Mind your body: Feldenkrais: when it feels good, it is good: dancers find the practice helps with pain.

PHYSICAL THERAPY wasn't relieving the pain Erin Cornell experienced from two herniated discs, one in the lumbar area and the other in the cervical region of her spine. So Cornell, a New York dancer who has worked with choreographers Sara Rudner and Jennifer Lacey, decided to explore the Feldenkrais Method[R], a mind-body movement technique that many dancers have found useful in pain management.

"The pain wasn't going away because I was holding the muscles on my left side too tight and had displaced my discs," says Cornell. "Feldenkrais helped me to loosen the muscles, so I gradually was able to ease off that area and lessen the pain. And by identifying the muscular patterns I held in my body, I also was able to increase my range of motion."

ALL THE RIGHT MOVES

The Feldenkrais Method, named after its originator Dr. Moshe Feldenkrais, has been in use since the 1940s. It's now often a component of movement work for people with central nervous system conditions like multiple sclerosis. But increasingly dancers have been utilizing it to help relieve pain in the typically knotty areas like the back, neck, hips, and shoulders.

"Dancers work so hard in a culture that prioritizes workouts to build muscle strength. Feldenkrais gives them the ability to move with less effort," says Barbara Forbes, a ballet teacher at Sarah Lawrence College in Bronxville, New York, and an instructor at the Feldenkrais Learning Center in New York City. "It isn't about breaking a sweat. It's about developing a level of functioning that will prepare you for anything."

There are two approaches to Feldenkrais. Awareness Through Movement[R] lessons, or ATMs, are usually held in groups during which students can sit, stand, or lie down. Practitioners guide you through a sequence of slow movements. Functional Integration[R], or FI, is performed while the student lies on a table, though you can also sit or stand. While the method can be used for pain management, the emphasis is directed away from that body part. Instead, the focus is on increasing the range of the other areas of the body. You may find that while your left shoulder is sore, by starting movements in your feet and slowly working up your skeleton, you end up moving the painful area more freely. Feldenkrais sessions usually last forty-five minutes.

Forbes started using the method twelve years ago when she was Ballet Mistress for the Joffrey Ballet. She was experiencing back spasms, but had reconciled herself to living with it. A Feldenkrais teacher pointed out that there were subtle movements, of which she was unaware, that were building up tension. "In ballet I lifted my chest so much that I had a curve in my upper spine and it was burring me," she says. "I also came to see that the way I held myself was reflected in the way I approached life, that our movements are integral to how we present ourselves to others. I learned to rest nay spine through resting my shoulders, and the more I was able to change that, the more I realized it was changing my interaction with others."

Practitioners work with the nervous system through gentle touch that helps you to reorganize your movements. Tom Rawe, a former Twyla Tharp dancer who is now a physical therapist and Feldenkrais instructor with Physical Therapy & Feldenkrais NYG, says, "By working with dancers in a particular movement sequence, they not only find a more efficient way to execute the movement, but they can discover new options on how to approach the movement." He points out that noticing something as nuanced as the influence of the eyes, head, and neck on body motion can affect movement quality and change the dynamic range of possibilities in movement.

CHANGING YOUR PATTERNS

Forbes recommends Feldenkrais for dancers to increase their self-awareness. "Feldenkrais is all about the way we stand and move in the world, which in turn is about who we are in the world," she says. "That's why some dancers are so stimulating to watch. If you change one movement, you change everything about you." To find a Feldenkrais practitioner, visit www.feldenkraisguild.com.

Liza N. Burby is a writer based in Huntington Station, NY.