Moshe Feldenkrais was a master in several arenas: He was a respected scientist from his early years, earning a Doctorate in Science from the Sorbonne University in Paris; he was a martial artist, becoming one of the first Europeans to earn a black-belt in Judo; he had a photographic memory, and he read and studied voraciously in the fields of biology, perinatal development, cybernetics and linguistics. He brought all of these fields of learning together in the Method that he created over fifty years. All of this learning was devoted to answering a simple question: “How can we improve ourselves?” From this question sprang some surprising ideas: “There is no limit to human improvement.” “Movement is Life.” “By improving our understanding of the way we move, we can overcome pains and difficulties that we once thought were insurmountable.”
Feldenkrais created his method to enable anyone, be they injured, elderly, or fully healthy, to improve themselves and enable themselves to follow their dreams. He began teaching classes in Tel Aviv, Israel in the ‘fifties and ‘sixties. By the late ‘seventies he was training his first group of Practitioners. Along the way he earned the respect and interest of Margaret Mead, Milton Erickson, and many other educators and scientists. His more famous clients have included Julius Erving (Dr. J), Rick Acton, Duffy Waldorf, David Ben-Gurion, Helen Hayes, Whoopi Goldberg, Yehudi Menuhin, and Yo Yo Ma.
Feldenkrais published a number of books during his lifetime including Body and Mature Behavior (International Universities Press, New York 1950), Awareness Through Movement (Harper and Row, New York, 1972), and The Elusive Obvious (Meta Publications, Capitola, CA, 1981). A number of articles on him and his work have been published in periodicals such as Smithsonian (“Teaching the Body How To Program the Brain is Moshe’s ‘Mircale’”, January 1981) , Modern Maturity (“Lessons in Living From A Sepuagenarian”, April-May 1982), and Physical Therapy Forum (“The Feldenkrais Method: Clinical Applications”, February 19, 1986).