The ability to be present is innate to us and therefore we recognize this ability whenever we encounter it. We admire the ability - particularly in young children who haven’t yet lost it. If we experience it within ourselves, we feel awake and complete in a noticeable way. To maintain this ability over the course a lifetime requires the openness to be in contact with oneself and in dialogue with others, because presence is the intimate encounter with ourselves, with our fellow human beings, with everything that surrounds us, with life.

In the Feldenkrais method, the dialogue with oneself and with the space we inhabit is trained as an example for all dialogical encounters. Through precise work with movements and perception that can be learned by anyone and everyone, one will be led to this sense of “entering into a dialogue”. First of all, with the floor - the surface in the room that supports us all our lives: through lying, sitting, standing and moving forward. Furthermore, with the force that constantly affects us in space: gravity. This is given to us at the moment of our birth. If we want to live and develop, we have to recognize it and use it. And we have to learn to counter it with something that can be called aspiration or striving.

So, while gravity is given to us, we always have to develop a sense of aspiration /striving as a response from within ourselves, from our own awareness. Our engagement with ourselves in the sphere of action between these two forces is a constant dialogue that accompanies us throughout our lives. How we conduct this dialogue and how we can engage in it again and again determines the ease or difficulty of our movements and our actions. It challenges and supports our personal presence and keeps us open to the diverse situations and necessities of our lives.

Prof. Anna Triebel Thome has been teaching the Feldenkrais method for over 30 years both in independent practice and as a professor of movement and awareness education at the University of the Arts in Berlin. In 1975, she met Dr. Moshe Feldenkrais, from whom she was personally trained in his methods "Awareness through Movement" and "Functional Integration". Anna Triebel Thome gained her first experience as an instructor as an assistant to Mia Segal, the principal assistant to Moshe Feldenkrais. She completed the "Teachers Training Program" specially developed and managed by Segal for the training of trainers.

Inspired and challenged by her three decades of extensive work with stage actors, Anna Triebel Thome has researched and developed the Feldenkrais work, above all with regard to its implementation in spatial movement and presence. The need to transfer what one has learned on one’s own and for oneself into movement in space might seem only pertinent for performers who have to confidently master navigating the stage. However, this ability is important for all of us who act on “the stage of life” in our personal and professional realms, and is one of the basic requirements for freedom of action. In this sense, we also become ever more conscious of the work on ourselves - in a protected setting - of being in the room, being in the upright position, sitting, walking and standing. This leads to an understanding that what we are allowed to learn for ourselves must always prove itself in relation to our spatial reality and thus with our surroundings.

The course is open to everyone who wants to explore the Feldenkrais Method: for beginners, for experienced practitioners and also for Feldenkrais teachers who use this for further training. The diversity of the group particularly encourages intensive learning, which enables all participants to develop on a personal as well as a professional level.

Date: August 28th 2022

Postponed until Fall 2022, date TBA

Book here.

To pay the course fee, click here: 100 € or 80 € (reduced)

Memberships: 

Access to all weekly classes - please register for each class.

In addition to the weekly classes, with the purchase of a one-month membership you can access a short workshop (no longer than 4 hours) or a one-on-one consultation. With the purchase of a three-month membership, you can have access to 3 workshops or 3 individual consultations. 

For students of all colleges or universities in NRW : you can access our services with a 50% discount. Please show a student ID to the course instructor. Use the code HFMT50 when paying.