Online Feldenkrais courses with Donna Wood:
The Ground Beneath Us: Generating Power
This series cultivates the life within us and around us. Like a seed germinating in the earth, we find the internal and external bases of support that help us to grow in all directions -simultaneously pushing against the ground and being embraced by her.
We explore safety and support in movement with the idea of being rooted to a deeply felt sense of place.
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8 Feldenkrais Awareness Through Movement lessons. Access to videos & downloadable audio recordings.
1. Preparing the Soil
2. Digging In
3. Seismic Shifts
4. Sisyphus
5. Circling the Earth
6. Stepping Lightly
7. Baby Foxes
8. Pathways to Power -
“More power comes from doing less! Had to learn that one over and over. Like almost every week for the first half of the series...And then right around week 4 or 5, it came naturally to stop more, to do less, to pay attention to the precise point when it stops being easy.”
“Highlights for me were the lessons: Seismic Shifts and Baby Foxes as there were movements introduced in these lessons that I felt I’d never done before! This surprised me after a lifetime of dance and yoga and generally thinking of myself as a “mover”! I love Donna’s straight-ahead approach to instruction. I find her very clear and her directions easy to follow. I also like the little images she provides and how she can give many images for one movement so that it becomes richer and more layered in my felt experience of it as she speaks.” - April Nunes, Yoga Teacher
“Having the class itself, meeting weekly to reacquaint myself with my body's connection to the earth, and having tools and movements that can make that connection more alive and more pleasurable was a gift.” - Semerit, Coach and Artist
“Deep sensing and grounding of the sit bones, delicious!”
"Every part of me feels softer at the end of the lesson. I feel openness in my chest, greater contact of my feet on the floor and an interesting sense of feedback from the ground beneath me like I am feeling the floor and the floor is feeling me. My feet feel more awake -tingly. Rotation is easier, smoother - more range and inclination to turn. I have been enjoying turning and looking around. I feel like all the hinges have been oiled and my shoulders have more range of motion." - Neruma
“..feels like "missing link found" between my pelvic-floor and the upper thighs.” - Michael
“I love the idea of expanding awareness specifically to how the floor feels, and how the body feels on the floor, while moving.” - Megan
“I can feel the ground beneath my feet - truly grounded as i walk!” - Ed
"Wow!! What is this?? Never felt this dynamic energy coming from the pelvis, this powerful "turn" - Michael
“I love this whole series!!! The suggestions to feel the ground beneath and to go underneath the movement also help me to stay present to the whole experience of the body. I am amazed at how much change and learning occurs in one lesson.”- Alisa
“So inspired by this lesson. and this is just the intro!!! how exciting.”
“Wonderful lesson! Thank you so much! I feel I’m walking on clouds” -Monica
"I feel a widening and softening of my chest, more movement in my ribs especially at the sides. My belly feels softer - like I have let go of some holding here. I am enjoying the movements of my pelvis and shoulders - swaying and turning and the ease with which they move in harmony with each other. More of my feet are in touch with the floor. I feel the shifts will keep on speaking to me."
“Wow, Donna, thank you for this deeply profound lesson. The heads of my femurs are thanking you! They appear to have found a comfortable resting place. Thanks again.”- April
“Thank you Donna for this lesson. I feel more integrated than I ever have. I have a sense of wholeness and an indescribable sense of support - sort of like I am becoming one with the ground all around me. I want to do this lesson again and again.” - Suzy
“A lesson full of joy and surprises!” - April
“A deep release of the hips and a feeling of weighing a million pounds, all parts relaxing/touching the floor at the end. Lovely.” - Keith
Forces of Nature
All through the day, in small and large ways, we open and close, expand and contract. In order to get up, you have to be down, in order to expand you need to contract. When we stiffen parts of ourselves we lose this flow and with it some of our strength and resilience.
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4 Feldenkrais Awareness Through Movement audio lesson recordings.
1. Intro lesson: Reaching
2. Pulling and Pushing
3. Rotation
4. Putting It Together
About Donna Wood
Donna Wood has been teaching and exploring the Feldenkrais Method for 25 years. She holds a black belt in the Japanese martial art of Aikido and the rank of Professor in the Brazilian martial art of Capoeira. Her lifelong immersion in dance and martial arts informs both her life and her teaching.