Success is the sum of small efforts,
repeated day in and day out.
— Robert Collier
Having recently started going through Feldenkrais’ Alexander Yanai (AY) archives from the beginning again, the morning online Feldenkrais teacher’s study group did the 14th lesson in that extensive collection, 'Rolling the Head Between the Hands,' on Monday. Yaelle Kesten, a friend and colleague from Paris, presented the Awareness Through Movement (ATM) lesson.
Because we had been discussing the language of Moshe’s early lessons, instead of following the published English translation of the lesson, Yaelle offered to read from the original Hebrew transcription. The differences in tone and phrasing were profound, but what got to me and stayed with me was how the lesson ended:
Please leave it. Get up on your feet. Try this at home until it goes really well.
I was gobsmacked. To be sure I’d heard correctly, I had to ask Yaelle to repeat what Moshe said.
There it was. In the last sentence, Moshe was directly suggesting that students continue working with the movement from the ATM. He proposed some kind of after-lesson assignment a couple of times in the 550 AY lessons, but never so directly.
Was it a one-off statement?
How many of the AY translations omitted any reference to homework?
These questions have been reverberating for the past couple of days. During the meeting, someone posted a quote from the French author Antoine Vitez: “To translate is to betray.”
While it’s true that Feldenkrais continued to develop his approach over the decades, we should be careful to distinguish between contexts. I’m not referring to the Awareness Through Movement classes offered during teacher training programs or in public workshops. I’m thinking about the hundreds of weekly classes and thousands of individual lessons he gave. Indeed, many, if not most, of the videos of the hands-on lessons Moshe gave in 1980 and '81 — the final years of his career — show him instructing students on how to apply their learning to daily life.
Giving homework contradicts what seemed, for the longest time, to be the prevailing approach in our profession: that a student doesn’t need to do anything after the lesson other than allow it to integrate. If you still think this, maybe it’s time to reconsider?
The study group I’m referring to above is An AY a Day, a peer online project that celebrated its seventh anniversary on the first of the month. This group, started by Kwan Wong, is a valuable resource for Feldenkrais teachers and trainees, offering daily lessons and a supportive community. A big shoutout to Kwan for starting this precious project! And a lot of appreciation to the communities that have kept it going!
(I say 'communities' because there are actually two groups, one that meets every day of the year at 8:00 AM Pacific time, and another at 6:00 PM Pacific, and because a great many teachers have participated over the years.)
Participation in this project is free, and you are welcome to jump in at any time. The only prerequisite is that you be a Feldenkrais teacher or trainee.
If you’d like to do another version of this classic and essential lesson, I invite you to log in this coming Sunday, 15 June 2025, at 8:00 AM Pacific, when I will be teaching AY 14. After the ATM, we will reflect on the nuances of the lesson and discuss its implications for both our personal and professional practices.
Your thoughts?
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Responses:
Marianne from Vienna -June 12, 2025
Dear Larry, in the series of ATMs "for the elder citizen" by Moshe you will find the following words: "....and of course you will feel that the whole body, not only the feet, but the shoulders, the breathing, the standing, the lying, everything will improve a little bit. But a little bit every day means a great deal every week and even more every month" Lesson "sensble feet rather than sensitive feet" minute 23:11 From my experience I would say, it depends. An example : If there is a lack of understanding, that the movement of the ankles has to do with the movement of the knees, the hipjoints and so on, it might be, that one single lesson can change the movement . If its a long lasting habit, like tension in the shoulders, stiffness of the ribs, problems are often coming back and its necessary to repeat the lesson regulary.
Hello Marianne - Thank you kindly for providing another example of Moshe giving homework, and especially for giving me the specific reference. I particularly appreciate how Moshe echos the spirit of Emil Coué's famous quote: "Every day, in every way . . . " I find your examples of a situation that might require only one lesson, and another that likely wouldn't be quite fascinating. I wonder how you came to them and why. Onward. Together, Larry -
Marg Bartosek -June 11, 2025
Wow! Thanks for noticing this different ending, Larry! I'm a big believer in homework, probably a notion I got from you over the years. In fact, I try to suggest a little practice or something specific to pay attention to during the week and actually get a thank you from students on occasion. Sure, I care about what they do in the hour we spend together, but, I tell them, I care even more about how they do what they do the other 23 hours in their day.
Thanks, Marge! Given the lively discussion we had, I can assure you I was not the only person who noticed Moshe's instigation to practice. To put it bluntly: If learning is demonstrated by finding what you discovered later, then if you don't remember, let alone put to use, what you figured out during a lesson afterward, then how much have you learned? -
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