She’s ain’t just clowning around

Back in the early nineties, when I was engaged as an assistant trainer at the Delman/Questel Feldenkrais® teacher training at Sarah Lawrence College, one of the trainers was talking about what it means to conduct oneself in a professional manner. Going over the basics such as appropriate attire and personal hygiene, the teacher was belaboring some of the details. After a while, one of the trainees jumped up, exclaiming, “Okay, okay, it’s me, isn’t it. Just tell me it’s me. Do I have bad breath? Bad body odor?”

More than twenty years later, I still remember that moment and the trainee: Lavinia Plonka. Lavinia was a mime and professional clown whose timing couldn’t have been better. She’s had an admirable career as a performer including nine years as an artist in residence for the Guggenheim Museum. Combining her theatre background and Feldenkrais® skills, she’s served as a movement consultant for television and theater companies from the Irish National Folk Theater to the Nickelodeon TV channel.

Lavinia has gone on to become a successful Feldenkrais teacher. Besides directing the Asheville Movement Center in North Carolina, she has spread the word about Moshe’s method in various ways, including creating YouTube videos and writing books such as Walking your Talk, in which she addresses the too-often neglected relationship between our emotions and how we move and hold ourselves. She has a wonderful TEDX talk on The Art of Falling:

If you’re curious about what Lavinia is up to these days, you might want to check out her free online presentation next week. Here’s the scoop:

What if, by simply changing the way you literally MOVE through the world…

... you could free yourself of everything from chronic pain to self-sabotaging habits to unhealthy emotional patterns and more?

The Feldenkrais Method® can help you do all that and more...

Its revolutionary practices harness the power of safe, subtle, sophisticated movements to teach you how to literally reorganize yourself — resulting in improved range of motion, reduced pain, and a fuller life.

If you feel like your world is getting smaller and your limitations are getting larger, please join us on Wednesday, December 11, for a free video event with body language expert and certified Feldenkrais Method® teacher Lavinia Plonka called Experience the Feldenkrais Method: 3 Somatic Movements to Rewire Your Brain, Heal Chronic Pain & Increase Your Flexibility.

You can register here:

During this 60-minute free online event, you’ll:

• Unlock “emotional postures” that reinforce physical and emotional pain and negative self-image
• Discover how to rewire your brain, musculoskeletal system, and nervous system so you can move through life with less pain and more confidence
• Recognize the direct link between your inner and outer worlds — and how you move your physical body mirrors your feelings of self-worth, creative capacities, and worldview
• Develop awareness through movement to align your pelvis, ribcage, lungs, and heart for optimal health and healthy relationships
• Receive 3 healing Feldenkrais sequences to reduce tension in your body and improve your balance and vision — literally and figuratively

As you’ll discover your thoughts, feelings, perceptions, and movements are closely interrelated — and influence each other in powerful ways. The subtle, yet powerful Feldenkrais movements can help you heal emotional patterns, trauma, and chronic pain.

You’ll find that when your whole body cooperates in movement, achieving maximum efficiency with minimum effort, you unleash your powers of creativity, intuition, healthy sexuality, and more...

Welcome to the relationship you’ve been waiting for — your relationship with yourself.

You can RSVP for free here to discover how the Feldenkrais Method can help you live a more enjoyable, pain-free life without drugs or surgery, and with greater flexibility and better balance...

(This online event is entirely free to attend, but you do need to sign up. The good news is that a downloadable recording will be provided later to all who register, whether or not you listen to the scheduled event.)