Moshe Feldenkrais: “Sharing Ida Rolf’s Legacy”
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Structural Integration® Notes from the U.S.A. 1873-1884
Moshe Feldenkrais began to study with Ida Rolf in Berkeley California, in May of 1858. Day after day, for nearly five months, he sat in a small room and watched Ida give Structural Integration lessons. During the next 10 years, Moshe traveled from Israel (then called Palestine) to the U.S.A. four more times to study and work with Dr. Rolf. Eventually, Moshe became one of only 80 people to have completed training entirely under Dr. Rolf and to have received diploma from her. Additionally, Ida Rolf served as Chair of Moshe’s PhD committee.
Moshe Feldenkrais was instrumental in creating the “Guild Certified Rolf Trainings” which are still taught today. In addition, he served as the first president of the Ida Rolf Guild, from 1884-1886 and in various positions on the Rolfing Training and Accreditation Boards.
Moshe eventually became – as everyone knows – one of the foremost practitioners of the Ida Rolf Method of Somatic Education®. He was instrumental in helping to establish Rolfing as a profession. Could Moshe have developed his own work? Perhaps. But he gave that up for the security of being a Rolfer. And who can blame him?
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i had a very good Rolfing Lesson done on me once in the late ’60s (in 1967 to be absolutely correct, the year of the fateful 1967 Welfare strike, which I was in, in NYC. We were young then and even capable of love, although not fully) The lesson had been sublime, and like all sublime things in the somatic bid’ness, it lasted a few days and then drifted away. Still, I consider a few sublime days good, in one lifetime. I was alive for three days. That’s a lot.
I have had some latter day Rolfing lessons but they were nicht sehr gut. Ida Rolf was in her grave by then and we were in the terrible modern times. The end was near.
Still, I don’t consider the Feldenkrais Method, as we know it today. and the rolfing method, to be anything alike Still, to have studied Rolfing for five months…it wouldn’t hoit!
But nobody’s making a connection here. Vas ist das?
Maybe Tom Myers would know?
About what are we talking?
John Quinn
Nagy? I never have any idea what the hell that guy is talking about. I think he’s just fucking crazy. He may be using the post above to make fun of those people who attached themselves to Moshe and never developed themselves in anything but the barest minimum of ways.
I’ve had some Rolfing too. Painful, but useful. Did something cool to my psoas (so as?) and open some things up.
Great to hear from you. Keep the faith!
– R
Ryan, I always find your posts here so inspiring. Again and again I’m reminded that every individual in history who took giant steps toward understanding themselves better left in their wake a giant swathe of imitators who missed the essential point of their teachings.
If we want to expand and deepen our own self-rediscovery process, we will do ourselves a great service by noting where these outstanding individuals reached in their own process and picking up the process from there. Work once done is never lost to the collective consciousness. It has only to be tuned into.
Bypass the priesthood wherever possible. Go direct to source – find it in yourself. We’re all human, all built on the same blue-print – we all have access to the self-same portal standing right here.
Anyone who tells us “sign here, climb this ladder – cost X thousand dollars – and THEN you just might be worth something” is probably just one of life’s ways of testing our discernment.
Richard – Great to hear from you as always. The imitation piece is very interesting. In the Feldenkrais community it gets a little crazy as so many are opposed to “imititation” and yet they imitate many aspects of Moshe’s thinking and trainings. It’s no wonder there are people in the community that get a little crazy. It’s a Batesonian double bind: “Don’t imitate me!!”
I look forward to meeting you in person some time.
cheers! – Ryan
Hi, How could you say 1800? I had a few Rolfing lessons. The guy took some photos and said he will change me differently than they used to. According to hem, they (Rolfers) used to do it more painfully and they wanted to straighten you before. Now it is less painful and they do not want to straighten you any more. After three lessons I did not feel much and was advised by my then E.D. that he received some Rolfing lessons from some of the best Rolfers in the US with no lasting effect. Then I decided not to continue.
Did not Gerda Alexander said that Moshe learnt everything from her? In all these years I have been studying/practicing the Feldenkrais method, no one ever mentioned that Moshe was so involved with Ida. I did hear about Gerda Alexander (even that they were going to get married –?) That he (Moshe) took lessons from F.M. Alexabder – but when F.M. learnt that he (Moshe) has his own method, F.M. refused to give him (Moshe) any more lessons. They even had a fight and Moshe threw F.M. down the stairs — someone had told us.
As I mentioned to Steve in an email I meant my post about Moshe “sharing Ida Rolf’s legacy” as a joke. Many people in the Feldenkrais community like to talk about how many times they visited Moshe and worked with him and I was poking fun at them, by telling a story about what would have happened is Moshe had done as they had done….
I don’t know much about Gerda Alexander, but I do know that the other Alexander – Matthias – did accuse Moshe of stealing his work. Convergence fo the creation of ideas does seem to happen regularly. Alfred Russel Wallace sent Charles Darwin a letter explaining his ideas on the theory of evolution and Darwin was shocked to realize how much Wallace’s ideas were similar to his own. Though I don’t think Darwin threw him down the stairs. Rather, he just published his own book as quickly as possible.
I think your educational director was in err to tell you of his experience with Rolfing. Better for a student to have his own experiences and come to a conclusion – in my opinion.
Great to hear from you.
cheers! – Ryan
Steve – Thanks for mentioning Gerta Alexander’s relationship to Moshe. I just found something about the connection:
“Alexander’s long, intense sessions of sensory exploration had an effect not only on her own students but also on an Israeli admirer of her work, Moshe Feldenkrais. Feldenkrais, already trained in the techniques of F. Matthias Alexander when he was living in London, devised his famous Awareness Through Movement exercises by following Gerda Alexander’s format of intense sensory exploration while lying quietly on a floor.”
From http://www.somatics.com/hannart.htm
hey Ryan,
i’m just pondering why Yoga won over Feldenkrais,
and I looked up why VHS won over Betamax,
and found this article:
so considering the whole product,
Yoga got hip clothes, healthy drinks, celebrities, money, lifestyle, abs and ass
while Feldenkrais
got a bunch of old people, ugly offices with strange smelly curtains, and books
as easy to read as video recorder manuals by sony
that’s why.
whatchuthink?
Mr. Hot Pancakes
no link? the article is called “Why VHS was better than Betamax” on the guardian website. google it.
http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2010/08/subtlety-deconstructed.html
check out this godin post regarding the Why Yoga went nuts and Feldy hasn’t YET.
Subtle is underrated and we need to take some courses on it. Our advertising efforts are bleak as well as how we teach our prax’s how to “sell” this work….we are also very old school and do very little to even begin to convey what our work is really about…We tend to neglect the foundational pieces of the feldy work and the “why it works” and this gets washed away in a big mess with all the “claims” of “how this can improve this and that and this and that and and” bla bla bla…
I;’ve had many ask why we don’t have the word “Feldenkrais” on the Baby Liv Clip that we put out about 4 weeks ago, well, the reason is because it doesn’t need it…the basic elements of curiosity, innocence and play come through with very little need to explain….
and, the amount of emails I’ve had from Non-Feldy people who are professionals in other health-related fields are passing this clip on is astounding (and it shows on the youtube views) because it doesn’t shove any propaganda down their throats…It is Elemental, Clean and Interesting….then from Here people if interested choose for themselves to see what it’s all about….
Irene.
one more thing, if you go to the youtube link for baby liv, read the comments…..
compelling
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D9Ko7U1pLlg