“I began by asking them in what way they would practice or work alone, that is, without teaching or being taught.” - Mary Starks Whitehouse 

All my best teachers have offered this gift to me, the permission and encouragement to draw on my inner resources to find language, expression, learning, and meaning. They all had their own way of offering that.

My high school art teacher, Fred Marinello, offered me blank sketchbooks to fill. Natalie Goldberg offered me writing practice: keep the pen moving and see what comes. Moshe Feldenkrais shared a practice with the world of refining the body’s potential through exploration of movement and awareness. Mary Whitehouse offered the gift of listening to the body’s impulses and the space to witness its unfolding through movement, stillness, speaking and other creative processes. I love this quote from her:

"We are beginning to place enormous emphasis on creativity, but there is a tendency to think that being creative is limited to “producing” something. I would suggest to you that the basic creativity of the human being consists in his working toward his own fullest development, the realizing of his own potentials, the allowing himself to grow. What we create first is ourselves and it is out of ourselves that the producing comes.”

Moshe, like Mary, offered a practice of learning without being taught. Moshe Feldenkrais began his first North American training program by saying:

"I am going to be your last teacher. Not because I'll be the greatest teacher you may ever encounter, but because from me you will learn how to learn. When you learn how to learn, you will realize that there are no teachers, that there are only people learning and people learning how to facilitate learning."

Learn more about Movement and Creativity Library, an online library & community to support your home practice with 150+ Feldenkrais Awareness Through Movement and creative resources

“These recordings are so valuable. Literally life-saving and life-giving." 
- Tony Arnold, Artist-Teacher of Voice