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Skeletal Wisdom

SKELETAL WISDOM: BODY & MIND REUNITED IN THE FELDENKRAIS METHOD
                         The Inner Workings of Human Learning

Here is a rare Alan Fraser book that is not about the piano! His passion for the Feldenkrais Method has led Alan to work with many non-musicians, and to grapple with a tough nut to crack: how to explain Feldenkrais to the non-initiate. Lauded as one of the clearest and most accessible introductions to the Method ever written, this book dovetails beautifully with Fraser's other books linking Feldenkrais to piano technique.

His 30 years' experience as a practitioner plus his penchant for writing have seen Alan meet this challenge in a series of essays that shows you just what makes Feldenkrais special, what makes it tick, and how it can work for you to improve any domain of movement which you care to explore.

The book illuminates the Feldenkrais Method in both its forms - Functional Integration (FI), private, hands-on style lessons, and Awareness Through Movement (ATM), group lessons where the student evokes the neurological changes of FI on their own with subtle, sensory-enriched sequences of movement.

The section on FI highlights Alan's work with an Olympic handball player whose broken leg seemd to spell the end of his career, but who, with the help of FI, returned to play professionally and injury-free for another several years. The section on ATM offers lessons you can do on your own - to develop an experiential understanding of the method, not just intellectual.

There are also chapters on how Moshe Feldenkrais developed his groundbreaking method, and chapters linking the neurological underpinnings of movement to practical daily activities in a way that finally makes clear what this innovative form of human learning is all about, and just how much it could do for you.

Discover an important source for Piano Somatics

Fraser's Awareness Through Piano Movement (ATPM) lessons have their roots in Feldenkrais. Read this book to gain greater fluency in the language of Piano Somatics - or if you are not a pianist, read this book to discover a method that can transform your life in many other ways. Never has Feldenkrais been spelled out so clearly, so simply.

Table of Contents

• Preface       viii
• I Introduction       xi
• 1 The Unique Thrust of Feldenkrais       1
• 2 Feldenkrais Method & Alexander Technique       7
• 3 Improve Neuromotor Learning to Improve Musical Performance      15
• II Functional Integration       21
• 4 A New Type of Healing for a Broken Leg       23
• 5 An FI for the Hip Joint       27
• 6 An FI Replacing Touch with Words      35
• 7 What is FI?       38
• 8 Improving Through Sensation Instead of Exercise       61
• 9 The Artificial Floor       66
• 10 An FI in Sitting While Playing One’s Instrument      68
• III Awareness Through Movement       75
• 11 Do the Artificial Floor on Yourself       77
• 12 When Babies Move       81
• 13 The Underlying Neuromotor Processes of ATM       94
• 14 The Complementarity of FI & ATM       107
• IV Appendices       109
• These Three ATM’s Are Not Done Lying Down       111
• Moshe Feldenkrais Biography       125
• Students Appearing in this Book       129
• List of Illustrations       130
• Bibliography       132
• About the Author       133
• Index       134