|||
On Monday I went to a group Feldenkrais session run by Rainer Knupp in East London. It has been some time since I did any Feldenkrais (the last was with Julia Scoglio in Melbourne). For those of you not familiar with Feldenkrais, it’s a somatic practice that asks you (and your body) to resolve certain ‘problems’ or questions. For example, in the session on Monday the task — whilst sitting on the edge of a chair — was to reach down and use your arm to pick up your opposite leg. It sounds banal and easy, but is neither of these things.
There are no ‘right’ answers to how you generate bodily answers to the problems, just a growing awareness through the physical movements (it is known as Awareness through movement). The actions are done very slowly, and quite a remarkable amount is revealed about one’s own movements and body throughout the course of the work/session.
What drew me to writing about the work was simply how wonderful it was to be engaged in this practice. To be involved in gently finding various unprescribed solutions, to be freed from a ‘right way’ or competitiveness. It was as if Feldenkrais, in this simple 90 minutes, was able to undermine the undeniable egocentrism of our cultural epoch.
It just seemed to matter.
And yet there were no KPIs, no measurable outcomes, no critical responses, no audits or redundancies.
All this for a measly £8.
Not too shabby at all.