FELDENKRAIS (and TANGO)
A METHOD OF AWARENESS THROUGH MOVEMENT

“Tango is not about the form but has to do with sensations, feelings and emotions’, say Chicho.
“Its essence is about communication, generosity, trust and honesty.”

How to teach this in dance has always been my question and the Feldenkrais Method gives partly an answer to that. It offers a very concrete and practical way to train and become aware of your sensing and feeling and how the body communicates.
It offers a new way of thinking and relating to oneself, finding back the trust and freedom in ones own embodied intelligence.

-It works with options and possibilities instead of thinking in right or wrong.
-It offers variety and constantly teaches you how to listen ànd reflect on yourself (and/or the other)
-It teaches you to think in "wholeness" putting all the pieces together (You are reaching, not just your arm)
-It emphasises the process instead of the end goal.
-Gives you clarity of direction, within the body and in space.
-Let’s you feel and experience how the forces travel through the body from the floor up, always respecting gravity.
-It works Not through position or exercise but thinks in ‘Function’, and meaningful action (nothing in life is a position, life is always moving and changing).
-It makes you aware of the relationship of ‘Intention’ versus the execution of the movement itself. Intention always coming first, of such importance in the communication with your partner and the music in tango.
-It strips away (does not add more do's and don't's) and is a method about experiential learning and a deep knowing.  (finding your own unique and individual path-way)
-It works through finding the least resistant and lightest way to move effectively.

This and so much more that is directly relatable to Tango as a dance, but giving you an inside and the experience by yourself first. A meditation on freedom, movement, flow and ease.

The body seeks harmony with the mind, this is the place where mystery and mysticism come in, and...

Coordination is key!!

To dance or move fully without hesitation, without self-consciousness.

Sensation woven into a silken motion. 

Where the body becomes a conduit for emotion.

Just "do"

These are times of disorientation and insecurities around us, what better way than to perpetuate your own core, grounding, orientation and self-image through this subtle somatic and wonderful method of movement.

Ideal for Zoom as you are spoken through the lessons and do not have to stare at a screen. An hour of Feldenkrais always pushes boundaries and lets you experience a sense of freedom and creativity that motivates and centers you for the day.

FELDENKRAIS IN SWISS MOUNTAINS

On my way down, ‘Ins Tal-hinein’, I realise how “forgiving” nature can be as I side-track to a cow-path away from the smoothened asfalt road.
How the ever- changing surfaces under my feet, of rock, branches, grass and earth gel my knees into ever slightly different positions and ask my muscles to organise in multiple different patterns never allowing for too much, and maybe more important never too long, pressure on a same part, something our so-called civilised roads ask me to do over and over again till my knees, ankles or back hurt and I long for a car to pick me up
My hips sway, my ribcage plays its tune like a bandoneon folding and unfolding in snake-like shapes. My ankles and hips go through every angle their rounded joins have the potential for.
When I speed up the elasticity of my joints seem to make me fly, weightless, and I bounce down like tigger, straight out of Winnie the Pooh, giving me incredible joy.

In mountains like these you need hoofs like a goat, the heels elevated high away from the ground like knees bending backwards to relieve the real knees from crying. Hip-joints ready to squad at any moment reflecting the heels and ankles bending backwards.
This is the true idea of uprightness, straightening legs without locking the knees at any moment ready to fold your buttocks to the ground, the ankles springy, catching and bouncing away the earth like a jojo.
Oh God almighty how perfect Thou has built us!

SAYING 'NO'

Last week I heard these sentences. 

• No, is the beginning of a conversation.
and
• We must first say ‘No’ to the obvious, that which stands in the way.
We therefor say ‘No’ to what is already known. Thus in creation, ’No’ comes first. 

Saying No, is a very interesting proposition.
Also in my tango lessons I sometimes work with the possibility and the real time physical action of saying no. It is not meant as a No to the communication, but the No as in having a choice, making the Yes more true and articulate. It is actually this action (or its possibility) that brings us back to a real and attentive communication. The beginning of a conversation, where one truly has to listen and nothing is taken for granted.

Physically saying No, I also notice, brings one to its very core. The power of saying No does not come I realise from muscular force but from a deep inner conviction, and a well organised system. (as my five year old teaches me) 
It made me wonder if this fase of saying No with small kids (and sometimes way into adulthood, here is one) has to do with this need to find our own deep inner and individual core and being.
I would go as far as saying, where we let the other know there is the potential of choice ( which includes the possibility of a no) we become human beings.

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