Moving from the Inside Out: A Feldenkrais Approach - a seven workshop series with Julie Peck and Lesley McLennan

Dates: 10/14, 10/28, 11/11, 11/25, 12/9, 1/13, 1/27 (Seven Wednesdays; Thursdays in Australia)

Time: 4:30 - 6:30 pm Pacific Time (7:30 pm Eastern; 7:30 am Australian Western; 9:30 am Australian Eastern)

Cost: $240

All workshops will be recorded and available for streaming.

Click here to register!

Our bodies, our ages and our histories differ, but the same organizing principles unite all human movement.  Understanding these principles enables us to know ourselves and our unique movement issues more intimately.

We are thrilled to host this workshop series on the 7 organizing principles. Our guest presenters are Julie Peck and Lesley McLennan, co-authors of Moving from the Inside Out: 7 principles for ease and mastery in movement.

Every fortnight Julie and Lesley will present a different organizing principle.  You will receive suggestions and material to prepare you, then a two-hour workshop on each principle packed with ideas, movement exploration and discussion time.  The series will be layered for accessibility to anyone interested in improving their movement (and therefore their lives) from total newcomer to skilled practitioner.

It would be advantageous but not essential to have read the book, as the series progresses. (https://www.penguin.com.au/books/moving-from-the-inside-out-9781623175085)

The principles and a brief description of each workshop:

1. Balance is dynamic

All movement is a dynamic balance between stability and instability.

Everything in our lives is touched by this—our daily actions, our thinking, and our emotional well-being. Join us to find how a simple walk can become a wonderful journey into the physics and practice of balance.

2. Skeletal alignment liberates movement

When the skeleton is aligned for support, large muscles are freed for action and movement becomes light and powerful.

Mohamed Ali proclaimed he could simultaneously: "Float like a butterfly and sting like a bee". His embodiment of lightness and power are available to all of us when we understand alignment, not as an ideal, but an experience. You will have plenty of opportunities to explore lightness of being.

3. Progress to upright is cyclical

Evolving to stand upright with a 360-degree view of the world is a sequential progression that is revisited with each major movement challenge.

Exploring wriggling, rolling, crawling and finally toddling on two feet - the pathways and the playground of infants, are rich sources of information for an adult's nervous system to find safety and daring, pleasure and new solutions to old problems.

4. Qualities refine self-direction

Attention to quality of movement creates an internal reference system for exploring new movement, recognizing unconscious habits, and learning new ways to move.

Our body speaks to us through sensations. Particular qualities of movement enable us to hear the bodies' language more clearly. Moving your way to self-mastery is built on this.

5. Head guides and pelvis drives

Efficient, self-directed movement requires a head that is free to orient us, connected by an adaptable spine to power generated in the pelvic region.

We are digging more deeply into alignment and the relationship between power and orientation in this crucial principle.  Your torsos and heads are going to get more than a nodding acquaintance.

6. Power is central and precision peripheral

Strength and force come from the centre, while direction and accuracy come from the extremities.

Humans are the most sophisticated tool using animals on the planet.  To find exquisite precision we need to understand the foundations of power and keep the two synchronous but discrete in actions.

7. Pressure organizes

The demands of internal or external pressure create and test our ability to respond with well-organized movement. 

Muscles and bones come easily to mind when considering strength, but most of us are less familiar with the role of fluids, membranes and valves in building strength. Within all of us are a series of hydraulic systems which create our shape and our movement. In this principle we will have fun meeting pressure with pressure.