We have another of Olena Nitefor’s ATM lessons available. The lesson is called “Legs pushing pelvis and rocking the back” and it is based on AY#224. This lesson was the first lesson taught at a recent workshop. Note it is quite long (70+ minutes) but is very rich.
The lessons can be downloaded at Olena’s ATM page. We hope you enjoy them and feel free to give feedback here.
I am happy to annnounce that Assistant Trainer Olena Nitefor has contributed two more ATM to openATM.org: AY#60 “On the Stomach” and AY#341 “Simpler, On the Stomach and Back”. In Olena’s own words:
I teach five day advanced trainings which are dedicated fully to ATM. While each workshop has its own particular theme, I have an ongoing dedication to Moshe’s insistence that, “It will organize itself.” He does not suggest that we are learning to organize “it.” Quite a distinction to consider! From this comes my interest in how to guide the “I” so that the intelligence of “it” has time and space to emerge. Moshe in AY #478:
“Do it more easily at the points where it is difficult.Do not try to push more, but at the points where it is difficult, do it more easily, a gentler movement, more slowly. Then, slowly it will organize itself.”
Each of the ATMs below comes from the context of a different five day workshop. The way I teach, and the length, depends on the group on the floor, as well as the sequence of the particular ATM within the workshop. Some therefore, will not have a formal scan, some will have a long one. As a teacher, I am working on not starting every sentence with “so,” not to repeat “a little bit” quite so much. and how to not huff and puff into the mic. While I code the lessons as AY#, they are versions thereof.
The lessons can be downloaded at Olena’s ATM page. We hope you enjoy them and feel free to give feedback here.
The openATM project is happy to announce the release of Olena Nitefor’s interpretations on the Mia/Gaby San Fransisco Evening Lessons. There are 12 lessons in all. To view the lessons, please go to
Olena Nitefor’s Recordings Page
or click on over to the Recordings page.
In Olena’s own words:
These ATM lessons are my interpretations of the 1977 Mia Segal and Gaby Yaron San Francisco evening classes lessons taught during the San Fransisco training. The notes for these lessons are available from Feldenkrais Resources. These versions of the lessons were recorded at the request of a practitioner and were recorded with her as the only student on the floor, which is why they may seem idiosyncratic. Most are under an hour long, but a few extended longer, and even much longer. After each ATM, before checking the recording device to see how much objective time had passed, she and I discussed our subjective time perception. The first question was: did it feel too short, too long or just fine to each of us. The second step was guessing how much time had passed, so we could laugh about the constant discrepancies between the sense of time, the thinking about time, and objective time.
When I started out as an ATM teacher 25 years ago, these evening classes were my treasured source. I have always appreciated the conciseness with which Gaby and Mia address basic functional relationships. It has been illuminating to revisit these lessons, and to understand them through the experience of the intervening years. Conscious that I was recording with an aim to share, I found myself self-conscious at the beginning of some of the ATMs. You’ll hear it. I will add classes as we continue to record them. Page numbers refer to the new, formatted edition of these lessons. I highly recommend purchasing the book of lessons for deeper study.
We would love to hear your feedback on the lesssons.
I am finally catching up with posting new ATMs. My apologies for the delay. We have a new ATM from Liz Sisco taught on Oct 29th 2011. Here is what Liz had to say about the class:
“With Halloween just around the corner we will do an Awareness Through Movement lesson that brings you in touch with the power of your imagination to direct skeletal movement. If you have been coming to class on a regular basis this lesson adds a new twist to our exploration of the hip joints. If you are new to Awareness Through Movement lessons or have missed a class or two, this lesson is a great (new) beginning.
The lesson, Tanden with Bending the Knees, develops the ability to expand the focus of awareness from breath to movement and hold both in attention as you perform simple actions. Practicing the art of pairing focused attention with global awareness leads to many positive benefits; including the abilities to move in a simple, light manner, remain calm and tranquil, and deepen your sense of being in present time. These are all good qualities to have on Monday when a host of ghosts, goblins, werewolves, fairies and elves will be roaming the neighborhoods in search of tricks and treats.”
Enticing no?
The mp3 of the lesson can be downloaded from the ATM Recordings Page or below
| Date | Title | Source | Time | |
| 10/29/2011 | Tanden with Holding the Knee | AY#359 | 53:39 | Download |
I hope you enjoy the lesson and welcome any feedback.
Note that Olena Nitefor also has a version of this lesson on the recordings page the the openATM.org site. Also, there was some small microphone noise problems.
We are happy to announce Assistant Trainer Olena Nitefor is contributing ATM lessons from her recent Advanced Training (Oct 15-16 2011) in Los Angeles. We will be posting all 4 of the ATM lessons over the next week or two. The theme of the workshop was developing awareness of the lower pelvis, particularly 1) the pyramid of the ischiums and 2) where the top of the hip joint is located in relative to the lower pelvis. The concept we worked with was feeling the lower pelvis “hang” from the legs. It was wonderful and a big thanks to Olena for sharing the lessons.
The first three lessons, “Tanden With Holding the Knee”, “On the Elbows with a Hop”, and “Edges of the Feet” are now posted and the mp3s of the lessons can be downloaded from the ATM Recordings Page or below
| Date | Title | Source | Time | |
| 10/15/2011 | Tanden with Holding the Knees | AY#359 | 57:30 | Download |
| 10/15/2011 | On the Elbows with a Hop | AY#357 | 50:02 | Download |
| 10/15/2011 | Edges of the Feet | AY#433 | 39:40 | Download |
I hope you enjoy the lesson and welcome any feedback. Note that Liz Sisco has a version of “Edges of the Feet” as well on the Recordings page.
This evening, I substitute taught at the A.Noone Feldenkrais Studio in Solana Beach. I choose to teach on of the more interesting one sided lessons I’ve come across. It is called “On the Right Ischium” and is based on AY#508. The lesson centers around sitting in a chair on only your right ischium (sitz bone). The left one is off of the chair. In this configuration you do various undifferentiated and differentiated movements that can lead to interesting changes. The cool thing about the lesson is that although the basic configuration is unusual (highly non-habitual), it is still highly accessible.
The mp3 of the lesson can be downloaded from the ATM Recordings Page or below
| Date | Title | Source | Time | |
| 08/25/2011 | On the right ischium | AY#508 | 41:09 | Download |
I hope you enjoy the lesson and welcome any feedback.
Last tuesday, july 19th, I subbed for Anita Noone’s ATM class in Solana Beach. I have been playing for myself with the theme of opening up the hip joints in the direction of going into a half-lotus yoga position. There are a number of ATMs that help facilitate this. The lesson I prepared was based on AY#389 which is as usual strangely but accurately titled “Ankle on Knee and Bending”. Turns out that the realities of teaching ATM caught up with me and I had to improvise a number of changes to the lesson. What is recorded is that improvisation with still the spirit of AY#389. Up to about the 45 minute mark, the audio follows a standard ATM trajectory. The last 10 minutes are not traditional ATM, but still interesting. The students really enjoyed the lesson. Let me know how you like it.
The mp3 of the lesson can be downloaded from the ATM Recordings Page or below
| Date | Title | Source | Time | |
| 07/19/2011 | Intro to Opening Hip Joints towards Half-Lotus Position
(based on “Ankle on Knee and Bending”) |
AY#389 | 45:12 | Download |
As you may have heard, I’ll be teaching a Feldenkrais based workshop to help folks improve their surfing. The particular focus of this workshop will be improving your turns – bottom turns, cutbacks, or lip-blasts. Everyone can improve their turns. An important key for doing good turns is the ability to rotate the upper body (shoulders) relative to the pelvis or hips in order to develop the necessary torque to execute a good turn. So specifically, what do I mean? Lets take a Dane Reynolds backside top-turn as a extreme example:
In the image below, Dane has just iniated his turn by rotating his shoulders and upper back down the face of the wave. However, his board is still projected vertical and has not yet begun to turn back down the wave.
Dane Reynolds in Sri Lanka (courtesy of the ASP)
Note how the line of Dane’s pelvis is basically parallel with the stringer of the board, and his shoulders are perpendicular to his pelvis. This is clearer in the folowing photo. The line parallel to his shoulder is in dashed yellow, whereas the line parallel to his hips/pelvis is in green. Also, note the length Dane gets on the left side of his torso.
So before even initiating the board’s part of the turn, a very dramatic shoulder/pelvis differentiation has occured, creating a strong torque that will rapidly drive the board around. This requires the ability to, in a functional coordinated manner, turn the shoulders out of the line of the pelvis AND to lengthen the sides.
As the board turns back down the wave, the differentiated rotation between the shoulder and pelvis will be reduced as the energy coiled in Dane’s torso gets transferred through his feet to the board and the wave. See the example below (albeit from a different wave). Here the line of the shoulder’s has hardly changed, but the line of his pelvis (and board) has rotated a lot.
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At the end of the turn, as the board is facing back down the wave the shoulders and pelvis come back in line. Below is an example from a different wave but hopefully the point is clear. With the board facing back down the wave, Dane is in a kind of squatting position, compressed over his board, and his shoulders and pelvis are now lined up again parallel.
Dane’s ability to powerfully rotate and lengthen his torso (spine, ribs, shoulders, head) enables him to execute amazing turns. Even if you are never going to do turns like Dane Reynolds, you can improve your bottom turns and cutbacks significantly by improving your ability to rotate and side-lengthen your torso. Check out surfers next time you are in your local lineup. You will find that the surfers doing better turns are those that are rotating their torso relative to their pelvis just prior to the board beginning the turn. Or watch some surf video in slow motion.
In the “More Torque in Your Turns” workshop, we’re going to use aspects various Awareness Through Movement Lessons to learn how more effectively do these rotational movements in a functional manner related to surfing.
The workshop will be on Saturday, June 25th 2011 at the A.Noone Feldenkrais Studio in Solana Beach. For details and registration info can be found here
Results from the previous “Improve Your Surfing Workshop: Paddling” is discussed here
Some of you may be new to Awareness Through Movement (ATM) lessons and don’t really know where to start. There are so many lessons on the site with a great variety of movements. Although in theory any ATM lesson should be appropriate to anyone (as long as they follow the principles of ATM), for newbies, certain lessons are just easier to digest than others and create a greater feeling of learning and change. But which ones? Well, it does depend on the individual but below are some ideas of places to begin.
Note that these are a biased to my own lessons as I was able to observe the students during the lessons. All the above lessons are part of the ATM canon and can be found on the ATM recording page
Any ideas for additional starter lessons are welcomed
yesterday (may 7), was the free ATM marathon at the anoone feldenkrais studio in solana beach ca. many fine feldenkrais practitioners from across the county came and taught. classes were packed with lots of people new to ATM. it was very cool. I taught two ATM classes and recorded one of them (the other was highly improvisational and would’ve made no sense as a recording). The lessons is called “Working with the Dominant Hand” and is derived from AY#124. This lesson was taught twice in our training and is a wonderful slow meditative lesson. The lesson is all lying on the back and mostly doing small movements with the wrist, fingers, and forearm.
It can be downloaded from the ATM Recordings Page or below
| Date | Title | Source | Time | |
| 05/07/2011 | Working with the Dominant Hand | AY#124 | 51:13 | Download |
I hope you enjoy the lesson.