Last year one of Chava Shelhav-Silberbusch's
students got her friends and relations back in Prague interested
in organising a five-day Feldenkrais workshop. Surprisingly
the authorities gave the go-ahead and Chava was granted a
visa. Then the revolution intervened and up to the last minute
it wasn't clear whether the workshop could take place as
planned. But it did!
More than 60 people were eagerly waiting for Chava at a
sports centre. Ages ranged from 20 to 75. There were scientists,
doctors, neurologists, physiotherapists, actors, students,
computer experts etc. A third of the group were men. 'Unusual!
If I compare the percentage of men and women in Europe and
the United States, there were more men in Prague.' About
twenty of the participants were Yoga students. Chava was
to be surprised by them: 'Even the Yoga people who in
all other places are the difficult people to teach in the
Feldenkrais Method because they have their own idea' learned
very quickly what kind of attitude is fostered by this method.
Two journalists who arrived on the second day to interview
Chava accepted an invitation to participate so as to better
understand what the Feldenkrais Method is about.
THEY ALWAYS IMPROVISED, ALWAYS FOUND A SOLUTION
It was very crowded in the gym hall.
People arranged themselves in neatly regimented lines on
narrow strips of matting. There were no blankets marking
out individual territory as is the rule in the West, and
no complaints about lack of space.
' ... It didn't disturb them at all ... Maybe because
they are used to live in narrow places, or many people in
one room. In Germany or the United States if people are too
near to each other, one will stop or will move elsewhere
or do his own pace, but he will never come too near or touch
the other person ... Here even the old people found a way.
I have a picture of a man in his seventies near a women.
He didn't have the space on the floor and he still wanted
to continue to straighten his arm. So what did he do? Instead
of shortening he went above without touching the woman. It
didn't disturb her or him ... Something like that wouldn't
happen in other countries.
I'm not sure whether it is their culture or personality
... But they always improvised, always found a solution.
I'm not sure whether this belongs to Czech culture or to
the totalitarian mentality that needs to find a way to do
things because there is no other choice ... '
To begin with, the translator needed time to find the right
words in her mother tongue,
which she had never used in connection with the Feldenkrais
Method. That was just as well because it gave Chava sufficient
opportunity to observe how people reacted to her instructions.
She also had time to reconsider and adapt her approach: 'I
had some plan, but the moment I saw them lying on the floor
and I started with the usual Feldenkrais scanning I could
feel and I don't know why - that I couldn't continue the
regular scanning that I start in a usual workshop. I felt
- and at the same time thoughts came to me - that maybe they
are not used to thinking of themselves. Maybe the idea of
scanning the body is too quick for them.
They need first to feel what's going on in their body. So
immediately I had to change the whole approach. So I started
with movement... I chose turning ... When she translated
I could think of what I'm doing next. I could see much more
because usually I'm talking and they are doing. Here I could
observe when she spoke. It gave me much more time to observe.
THEY SEEMED TO BE OBEYING ORDERS
Chava observed a strange phenomenon that also needed to
be taken Into account.
When people began to move, they seemed to be obeying orders
... She (the translator) said and they did. They
obeyed the directions without thinking at the beginning.
Usually people start to lift their head or to ask questions
or to look what the others do or things like that. They obeyed
and it was as if they were used to this kind of discipline
... Most of them understood very quickly, and even if they
didn't understand they did something near it. All of them
did something ... at about the middle of the lesson I understood
that I had to provoke and to stimulate the thinking with
the movement. So I invented much more complicated movements
in order not to let them use this discipline to obey that
they are used to. It means that when they had to think of
what the foot, the hip-joint does, what happens in the shoulder,
to the breathing, to the eye movements, or to many other
parts of the body, they couldn't think of something else!
And that thing was very new to them. You could see they were
soon much more quiet ... And slowly you could see that their
breathing started to be fuller, the weight of their body
was really the weight. That means you could feel that they
start to be more human, much more human. Their faces were
much more relaxed ...
Initially Chava didn't want to point out that stopping all
the time in order to make notes wasn't such a good idea. 'In
the lessons, right after the first or second movement, they
wrote - many of them ... I decided to let the process continue.
I didn't want to start too many new things at once. And I
wanted to see if they will be more interested in themselves
if they won't find the time to write. And it was really so;
fewer and fewer people wrote because they realized they were
missing something while they wrote. I gave them so much information
and they didn't have the time .. .! also emphasized that
the resting time is the most important time ... that they
need the rest, because in the rest they are learning to feel
what is going on. It means the resting time is their teacher,
it is a new teacher they are inventing in themselves. Through
the rest time they are learning to compare, and they are
learning the influence of what they did .. .'
One older woman who didn't trust her memory kept lifting
her head regularly to make notes. On the third day Chava
tried another tactic. I said 'Let's make a deal that
at the end of the fifth day I will repeat some of the ideas
and I will explain to you the development of the workshop
so that you will have some notes to take home with you.'
But for her it wasn't enough. She continued to write, continued
to write. So, as I couldn't really stand that she kept stiffening
her neck, lying on her back, lifting her head and writing
- and she continued to tell me that she has a problem in
her neck - I told her 'Do you know what? Instead of lifting
your head, roll over to one side and write your notes if
you want to write your notes. You see, in ,this position
you won't press on your neck and hurt yourself.' I thought
maybe this kind of suggestion will bring her to see that
she needn't write at all because she would feel that something
is happening ... Anyway, after that she wrote only half as
much. She was the only one I couldn't influence really well
although she was very enthusiastic and wanted to invite me
to the hospital where she does research into movement with
people who injured their joints ... '
A PERSON IS ALLOWED TO REST
Such challenges kept Chava very alert to the fact that the
approach had to be somewhat different from what she is used
to in her workshops in the West. It was an intuitional
insight that I had to develop things slowly as with children
... Even the timing, how many times to do a movement...and
to tell them that each of them can do it at their own pace
and take a rest whenever he needs to ... I had to address
that and to emphasize it in a different way than I would
in other countries. Chava went on to explain that
in other countries people don't know either how to rest and
often expect the teacher to tell them when to do so ... But
here I had to emphasize that a person is allowed to rest.
In Europe I would say Take a rest. You should find
out when you need it'. And here I would say 'You are allowed'
to take your own breaks. You should learn to permit yourself
to enjoy to rest, you needn't work and be busy all the time!'.
I was actually afraid to talk about the party or the revolution.
I was really afraid. I thought I had some of the spies there
who would like to know who is at the workshop. So I didn't
really feel free to talk about the revolution or the system.'
Instead of talking about a person's individual freedom to
do things his or her own way, Chava dealt with that theme
indirectly from time to time by letting a number of people
demonstrate the same movement and getting the rest to observe
individual differences ... 'And slowly that's how they
started to look and see. I wanted to develop by that the
feeling that everyone has his own way of doing things, everyone
needs his own time for doing things, and everyone has his
own ability to do things ... so they could accept that each
of them did well, and I couldn't say that one did better
than the other. .. so that each of them would really find
his own handwriting ... that there are many alternatives
and many ways to do the same thing and all of them are right
- a completely new experience for them!' Especially
the younger people kept telling Chava that for forty years
they had been used to doing whatever they were told ... 'So
I said 'But now you have the choice to do something else!'
THEY ALWAYS HAVE AN IDEAL WAY
Chava also had to patiently explain why she never demonstrated
movements ... 'because I would like each of them to
find their own way instead of imitating me, that by imitating
they lose their way of thinking, they lose their way of doing
and finding new possibilities ... and why imitate me, why
not imitate one of them, and who to imitate? I didn't want
them to have any model of what is the ideal way to do things
... There isn't! This was very new because as Communists
they always have an ideal way, the best way of doing things,
and the more you do, the better you are ... So here right
at the beginning I addressed that subject. But instead of
bringing it more at the political level, I made it concrete
... I took this abstract idea and concretized it through
movement...first they had to really feel and sense and do
it, then I could give them some other examples in their everyday
life.'
In the course of the five days the experience of opening
up to new possibilities developed to such an extent that 'people
allowed themselves to have their own rhythm, to stop whenever
they needed, to laugh, to make jokes, to talk during the
lesson, even to ask questions when they didn't understand.
This openness was very touching ... it's like you are pioneering
an idea! And so all of us were euphoric, feeling that we
are doing something very new together. Even for myself, I
was under the impression that I'm inventing with them a new
way for them. And it was a new chance for them to perceive
more quickly this kind of revolution ... because they allowed
themselves to perceive the revolution that happened in themselves!'
The atmosphere created during the workshop even inspired
a famous satirist - with whose banned poems Chava's translator
had been familiar since childhood - to forget his deeply
ingrained fear of spies and imprisonment and show his wit
in public. 'I saw that he perceived things very differently
... He didn't have any connection at all with his body, his
limbs were in one part and his head was in some other part.
But somehow he brought everything together at the end of
the lesson. The way he said things was with some sense of
humour. I asked him during a break 'Why didn't you continue
your idea?' So he said: 'You know I'm afraid that people
don't know how to take it...People don't always understand
my sense of humour! I allowed myself to share it because
you very often use metaphors and analogies that I like very
much.'
HOW SUCH SMALL MOVEMENT CAN INFLUENCE THE WHOLE PERSONALITY
At the end of the fifth day Chava remembered 'I promised
them to explain the idea behind the workshop so they will
have some notes. Of course I knew that I'm not going to do
it...Anyway. I asked them 'With what did we start?' and they
told me. 'Is it familiar to you?' and slowly, slowly I developed
it so that they understood that the workshop was based on
the development of the human being .. .from lying on the
stomach or on the back slowly learning to crawl, to be on
their knees ... holding their feet, coordination, orientation,
even sound ... So I said 'I don't need to tell you the movements.
Each of you can go to your children or grandchildren and
see what they do. This is the kind of movement we did.' All
of them applauded and were very happy because they understood
the idea and that was enough for them. None of them asked
about the order of the movements any more when I told them
what they do isn't so important as the how, the quality.
They asked 'So what shall we do at home?' ... I said 'Lie
down, remember one or two of the movements, but remember
the quality, the way we did it. If you will be able to continue
to hold and keep this quality, you can do whatever you want.
You can transfer it to any movement you do in your life
and even in your work, even in your relationships. You see,
if you are sensitive and if you can communicate with yourself
you can communicate with the other. You communicate in your
work and in your family and so on - and maybe with other
countries as well. So ...'
'They were happy and enthusiastic about how such small
movements, or this relationship of body and mind, can influence
the whole personality. They all accepted the idea that the
body is working as a whole, that there is relationship, that
someone can think of his foot and change things in his shoulders,
that sensitivity can be developed, that by coordination they
can achieve better ways of doing things.'
Everyone wanted Chava's autograph at the end of the workshop,
and she had to promise to come back to Prague next year and
give a larger workshop.
(This account is based on a taped conversation transcribed by
Ilana Nevil) |
