Kinesthetic Edge™

IntelliDance: A Feldenkrais Solution for Pirouettes is the first in a series of lessons designed especially for dancers and dance educators. Study of the Feldenkrais Method® teaches that the most meaningful learning cannot be explained or demonstrated; it must be experienced. A good teacher can facilitate the learning process, but the learning itself must be internalized, processed, and expressed by each student in their own way. The Feldenkrais Method offers dance teachers a pedagogical tool, a means for leading the student away from the familiar teacher-led learning model and enabling them to embark on a more personal journey that will help them reconnect with their natural ability to learn.

In early infancy we all share a kinesthetic learning experience that eventually leads to turning, which first manifests in our lives as rolling over. But prior to that first roll, we must learn to focus and track our eyes. Thus it makes perfect sense that before learning turns in dance, the first thing we study is how to spot, or track our eyes. I am sure that many of you were told that the purpose of spotting is to help you turn without getting dizzy. But the connection between eye function and turning is more involved than that. Understanding this may forever change the way you address your own or your students’ struggles with turns.

The movement of the eyes tracking right and left becomes linked over time with the activation of muscles that rotate the spine. This linkage becomes so ingrained in our experience of our body’s movements that we don’t notice the connection. A Feldenkrais Solution for Pirouettes will help you to reconnect with this most fundamental aspect of how the nervous system organizes itself in order for the body to turn. Enjoy.