curated.openATM.org : Olena Nitefor

These ATM lessons are my interpretations of the 1977 Mia Segal and Gaby Yaron San Francisco evening classes lessons taught during the San Francisco 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. Page numbers refer to the new, formatted edition of these lessons. I highly recommend purchasing the book of lessons for deeper study.

Lessons in kneeling can clarify the relation of the pelvis to the standing femurs to a greater degree than lessons in standing seem to. Anytime I have taught kneeling lessons in the context of five day workshops, I, and the participants, have found that these lessons provide excellent circumstances in which to first uncover issues with balance and then provide the means to improve balance to a significant degree. I think kneeling lessons bring the organization of the pelvis in relation to the femurs under great scrutiny.

It seems to be clearer to uncover and to clarify the posterior or anterior tilt tendencies of pelvic organization in kneeling than it does in standing. I think this is partially because in kneeling it is less possible to translate the pelvis forward than it is to do so when standing on full legs. With the translation forward "eliminated," what shows up are the preferences (and limitations) of the habituated pelvic tilt. And, in order to actually find balance on one knee, as the other foot is brought to standing, one can find the differentiations as well as the organization of the pelvis on a femur in a very thorough way. The anterior/posterior tilt no longer a habituated position, because the tilt needs to be put into motion to allow the other leg to sweep around into standing. The slight side tilting that is suggested as a means of freeing the moving leg, helps one find how to "pivot" the pelvis in the frontal plane. Of course, one can also just power through and miss it all, but that is a personal story.

This series starts in tall kneeling and studies how to go lightly from two knees to half kneeling (one knee and one foot), back to two knees, sitting back onto the heels, coming back up onto the two knees. The lessons bring one, the other and then two hands down to the floor, as you lift the pelvis in a fantastic exploration of the use of base of support as shared between the front foot and the toes of the as yet kneeling leg. All this develops into lifting the pelvis lightly, while keeping the trunk long. Eventually the lessons bring one to standing, and from there, coming back down to a half kneel, the two knees, sitting and back up. They get lively. #331 builds to a humorous finale of hopping in a lunge, with only the front leg hopping.

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.