“…good coordination demands that the movement of the limbs in one direction will be balanced by a part that goes in the opposite direction. The part that goes opposite is heavier, larger. The movement is smaller & almost not seen by the eye.”
– Moshe Feldenkrais
Oppositional movement is essential to healthy organization and played a significant role in Dr. Moshe Feldenkrais’ compositional strategies in both his Functional Integration, and in his Awareness Through Movement lessons. As human beings in motion, we rely on our internal counterbalancing mechanisms to help us maintain our equilibrium in space, from one moment to the next. With good organization, as some parts of our self move forward, other parts move backward, enabling our center of mass to stay over our base of support. When our capacity for oppositional movement is inhibited, significant stress is placed on our musculature, and our comfort and ease of movement is severely compromised.
In this beautifully filmed workshop, Olena Nitefor and David Zemach-Bersin present original Awareness Through Movement and Functional Integration to demonstrate and evoke the reorganizing effect of oppositional movement in a variety of orientations including working with rollers, sitting and prone. This program will help you to restore your own capacity for counterbalance within action, and will increase the potency of your Functional Integration lessons.
Curious? Watch this FREE FI® demo with Olena Nitefor, "The Full Mobility of the Spine." Check out another demo and two ATM lessons from the workshop.
Eleven-plus hour program includes:
- Sixteen Functional Integration lessons
- Seven Awareness Through Movement lessons
- Six lectures & discussions
- Lifetime access to the program
- Option to download videos
FI Demos:
- Joining with Precision
- Finding Balanced Action
- Detecting Differences with Symmetrical Self-Use
- OppositionalMovement in Bending
- Oppositional Movement on the Stomach, Part I & II
- A Three-Dimensional Approach in FI
- Full Mobility of the Spine
- Finding the Support
ATM Lessons:
- Basic Oppositional Movement Sitting on a Roller
- Touching the Floor in Standing
- Bending Movements of the Head
- Bending Right and Left
- Fundamental Properties of Movement
- Continuation on the Knees
- Mobilizing the Spine with Your Head Like a Pendulum
Lectures & Discussions:
- The Supporter and the Supported
- Discussion re Joining
- The Importance of Oppositional Movement in Action
- Discussion re Self-Use
- Sustaining Your Polygon
About David
About Olena
Olena Nitefor has a rich background in movement, as a teacher of anatomy and as a dancer with an M.Ed. in Dance from Temple University. She graduated from the Toronto Feldenkrais Professional Training Program in 1987. With the program’s special focus on recordings from the Amherst program, Olena developed an acute appreciation of Dr. Feldenkrais’ thinking and the extent to which he thought his method could benefit human beings. Olena maintains a private practice, working with a range of needs from neurological or pain-related, to the development of creativity and well-being. She has been teaching anatomy in Feldenkrais training programs since 1988 and has presented advanced trainings for many years in North America and Europe. Olena lives and works in Toronto.
