DO WHAT YOU ALREADY DO…MORE PLEASURABLY
making the impossible, possible, the possible, easy, and the easy, elegant
Belinda has benefited greatly from her study of the Feldenkrais Method® in all areas of her life: emotionally, physically and artistically. As a Guild Certified Feldenkrais PractitionerCM, she is looks forward to sharing the gift of the Method with anyone who is interested.
She is especially committed to working with performing artists, as she has experienced first-hand how profoundly the Feldenkrais Method has informed her performance and choreographic work. In 2014, she spoke as a guest panelist at the Dance Career Symposium held at the New School, where she also taught a Feldenkrais Awareness Through Movement® class to attendees. She was also an invited teacher at the Cultivate Dance Festival 2014 in Bethlehem, New Hampshire.
During her time in New York City, Belinda was a faculty practitioner at the Feldenkrais Institute, and conducted her private practice at Inwood Movement, where she saw clients of all stripes. She also taught seasonally at Brooklyn Studios for Dance.
Since moving to California in February 2017, Belinda now maintains a private practice in the Mission District of San Francisco, and has taught workshops at Spiritual Alignment Yoga and Healing Center in Niles, Fremont, and at Shawl Anderson Dance Center in Berkeley.
If you would like more information about the Method and what it can do for you, or are ready to jump in and experience your very first Feldenkrais lesson, please write to:
Awareness Through Movement classes:
Sundays 10:00 am – 11:15 am Pacific Time ONLINE
Group class open to all. Register here to receive Zoom link. Pay-what-you-can ($0-20), no one turned away for lack of funds.
Thursdays 11:00 am – 12:15 pm Pacific Time ONLINE
BIPOC only open level group class. Register here to receive Zoom link. Pay-what-you-can ($0-20), no one turned away for lack of funds.
This class offers BIPOC folks a virtual community space in which to experience the Feldenkrais Method as taught by a rotating roster of BIPOC teachers, who teach through the lenses of cultivating resilience and building informed agency. Awareness Through Movement provides opportunities to experience the moving self in its full complexity, and invites a re-imagination of ourselves, through the practice of slowing down and intentional action.
Thursdays 12:45 pm – 1:45 pm Pacific Time
3354 20th Street
San Francisco, CA 94110
NOW ONLINE! [full]
Pre-registration is required for this ongoing small-group class for professional and advanced dancers. Please email feldenkrais@belindahe.com to indicate interest and discover if this would be the right format for your learning.
The description of the Feldenkrais Method below is adapted from the Feldenkrais Institute of New York website.
The Feldenkrais Method is a remarkable approach to human movement, learning and change originally developed by Moshe Feldenkrais. The method is based on sound principles of physics, neurology and physiology, and the conditions under which the nervous system learns best. Feldenkrais is recognized for the strategies it employs to improve posture, flexibility, coordination, athletic and artistic ability and to help those with restricted movement, chronic pain and tension (including back pain and other common ailments), as well as neurological, developmental and psychological problems.
The Feldenkrais Method explores the biological and cultural aspects of movement, posture and learning, and how our habits can constrain us to a small portion of our potential. It uses a process of organic learning, movement, and sensing to free you from habitual patterns and allow for new patterns of thinking, moving and feeling to emerge.
Feldenkrais is taught in two complementary formats:
FUNCTIONAL INTEGRATION® (FI)
Functional Integration (FI) is a one-to-one approach. Learning, change and improvement are achieved through the use of specific skilled manipulation and passive movements, individualized for the client’s particular needs. Functional Integration is gentle, subtle, effective, and widely recognized for its ability to address both minor aches and pains, and serious muscular-skeletal and neurological problems, chronic tension, and the developmental problems of children.
AWARENESS THROUGH MOVEMENT® (ATM)
In these structured movement lessons, students typically begin by lying on comfortable cotton mats (lessons are taught using a variety of positions, including sitting in chairs or standing). Using a combination of guided attention and pleasant, purposeful movement, each lesson guides you through the essential dynamic relationships in a particular pattern of movement and action. Unlike traditional exercise, where movements can become mechanical and the objective is to burn calories, stretch or train willpower for its own sake, Awareness Through Movement teaches you the secrets to reducing unnecessary muscular effort and improve your awareness of your whole self in action. This emphasis on sensory learning results in movement and vitality that are more flexible, pleasurable and free from aches and pains. The lessons are easy to do, of benefit to everyone, and the results can be extraordinary.
