(A 3-day workshop)

If today, you were to page through any random exercise, yoga, running, or physiotherapy magazine, you would stand a good chance of finding expert tips on how to relieve the pain in your heels, soothe the aching in your metatarsal joints, raise your fallen arches, or otherwise develop less burdensome and more aesthetically pleasing feet.  Yet if, hoping to actually improve the functioning of your feet, you were to follow the tips, you would likely be in for a disappointment.  This is because rapid-fire information of this nature normally emerges from a reductionist paradigm that views the human body as a machine, learning as a mechanical “input-output” protocol, and individual movement as divorced from not only cultural influence, but the possibility of sensing, feeling, and even thinking on a deeper level.

Approach

In this workshop we will take a more holistic, functional, and therefore, categorically non-reductionist approach to the functioning our feet, viewing the myriad joints within each foot as part of a larger system called the human organism, and each organism as part of a larger system called society.  In the process we will not only improve each foot’s ability to respond to as well as synchronize with the myriad movements of the rest of the body, but gain a better understanding of how doing so makes them fundamentally stronger and more flexible.

Curriculum

In addition to exploring some of the classic Feldenkrais “sitting on the heels” lessons that take us off our feet and onto the floor (whether in supine, side-lying, or kneeling), we will integrate particular dance and martial arts movements that bring us onto our feet and off the floor (whether crouched, as in Russian folk dance, or upright, as in judo and boxing).  In the process, we will discover how the flexibility, strength, and health of each foot is inextricably linked to how well its intrinsic movements are coordinated with those of the entire rest of our body, regardless of the configuration.

Restrictions

Because “sitting on the heels” lessons make greater demands on joint flexibility than ones normally taught to the public, this workshop is not recommended for people who have any sort of knee, foot, or back issues.  Those who want to attend despite any tenderness and vulnerability they may feel in any part(s) of their body—will be responsible during the workshop for not only stopping and resting more frequently than their peers, but ceasing to perform any movement that incurs the slightest form of pain, strain, or overstretching.

To register, please click here and you will be redirected to Instituto Feldenkrais