Tag Archives: functional fitness

When Practice Pans Out

So this year I’ve already fallen twice. Which has actually delighted me.

What I learned, again, is that I can trust myself. That the years of work, time, and attention I’ve devoted to practicing and teaching the Feldenkrais Method® have given me skills I can draw on instantly.

The first time I fell, I slipped on the ice and fell backward. I caught myself on my hands. My hat flew one way, the dog poo bag another. A little boy walking to school asked if I was alright, and brought me the poo bag, holding it with two fingers. The position I landed in was actually a transition position from a specific Feldenkrais lesson which I’ve re-visited multiple times, because at first I couldn’t use it to get up, and I wanted to learn it.

Illustration of a human figure in multiple positions: standing, lying, walking, dancing, anything you can imagine. When practice pans out.Last Friday, Boodie (my dog) and I were walking really fast and my left foot hit a heave in the sidewalk. I fell forward, again onto my hands and knees. Just skinned my knee and bruised my toe.

I know you’ve heard me say this, if you’ve come to class with me, but it bears repeating: all our lessons on the floor are so we can bring what we learn into the rest of our life. So we can be more aware, resilient, calm. Enjoyable as it is, Feldenkrais matters because practicing it makes us more equal to the demands of our lives.

Have you found that to be true for yourself?

Tai Chi with Bobby Garcia

Join Us for this 6-Week Series Near Downtown

Is Tai Chi on your bucket list? Join us this summer to try it out! Bobby Garcia’s an excellent teacher, skillful and funny.

A group practices Tai Chi in Bobby Garcia's May workshop.

Practicing Tai Chi with Bobby Garcia

Often described as “meditation in motion,” Tai Chi is a low-impact, slow-motion practice. You go without pausing through a series of motions. As you move, you breathe deeply and naturally, focusing your attention on your bodily sensations. It’s a beautiful complement to Awareness Through Movement®.

GoodWork is the perfect location, a beautiful coworking space in The Cedars, close to downtown, with a unique focus on sustainability and wellness.

Limit: 15. Room for 10 more as of 7/5.

WHEN: Fridays, July 13-Aug. 17, 11:30 am-12:30 pm.
COST: $105 after; GoodWork members save $10 (use code GoodWork).

Register on the Dallas Feldenkrais website.

YOUR INSTRUCTOR

Bobby Garcia began his martial arts education 29 years ago and has been teaching for 11 years. A serious motorcycle accident left Bobby with limited mobility. Through Tai Chi, he found dramatic improvements in his strength and mobility. Bobby has studied several styles of Tai Chi with multiple masters, including Chen Bing, a Tai Chi Master from China who is a direct descendant of Tai Chi founder Chen Wangting.

Testimonials for Bobby Garcia

“What I took away was, the power of Tai Chi to restore confidence, balance, and calm.”

“I felt the connection between the physical efforts and the emotional. If we are grounded and centered, we are hard to topple both physically, mentally and emotionally.”

Uncover Your Innate Strength in Portland, ME

A woman lies on her side, with her right arm extended toward the ceiling and right foot standing.

© International Feldenkrais® Federation Archive, Robert Golden.

Healthy children move freely, without thought. As adults, we often forget this freedom. In this two-hour workshop, you’ll investigate the roots of strength and core ability, and re-connect with your potential to move freely.

 You’ll get tools to re-discover:

  • skeletal support
  • your connection with the ground
  • how your breath can better support movement
WHAT PARTICIPANTS HAVE SAID
“It’s about gently introducing new possibilities for movement and listening to what your body tells you. After my first class I felt like a huge weight had been lifted. It was like a preview of how I could feel if life continued moving in this direction. It felt like joy.” — Sam Damask, musician
 
“Thank you so much for a most stimulating, enlivening, enlightening and totally fun afternoon!”— Linda Kemp
 
Awareness Through Movement® (ATM®) offers a unique, profound way to examine and change your habitual and often limiting patterns of moving. You learn most movement practices from the outside in, by imitation. In ATM, you’re invited to learn from the inside out. Then take your discoveries into another movement practice or your everyday life.
 
ATM is the group version of the Feldenkrais Method®. Pioneered by Israeli physicist/engineer/martial artist Moshe Feldenkrais, D.Sc., the Method offers a unique, profound way to examine and change your habitual and often limiting ways of moving. By attending to how you move, you’ll discover how to improve the quality of your movement. The building blocks of Feldenkrais are physics, biomechanics, and neuroscience.
 
ABOUT YOUR INSTRUCTOR
Angela Alston, GCFP, MFA, has taught classes and workshops in Feldenkrais since 2010. Her studies and interests have led her towards making the practice and teaching of Feldenkrais a way of life: majoring in biology and philosophy in college; studying dance and playing music; loving to walk and bike and play with movement of all kinds (her new favorite is beginning parkour), and practicing meditation. She’s based in Dallas, Texas.

Focus on Your Pelvis

6-Week Series in N. Dallas, Oak Lawn, & The Cedars

Are you ready to free your pelvis?Discover dynamic posture Mar 21 with the Feldenkrais Method!

Bring awareness to how you use your hip joints and sacrum, and their relationship to the rest of your skeleton. If you’d like to sit, stand and walk with greater ease, you’ll benefit from this series.

Illustration of human pelvis.[Fun fact: you have no pelvis. You actually have a three-part structure: your sacrum in the center, surrounded by what we’re calling your ischial wings (thanks to Russ Mitchell for coining the phrase!). Because there’s no word in the English language for them! Learn more about this part of your skeleton, your power center, here.]

Our over-arching theme for winter and spring 2018: Discover Yourself from the Ground Up.

Awareness Through Movement® (ATM®) offers a unique, profound way to examine and change your habitual and often limiting patterns of moving. You learn most movement practices from the outside in, by imitation. In ATM, you’re invited to learn from the inside out. Take your discoveries into another movement practice or your everyday life.

Choose: Mondays in Far North Dallas at MoveStudio, or Tuesdays in Oak Lawn at Dallas Feldenkrais, or Wednesdays in The Cedars (near downtown) at GoodWork.

LIMIT: 20 participants at MoveStudio, 5 at Dallas Feldenkrais, 10 at GoodWork.

WHEN & WHERE: MoveStudio, Mondays, Feb. 19-Mar. 26, 6:25-7:30 pm (register here).
Dallas Feldenkrais, Tuesdays, Feb. 20-Mar. 27, 6:30-7:45 pm (register here).
GoodWork, Wednesdays, Feb. Feb. 21-Mar. 28, 5:00-6:15 pm (register here).

$105 in all locations.

Gaga & Toolbox Workshop with Amy Morrow

Join us for a 3-day Gaga experience for dancers & people in Dallas.
“While Gaga is a serious new way of training the body, it is also about connecting to pleasure and. . . realizing that there’s nothing wrong with being silly.”
— Gia Kourlas,
The New York Times
 
People explore Gaga movement lying on the floor.

Gaga is a new way of gaining knowledge and self-awareness through your body. PHOTO: Gadi Dagon.

You’ll be guided using a series of evocative movement instructions that build on each other. Rather than copying a movement, you’ll actively explore these instructions, discovering how you interpret the information and perform the task at hand. It’s a creative framework for you to connect to with your body and imagination, increase physical awareness, improve flexibility and stamina, and experience the pleasure of movement in a welcoming, accepting atmosphere.

Led by Amy Diane Morrow, who graduated from the inaugural teacher training program directed by founder Ohad Naharin.
 
Open to people ages 16+, regardless of their background in dance or movement. All you need is curiosity!
Limit: 35. Room for 10 more as of 1/8.
 
COST
Advance: $150 (Jan. 5 on)
At door: $175 (if space remains)
Please contact us to discuss special rates for your studio or dance company.
 
Register on Brown Paper Tickets. Or if you prefer, send a check made out to “Dallas Feldenkrais” to:
3515 Cedar Springs Rd., Suite 102
Dallas TX 75219
 
SCHEDULE
Friday, 1/26
7pm | Gaga Session
8-9pm | Toolbox Session
 
Saturday & Sunday, 1/27 & 1/28
11am | Gaga Session
1-3pm | Toolbox Session
 
Wear comfortable clothes. Be ready to dance barefoot or in socks. Bring a bottle for water and a towel.
 
Gaga is a new way of gaining knowledge and self-awareness through your body. Gaga provides a framework for discovering and strengthening your body and adding flexibility, stamina, and agility while lightening the senses and imagination. Gaga raises awareness of physical weaknesses, awakens numb areas, exposes physical fixations, and offers ways for their elimination. The work improves instinctive movement and connects conscious and unconscious movement, and it allows for an experience of freedom and pleasure in a simple way, in a pleasant space, in comfortable clothes, accompanied by music, each person with himself and others. Its emphasis on self-discovery complements Awareness Through Movement®.
Presented by Dallas Movement Lab, in partnership with The Theorists & Arts Mission Oak Cliff.