About Local Academy Feet/Local Academy Teams

Local Academy Feet (LAF)/Local Academy Teams (LAT) provide learning experiences from Feldenkrais Practitioners to Practitioners to increase the quality of the practice of the Feldenkrais Method by choosing it’s topic and develop ideas in its own style embedded in the practical application.

Each LAF/LAT is composed of a few Practitioners who work together to create, provide and evaluate their learning experiences. They are called “local” to highlight that they live more or less in the same area.

- Some LAF’s/LAT’s are inspired to create workshop/learning experiences and to share them and continue the development of the ideas and practice.
- Other LAF/LAT are attracted to provide the workshops created by others to present to their local Practitioners and peers.
- And some LAF/LAT explore a specific topic and document and evaluate it ongoing for instance how does a specific philosophical concept influence Practitioners’ thoughts while practicing.

About the Labels, LAF/LAT 

The labels refer to the IFF Academy's concept: Local. They are called "local" to highlight that the members live more or less in the same region.

Foot/Feet. The word "foot" was chosen to emphasise they are grounded in the practice of the Method, but also to make the more abstract and virtual idea of a global Academy real and touching the earth.
Or
Team. Some practitioners have indicated that the word 'Foot' is not
too attractive for a group of professionals. If this is your feeling,
then you may  instead think of Local Academy Team, yet still sensing how this locally working Team is part of  the larger Academy frame , and is also embedded in the practice of the Method.

 

They are called “Feet” to emphasise the connection with the whole Academy, but also that they are grounded in the actual practice of the Method and its professional field. These Local Academy Teams are regarded as the Academy’s “feet” to make the more abstract and virtual idea of a global Academy real and touching the earth.

How do LAF/LAT interrelate to other IFF Academy activities?

Outcomes of these locally grounded and collaborative learning of Feldenkrais Practitioners  do  provide valuable data and contributions to more general approaches of developing and investigating the Method’s application:  these global themes dealing with a topic of interest all over the community or  emphasising on cross-cultural exchange are called Academy Hands/Global Academy Themes.  For everybody feet do belong to the same unity as hands and the local refers to the global. The analogue within the Academy:  Local Feet/Teams and Hands/Global Themes can be regarded as two interrelated layers which are only different in functioning.

A Local Academy Foot/Team can easily contribute and participate in an Academy hand’s theme, for instance when a local research project is coming up with more general findings; or some participants of a Hand/Global Theme may start to form a Foot for more concrete activities/experiments on the local level.

How a Local Academy Foot forms– An example:

Imagine you are working in a kindergarten giving ATM and FI lessons to small kids, their teachers and perhaps some of their parents. By chance you meet (or have already met) some Feldenkrais colleagues within your local area, also working as practitioners in a kindergarten. All of you become interested to share your experiences, to further your professional work, perhaps present it to others in and outside the Feldenkrais world. You start (or have already started) to form a group of practitioners working in kindergartens. But you would like to have a frame for your ideas and plans. The IFF Academy can offer you the possibility to get organised in a broader frame by setting up a “Local Academy Foot/Local Academy Team” .

 Another example:

You are a member of a group of practitioners working together regularly, but you need new inputs for your professional collaboration. What about using IFF Academy Workshop formats? In this way, you can offer them to a larger group of colleagues than your own little one, review them and contribute to the pool of Academy formats.

How could this be done?

The IFF Academy consists of many projects to support Feldenkais Practitioners to develop their practice and understanding of the Feldenkrais Method. The IFF Academy has developed a cultural context for these activities which reflects and maintains the process-like character of the Academy idea:  Academy materials are developed and presented in Teams, evaluated, networked to the Feldenkrais professional community and “open sourced”. This means: Each Academy project is not regarded as its originators’ private property, but offered and open to be used by all other members of the Academy within the Academy’s rights and responsibilities

This cultural context allows Practitioners all over the world to learn from the experiences of others, to make new learning experiences to share with others, and contribute in a positive way to the ongoing development and practice of the Method.

The opportunity to run IFF Academy workshops comes with some rights and responsibilities in the frame of a “Local Academy Foot/Local Academy Team” (LAF/LAT). Agreeing in these rules you can then access the materials in detail and for free by quoting the source. The formation of a LAF/LAT  is very easy and uncomplicated (see: )

 Version 5.5 Revised 6-Nov-05.