This page is based on a post on feldyforum by Dwight Pargee from 10 Jan 2009
…So here’s a list in no specific order of things I’ve collected through the years in training programs and through my own curiosity and research on the elusive principles and strategies of the FM…
Pedagogic Principles of Awareness Through Movement Lessons
- Reversibility- the ability to reverse a movement, change speed, decrease effort and increase sensitivity. Dramatic changes occur in the organization of a movement when a new quality of movement emerges.
- Differentiation then integration – differentiating a movement pattern into smaller parts and exploring different qualities of movement. Integration is the adding up of all these variances back into a larger, more complex pattern. Change occurs without effort.
- Changing the initiation of a movement from proximal to distal.
- Lessons move from simple to complex patterns or from complex to simple
- Effort and ease impact perception- finer distinctions can be made when less effort is used, when sensitivity to a movement is increased, finer motor control is possible.
- Eliciting the unknown- an exploratory approach vs. skill practice.
- Focusing on flow and movement as opposed to muscular effort, attention is directed to the process of movement instead of skill acquisition, goals and achievement.
- Primarily verbal instructions instead of demonstration and copying the teacher.
- Pacing of the instructions is in accordance with the speed of learning.
- Attention is directed to sensations, orientations, and to the directions of motion that lead to improved functional ability the ability to move and interact in an unpredictable environment.
- Exploratory in nature. Experimentation required.
- Regular rest periods used to allow for processing sensory experience.
- The stories and metaphors used serve to provide a context for learning.
Resources for Awareness Through Movement by David Zemach-Bersin
THE BODY SCAN
2. Invite students to make themselves comfortable, to remove shoes, glasses, belts, etc.
3. Relate to the theme or content of lesson. Highlight specific relationships which are germane to lesson.
4. Keep voice calm and conversational and language simple.
5. Use to convey idea that class is a safe environment, where whatever is felt is OK, good, valuable, important.
6. Use to Set up idea that we are not trying to change anything or make anything different than it is.
7. Pace helps to bring student’s attention to themselves, conveys that there is time for self‑observation and that kinesthetic sensations are valuable, worthy and reliable.
8. Proceed from the general to more detailed.
9. Refer to contact with floor, weight, sensations without implying that one way of feeling or lying is more desirable than another.
10. Direct student’s attention to sensory Information, using both internal and external contact with themselves.
11. Attention to breath.
12. Scan should usually be systematic, e.g. toes to head.
13. When dope methodically, with clear Intention, a Body scan can be an entire lesson.
GOALS FOR ATM TEACHING SKILLS
2. Understand how to pace attention via instructions and commentary.
3. Learn to observe the group and adapt a lesson to particular variations in self‑organization, i.e. the limitations of specific students.
4. Develop ability to give instructions and commentary in a non‑normative, non‑judgmental and non‑self referential way.
5. Learn to create a safe and calm ambiance and an interest and curiosity in learning.
6. Understand how to use your voice, intonation and volume to keep the student’s interest.
7. Learn to understand the basic strategies utilized in most ATM lessons.
8. Understand the conceptual basis of ATM lessons.
9. Know how to present greater and lesser challenges to a group.
10. Be able to articulate the basic ideas underlying the Feldenkrais Method.
11. Develop overarching ideas which you can talk about.
12. Develop a varied repertoire of ATM lessons.
GENERAL BACKGROUND STRATEGIES
1. Begin with a body scan.
2. Pause between movements allows for fresh attention.
3. Use of rests as time to feel differences.
4. No demonstration.
5. Movements done slowly.
6. Small movements.
7. Reduction of effort.
8. Variation vs. repetition.
9. Attention to process rather than goal.
10. Avoidance of pain.
11. Use of sensory comparisons.
12. Exploration as learning vs. repetitive exercise or seriousness.
13. Errors or mistakes as valuable to learning process.
14. Focus on ease and quality of movement vs. stretch and strain.
15. Alternating attention between detail and general, foreground/background or exclusive/inclusive.
16. Use of constraints in relation to gravity or movement of a joint.
17. Attention to breath, in relation to movement, feeling or activity.
18. Attention to quality vs. quantity.
19. Measure improvement in small steps.
20. Use the generalization of attention or contact throughout the body to create a more proportional distribution of effort.
21. Use of the ‘neutral’ in orientation and as a reference for quality.
22. Use of imbedded positive kinesthetic and psychological suggestions.
OCCASIONAL STRATEGIES
1. Generalized and differentiated movement.
2. Proximal ‑ Distal reversal.
3. Auxillary movement.
4. Change orientation to gravity.
5. Exaggerate differences or asymmetries.
6. Self‑touch.
7. Move area adjacent to limitation or injury.
8. Utilize central aspects for effort.
9. Reference or test movement.
10. Create a challenge or difficulty.
11. Learn on one side only.
12. Vary speed, rhythm or range.
13. Vary initiation or sequence or path of movement.
14. Use Imagination or visualization.
15. Compare right and left.
16. Non‑habitual or unique juxtaposition of connected elements, e.g., movements of jaw and hand.
17. Use of voice to alter quality or orientation of attention.
18. Use of story or metaphor.
19. Clarifying skeletal structure and function.
20. Elimination of anti‑gravity function.
21. Approach function or pattern from different parts/points.
22. Breakdown movement into components.
23. Use micro aspects of action pattern or difficult movement.
List of distinction for ATM study
by Yvan Joly
1-title of the lesson (evocative or descriptive)
2-scanning of reference (in a variety of positions)
3-starting position and other positions (a combination of configuration -arrangement of joints and bones- and of spatial orientation)
4-movement of reference (to which the lesson returns for comparison)
5-constraints and progression of constraints (loose and strict constraints)
6-movement proposals and movement variations
7-pauses (silences, rests, comments, explanations, stories etc.
8-movement learning theme (overall movement pattern that justifies the logic of the variations)
9-keys in the problem solving (important hints on “how to do the movement optimally”)
10-meta-themes of learning (pedagogical or philosophical ideas that are not specific to this lesson and are conveyed by short talks, stories, jokes, metaphors, scientific studies, reading reports etc)
11-transitions to finish the lesson, to sitting, standing, and walking (relating to the movement learning theme)
12-final scanning (in a variety of positions, also in walking or reaching, turning etc.) 
Strategies (partial list) for the composition of ATM lessons
– Guided discovery
– auxiliary movement
– undifferentiated movement
– differentiation of “parts” or segments
– change of position
– change of orientation
– change of configuration
– progression of difficulty
– progression of constraints
– comparison of sides
– comparison of before and after
– observation of breathing
– questions of observation of feelings, sensations, movement initiation etc.
– meta theme of learning (pedagogical ideas concretely conveyed by the lesson) transitions to sit, stand, walk
– standing or walking scanning in the end
Examples / personal stories:
- I recall a lesson given by Sascha Krausneker (in Vienna, Tanzquartier, ca. 2011), can’t remember the source: he brought us from lying on the back to standing, but also from standing to lying on the back. He spent like 10 minutes on each “direction”, until the two movements met in the middle – somewhere around sitting. In the end we combined them. –
AlfonsGrabher Dec 20, 2014
AlfonsGrabher Dec 20, 2014