“I am going to be your last teacher.
Not because I’ll be the greatest teacher you may ever encounter, but because from me you will learn how to learn.
When you learn how to learn, you will realize that there are no teachers, that there are only people learning and people learning how to facilitate learning.”
Feldenkrais Method® group classes are known as Awareness Through Movement® (ATM®) lessons. Each lesson is a guided exploration of odd, unconventional movements structured to bring awareness to ineffective habits and stimulate the nervous system to discover new ways of using the body.
ATM is low-impact to the extreme: the less you do the more effectively you learn. In this form, the teacher talks during the rests, and there are many rests so that your nervous system can absorb new information.
There are over 1000 ATM lessons, each a formal composition: like a piece of music choreographed dance. Lessons call upon the student's natural ability to learn, progressing through innate, human developmental phases; they help students 'fill in the blanks' of movement lost due to injury, social norms or missed learning opportunities. All lessons focus on bringing a total body awareness and connection to consciousness and improvement of a different aspect of human movement and functioning.
Lesson series often develop around a theme - opening the chest, grounding the feet, skiing, sitting at the potting wheel, preparing to practice an instrument - through a progression of interrelated lessons that approach core movements from different orientations, points of focus, and practical, real-life situations.
During lessons, students may lie on the floor with a padded mat, sit on a chair or stool, and sometimes stand. No experience is necessary, though curiosity and a willingness to explore within are imperative. Dress comfortably.