

Program Note: During the lessons participants should continue to move and rest, in their own rhythm, while Feldenkrais speaks.