Premium selection Introduction To the Primitives

In this three-day advanced training for Feldenkrais practitioners, Dennis Leri introduces and makes applicable the notion of a primitive. You will learn how movement "primitives" are found at all levels of action and are the basis for human movement. Primitives can be used to guide us in knowing how to organize our actions, our thinking and our intentions. Their proper use can make Functional Integration lessons more meaningful and effective.

The workshop includes eight lectures, three Awareness Through Movement lessons, and six Functional Integration demonstrations.

Dennis explains and explores three categories of primitives:

1. The movement primitives, which are the basis for all human movement. You will learn how movement primitives are found at all levels of action. Dr. Feldenkrais said that his lessons were no better than common exercise if they did not clarify what he called "the primary image." Dennis explains how to use movement primitives to see, sense and know the primary image. Both the primitives and the primary image will help you to "see" and experience Function, Differentiation and Integration.

2. The conceptual primitives, which guide all effective thinking. You will learn how to use modes of "fluid thinking" to know how to proceed in Functional Integration, and how to know when a lesson is finished.

3. The categorical primitives which orient our intention toward the aesthetic, pragmatic and theoretical aspects of a Functional Integration lesson.

• In an aesthetic lesson, how do we aim for elegance or beauty?
• In a theoretical lesson, our intention is organized around creating and testing a hypothesis, what general principles can, or do our Functional Integration lessons demonstrate?
• In a pragmatic lesson, how do we invent new means to act, bridge gaps, and see what others don't?