Imitation vs. Creativity
It occurred to me recently that it's been a lot time since I wrote anything on here about Feldenkrais. I don't know why that is. It might be because a lot of what I'm doing and thinking about is not something i can put into words. it takes place in that spot way back, deep in your brain that it doesn't make much sense to try to talk about on a regular basis.
Recently though, I had a little epiphany that I was able to put into words. I posted it on my class' online forum and have gotten some really positive feedback about it from my classmates, so I thought I'd post it here too. It might be of interest, it might not. Either way, here we go.
I talked to Kevin on the phone today and we were talking about planned vs. unplanned, and something occurred to me. I think that studying up on ATMs and FIs that we did in class is a great idea, and can give us a lot to work with, but in my opinion we're missing a piece of it. Let me see if I can explain.
Back in March, there were a few times where we did ATMs directed by Moshe [Feldenkrais] on video. I never enjoyed those very much, partially because Moshe is just hard to understand, but mainly because those ATMs were not directed at us. They were being taught to another class, a different group of people with different difficulties regarding the ATMs than we had.
ATMs taught by Moshe are very interesting and definitely hold value, but they are not the same as having someone in the room talking directly to us. I think the same thing applies to the ATMs and FIs that Bob and Laura are transcribing. Hearing those ATMs and FIs again is good, but strange. It's the words of Angel and Richard [our teachers] in someone else's voice, instead of that person's words and voice together.
I hope this actually makes sense.
The point is, I think that using the direct transcriptions makes us forget about the creativity aspect. In our last Thursday group, we worked with a Moshe quote that was about how he didn't want his students imitating him. I think what we've been doing is just that - imitation. Can we find a way to bring our own creativity and powers of observation back into our sessions and our retreat? We do that with FIs every time someone says, "Well, what if you did this? Try it and see what happens", but we haven't been doing that with the ATMs at all. What would happen if someone stopped reading an ATM transcription, looked up at the people in front of them, and found a "what if"?
I see the ATMs and FIs that we did in class as building blocks for us to work with and gain insight from, not as the only thing we can do with our time. I hope you agree.
Recently though, I had a little epiphany that I was able to put into words. I posted it on my class' online forum and have gotten some really positive feedback about it from my classmates, so I thought I'd post it here too. It might be of interest, it might not. Either way, here we go.
I talked to Kevin on the phone today and we were talking about planned vs. unplanned, and something occurred to me. I think that studying up on ATMs and FIs that we did in class is a great idea, and can give us a lot to work with, but in my opinion we're missing a piece of it. Let me see if I can explain.
Back in March, there were a few times where we did ATMs directed by Moshe [Feldenkrais] on video. I never enjoyed those very much, partially because Moshe is just hard to understand, but mainly because those ATMs were not directed at us. They were being taught to another class, a different group of people with different difficulties regarding the ATMs than we had.
ATMs taught by Moshe are very interesting and definitely hold value, but they are not the same as having someone in the room talking directly to us. I think the same thing applies to the ATMs and FIs that Bob and Laura are transcribing. Hearing those ATMs and FIs again is good, but strange. It's the words of Angel and Richard [our teachers] in someone else's voice, instead of that person's words and voice together.
I hope this actually makes sense.
The point is, I think that using the direct transcriptions makes us forget about the creativity aspect. In our last Thursday group, we worked with a Moshe quote that was about how he didn't want his students imitating him. I think what we've been doing is just that - imitation. Can we find a way to bring our own creativity and powers of observation back into our sessions and our retreat? We do that with FIs every time someone says, "Well, what if you did this? Try it and see what happens", but we haven't been doing that with the ATMs at all. What would happen if someone stopped reading an ATM transcription, looked up at the people in front of them, and found a "what if"?
I see the ATMs and FIs that we did in class as building blocks for us to work with and gain insight from, not as the only thing we can do with our time. I hope you agree.