The Feldenkrais Method®
with Ralph Strauch

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Living in Gravity

Exploring the experience of being grounded

a Feldenkrais workshop
with Ralph Strauch

Dartington, Totnes, Devon, UK
Sunday, 1 June, 2008, 10am-4pm


Workshop Brochure (pdf)
Registration and Venue information

You live and move in a field of gravity. Managing your ongoing relationship with gravity is one of life's most central tasks. If you don't do it, you will fall down. It is so central, in fact, that it becomes largely automatic. You probably have little awareness of it, but this can change. This workshop will help you learn to live in gravity more efficiently, with greater ease and less effort.

You support yourself in gravity with a combination of skeletal alignment and muscular effort. The better your body balances on your skeleton the less your muscles need to work to support its weight, so the easier and more comfortable life becomes. The experience of being grounded comes from feeling a clear path through your skeleton into the ground, unimpeded by excessive tension and effort in the joints along the way.

We will begin by exploring the role of balance in sitting. You will experience the feeling of support from below -- through your pelvis and spine -- rather than trying to hold yourself up with your ribcage, shoulders, and neck. We'll extend that experience into standing and walking. You may be amazed at how effortless the transition from sitting to standing can be.

You will discover new ways of moving and experiencing movement -- by allowing it to happen through the guidance and direction of reflexes in your brainstem and spinal cord rather than by forceful control from your cerebral cortex, where your ego lives. This fluid and effortless way of moving is your evolutionary birthright, but may have been taken from you by the pressures and stresses of everyday contemporary life.

And most importantly, perhaps, you will learn ways to carry these insights with you back to the everyday world with all its pressures and stresses, where they can continue to enrich your daily life.

Ralph Strauch, Ph.D., practices the Feldenkrais Method in Los Angeles, California. He trained with the founder of the Method, Dr. Moshe Feldenkrais, and brings to his practice a wide range of insight and experience. He was formerly a Senior Mathematician with the Rand Corporation where his research focused on choice in the face of uncertainty, and has been exploring the mind-body relationship through the internal martial arts and related practices since the late 1960s. A more complete description of his background can be found here.

For more information please contact:
, 1-310-454-8322 (Los Angeles)
    regarding workshop content, or
Nikhila Ludlow, +44 (0)1803 868766 (Totnes)
    regarding logistics or administrative questions.

Registration

The cost for the workshop is £55 if you come by yourself or £50 each for two or more people registering together. You may pay the full amount when you register, or pay a deposit of at least £10 now and the remainder by 15 May.

To register by mail and pay by cheque please use this registration form.

To register online and pay with a credit card or PayPal account, please use the appropriate Buy Now button below. If you are registering for more than one person, update the QTY field accordingly. You will then be taken to your PayPal account or to a form where you can enter your credit card information, and then to a form with field for comments. If you are registering for more than one person, please include the names of anyone who is registering with you in the comment field

Living in Gravity workshop -- £55
single registration

Living in Gravity workshop -- £50
multiple registrations

Living in Gravity deposits -- £10/person
balance due by 15 May

To pay your remaining balance by 15 May,
please enter the amount you wish to pay.

Cancellations up to one week before the workshop will be charged £10 cancellation fee. No refunds thereafter.

If you are not ready to register now but would like a reminder closer to the time of the workshop, please .

Venue information

The workshop will be held at Foxhole Centre, Dartington Hall Estate, Totnes Devon TQ9 6EL. Situated in south-west England the Centre lies in beautiful countryside surroundings with Dartmoor national park and the beaches of the South Devon coast just 20-30 minutes drive away. It is a mile and a half from the town of Totnes. This Google Map shows the Foxhole Centre and surrounding Totnes/Dartington area, with driving and walking routes to the venue noted.

Totnes is on the main railway line to south-west England, and is easily accessible from London, Bristol and the North. It is one of the stops included in the high-speed train services. There is a regular bus service up to Dartington. By road, Totnes and Dartington are about 10 minutes drive off the main A38 which together with the A30 are the main arterial roads into the westcountry.

The links below provide information about the area, including accommodations and attractions. We will also prepare a list of accommodations close to the venue.

We have also compiled a more detailed list of nearby accommodations, together with walking and driving directions to the venue. (These links will open in separate pages.)

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