About Session
May the Ease Be With You: Taming Tension and Performance Anxiety with Feldenkrais Awareness Through Movement
Elizabeth Blades, DMA
A dynamic performance requires a fine balance between excited energy and calm control. For a performer, being “in the flow” is a heady sensation, one of freedom and ease. All too often, however, this elevation to the “flow state” is elusive, inaccessible, blocked and impeded by barriers which range from the psychological to the physical. One of the biggest culprits is “negative” physical tension.
Tension is necessary to life; without tonus (muscle tension), we cannot stand, sit, or even breathe. Problems arise when tension is excessive, misplaced, or insufficient, causing extra effort and blockage.
The Feldenkrais Method is a self-discovery process using movement, an approach which can help a performer to focus appropriate attention to physical cues via kinesthetic awareness, thereby offsetting negative attention on feelings of inadequacy. This forum introduces “modular” Feldenkrais work, thus helping calm the nervous system without loss of performance energy.
Workshop description
1. Brief introduction via PowerPoint 2. “Pre-test”: Sing – identify any negative tension 3. Experiential time with selected ATM module 4. “Post-test” – Sing. Participants report changes from “pre-test” areas 5. Questions/answers
