IFF Feldenkrais Research Journal

The Feldenkrais Research Journal was launched with the first Volume in 2004. Since then it has served as a publication outlet that brought together Feldenkrais practitioners interested in research and scholars interested in learning more about the Feldenkrais Method®. Its open-access full-text archive is a repository of a wide range of perspectives on the possibilities and challenges of studying the Feldenkrais Method in relevant, systematic, and rigorous ways.

For information and to read journal volumes, please visit feldenkraisresearchjournal.org.

Feldenkrais Research Journal Volume 6 Launched!

New format for journal features articles on Feldenkrais Method, arts and creative process.

The International Feldenkrais® Federation is pleased to announce the publication of Volume 6 of the Feldenkrais Research Journal (FRJ). It is on the theme of Practices of Freedom: The Feldenkrais Method and Creativity, and offers a critical forum for scholarship, articulation and evaluation of creative practices and pedagogies which are informed by the Feldenkrais Method.

This volume features eleven articles. Several explore the challenges of bringing Feldenkrais-based practices to the context of higher education in music, dance, theatre and performance generally – how to introduce professional and performance-oriented students to the potential of somatic learning. Hypothesis and theory articles explore embodied cognition in dance and math, and include a text of a performed piece on a variety of theoretical constructs linked to Feldenkrais Method practice. There is also an article linking Feldenkrais theory to piano technique. Also included are reviews of a recent book on Feldenkrais for Actors, and of theatre works by choreographer Ohad Naharin. The Research in Progress section previews interactive research design investigating active sitting.

Authors include: Jenny Coogan, Corinna Eikmeier, Kene Igweonu, Dor Abrahamson, Ami Shulman, Katja Münker, Victoria Worsley, Alan Fraser, Detta Howe, Thomas Kampe, Helen Singh-Miller, Margaret Kaye, and Lian Loke.

Volume 6 of the FRJ was edited by Guest Editor Thomas Kampe, who also provides an Editorial which is a work of scholarship in itself both tracing the relevance of Feldenkrais Method to contemporary arts practice, and Moshe Feldenkrais’ exposure to European modern dance practice in the 1920s and 1930s. Thomas teamed with Chief Editor Cliff Smyth to edit this volume. Our special thanks go to Special Guest Editors: Sara Reed, Robert Sholl, and Libby Worth, and to regular Editorial Team members, Zoran Kovich, Cornelia Berens, and Dianne Hancock who reviewed and edited articles, along with text editors Brandee Selk and JoAnne Page.

In addition to this marvelous collection of papers, we are proud to present the FRJ in its new format on the Open Journal Systems software – which will allow us to manage the production of future volumes more easily. This volume features a beautiful redesign by Jessica Taylor, and many of the articles feature photographs of performances and practices.

You can find the Feldenkrais Research Journal (FRJ) at: https://feldenkraisresearchjournal.org

We would be delighted if you read it and benefit from the contents. Please pass on the link to Feldenkrais practitioners, academics, arts practitioners and members of the public whom you think might be interested.

Thanks as always to the IFF and its member organizations for their ongoing support for the FRJ.

If you missed it you might also take a look at Volume 5 (2016): Catching Up, and Moving Ahead, which reflects many of the tendencies and directions emerging as part of the Feldenkrais research dialogue and practice over the previous eight years.

The next volume is now seeking articles on Mindfulness, Mindful Movement and the Feldenkrais Method, and will also accept articles on other themes: Call for Contributions

The FRJ is committed to promoting research, deepening discourse, and enhancing the standard of research, writing, thinking, and practice into the Feldenkrais Method of somatic education, and exploring how the thought and practice of the Feldenkrais Method can contribute to many fields of human research and action.

You can Contact us at: feldenkraisresearchjournal@gmail.com

Cliff Smyth, PhD, General Editor
for the Feldenkrais Research Journal team

Photo © Patrick Beelaert. From workshop: Thomas Kampe ‘The Art of Making Choices: Feldenkrais Method® and Improvisation’, Germany 2015. Dancers: Loby Lam & Petra Stransky