



























 

Feldenkrais Research Journal​ • ​volume 6​ (2018-2019) 
 
Original Research 
 
 

From Posture to Acture: 
Developing Awareness in Movement and Performer Training in UK 
Higher Education using the Feldenkrais Method​® 

 
Kene Igweonu 
PhD; Deputy Dean (Research & Knowledge Exchange), Faculty of Arts & Creative Industries, Middlesex 
University, London 

Contact: ​K.Igweonu@mdx.ac.uk 
 

Abstract 
The last three decades has seen the Feldenkrais Method continuing to gain acceptance within UK Higher 
Education as a pedagogical tool which offers dynamic approaches to performer training that 
complements, and often challenges, established modes of learning and teaching that are body-centred 
and somatic. This article draws on a longitudinal study that I started in 2010, and which has been 
sustained through my teaching and practice research work. It discusses the growing practice of 
incorporating the Feldenkrais Method in movement and performance training within the UK Higher 
Education context and explores some of the strategies and approaches adopted by practitioners of the 
Feldenkrais Method in their work with performing arts students. The article emphasises that this growing 
interest in the use of the Feldenkrais Method in movement and performer training programmes have 
meant that practitioners often adapt their approaches to teaching the Feldenkrais Method in its ‘pure form’ 
and instead introduce a range of ‘scaffolding’ techniques in order to cultivate and sustain students’ 
engagement with the learning process. Furthermore, it contends that the Feldenkrais Method does not 
function as a performer training technique in itself, but as a viable foundation for underpinning the learning 
and teaching of technique. The article concludes by iterating the case for foregrounding the Feldenkrais 
Method in movement and performer training within UK Higher Education due to its effectiveness for 
facilitating experiential learning, heightened psycho-physical awareness and efficient self-use among 
performing arts students. 

Keywords 
Feldenkrais Method, Awareness, Movement, Performer Training, Higher Education, Somatic, Reflexive 
Practitioners 

Copyright ©:​ The copyright for this paper remains with the author(s). 

Please cite:​ (First published in the) ​Feldenkrais Research Journal, volume 6​; 2018-2019. 

Service marks:​ The terms Feldenkrais​®​, Feldenkrais Method​®​, Awareness Through Movement​®​, ATM​®​, 
Functional Integration​®​, and FI​® ​are service marked terms of the International ​Feldenkrais​®​ Federation 
(IFF) and Feldenkrais professional guilds and associations in many countries. In keeping with academic 

 
Published by the International ​Feldenkrais​®​ Federation (IFF) ​https://feldenkrais-method.org 
Available online at ​https://feldenkraisresearchjournal.org 
 

 
 

mailto:K.Igweonu@mdx.ac.uk
https://feldenkrais-method.org/
https://feldenkraisresearchjournal.org/


 

conventions, they will not be service marked in the entire text as may be required in nonacademic use, 
but only for the first and most prominent use of the terms. In recognition that these phrases are formal 
terms referring to specific practices within the Method, and to the Method as a whole, capitalization of all 
the words in each term has been retained.  

 
Igweonu • ​Feldenkrais Research Journal, volume 6​ (2018-2019) 2
 



 

Original Research 
 
 

From Posture to Acture: 
Developing Awareness in Movement and Performer Training in UK 
Higher Education using the Feldenkrais Method​® 

 
Kene Igweonu 
PhD; Deputy Dean (Research & Knowledge Exchange), Faculty of Arts & Creative Industries, Middlesex 
University, London 

 
Introduction 

The use of the Feldenkrais Method in performance training dates to the work of Moshe 
Feldenkrais in the 1970s when he first taught actors and dancers in the United States and 
Israel. It was also during this period that the renowned theatre director Peter Brook invited him 
to teach the Method to actors at ​Théàtre des Bouffes du Nord​ in Paris. Following Feldenkrais’ 
work in Paris, Monika Pagneux who, at that time, was Movement Director for Peter Brook's 
company went on to propagate the Feldenkrais Method through her own work. Even though 
Pagneux is not a practitioner of the Feldenkrais Method, her approach to movement training 
drew extensively on the Feldenkrais Method. As one of the foremost teachers of movement in 
Europe, Pagneux’s influence in performance training is quite profound and far reaching. 
Through her former students, Pagneux continues to play a key role in the recognition and 
acceptance of the Feldenkrais Method as a somatic discipline and practice that is suitable for 
training in the performing arts.  

Within the past three decades in the United Kingdom, the Feldenkrais Method has continued to 
gain significance within the performing arts community through events like the International 
Workshop Festival. The International Workshop Festival started in 1988 as an annual festival of 
workshops and demonstrations by established practitioners from a variety of performing arts 
disciplines and backgrounds. Focusing on themes such as “the performers energy” in 1995 
“...and movement” in 1996, the International Workshop Festival provided a platform for Garet 
Newell, Educational Director of the first UK Feldenkrais Method training programme to teach the 
Method to professional performers in the UK. However, the inclusion of the Feldenkrais Method 
in UK Higher Education (HE) curriculum is traceable to the pioneering work of Richard Cave, 
Emeritus Professor of Drama and Theatre at Royal Holloway, University of London. On 
qualifying as a practitioner of the Feldenkrais Method in 1998, Cave went on to design and 
institute what is arguably the first UK Higher Education course in physical theatre that embeds 
the Feldenkrais Method as a distinct part of the curriculum at Royal Holloway’s Department of 
Drama and Theatre. Following Cave’s retirement in 2009, Libby Worth has continued to deliver 

 
Igweonu • ​Feldenkrais Research Journal, volume 6​ (2018-2019) 3
 



 

the Feldenkrais Method provision at Royal Holloway.  

Like Royal Holloway, London Metropolitan University, University Centre Doncaster and 
University of Wales Trinity Saint David (Swansea Metropolitan) had the benefit of academic staff 
who are practitioners of the Feldenkrais Method - who had also been successful at embedding 
the Feldenkrais Method in their respective performing arts programmes. To this extent the works 
of Thomas Kampe, former Coordinator for Dance and Movement at London Metropolitan 
University and now at Baths Spa University, Dianne Hancock, Course Leader for Theatre and 
Applied Practice at the University Centre Doncaster, as well as my previous work within the 
Performing Arts programme at University of Wales Trinity Saint David (Swansea Metropolitan) 
and later at Canterbury Christ Church University, have sustained and helped to facilitate a 
greater recognition and acceptance of the Feldenkrais Method as a practice that is suitable for 
training in performing arts within the UK Higher Education. Many other universities have also 
gone ahead to integrate the Feldenkrais Method into their performing arts programmes as a 
result of working with academic staff members or visiting lecturers who are qualified 
practitioners of the Feldenkrais Method. More recently, this increase in number of qualified 
practitioners who are teaching in Higher Education has been boosted by the introduction of the 
second UK Feldenkrais Method professional training programme in London. A notable feature of 
the London training, which graduated its first set of qualified practitioners in August 2015, is that 
Scott Clark who introduced and leads the training programme under the educational directorship 
of Elizabeth Beringer, was a founding member of the Siobhan Davies Dance Company. As 
former dancer and someone who has trained a lot of dancers and taught functional anatomy at 
Roehampton University, Clark’s London professional training programme continues to attract a 
lot of performing artists.  

Key to the adoption of the Feldenkrais Method in UK Higher Education is its perceived 
usefulness for developing pedagogical ideas - as a pedagogical tool - and offering dynamic 
approaches to learning that complements and often challenge established modes of teaching 
and learning that are body-centred and somatic. However, the pace of this adoption has been 
rather slow, since it relies on the presence of a Feldenkrais practitioner on the teaching team, 
who is involved in curriculum design as a programme leader or one who is sufficiently 
empowered to introduce new ideas and materials to students. Therefore, to investigate and 
document the use of the Feldenkrais Method as a performer training methodology within UK 
Higher Education, I initiated a longitudinal research project in 2010, with funding from the Higher 
Education Academy (now Advance HE). In addition to identifying UK universities teaching the 
Feldenkrais Method as part of their movement and performance training programmes, my 
longitudinal study aimed to consider how movement and performance training pedagogies at 
other institutions could be expanded to include training in the Feldenkrais Method, as well as to 
generate interest in Feldenkrais Method as a useful performer training methodology. Since the 
commencement of the longitudinal study in 2010, there has been the publication of a special 
edition of the ​Theatre, Dance and Performance Training​ journal (2015), which was dedicated to 
the Feldenkrais Method and performer training, as well as a seminal book titled ​Feldenkrais 

 
Igweonu • ​Feldenkrais Research Journal, volume 6​ (2018-2019) 4
 



 

Method for Actors​ by Victoria Worsley (2016). These developments have both continued to 
influence my Feldenkrais work with students. More significantly, they point to the growing 
acceptance of the Feldenkrais Method within UK Higher Education, as a viable tool for 
performer training.  

The Feldenkrais Method 

The Feldenkrais Method was developed by Moshe Feldenkrais (1904-1984) as a method of 
somatic education which draws on his vast knowledge and expertise in physics, engineering 
and judo to help the individual discover new possibilities and choices in movement. The 
Feldenkrais Method is a somatic discipline that is based on sound mechanical and neurological 
principles which are easily accessible through unforced physical movement based on simple 
re/organization and re/alignment of the body in time and space. Kampe defines it as “an 
investigative practice focusing on self-awareness, reflective practice and analysis through 
modes of embodiment, self and peer observation” (2010a). In essence, the Feldenkrais Method 
is a pedagogical method which emphasizes experiential learning by helping the individual to 
gain a heightened psycho-physical awareness, providing more options and enabling the 
individual to make intelligent choices about everyday movement and action. This idea is equally 
identified by Alan Questel as being central to the practice of the Feldenkrais Method: 

One of the basic tenets of the Feldenkrais Method is to increase our options and create 
more choices about how we do things. Rather than teaching the right way of doing 
something we evoke more possibilities. (Questel 2002: 14) 

The Feldenkrais Method employs Awareness Through Movement​®​ (ATM​®​) and Functional 
Integration​®​ (FI​®​) as means of enabling the individual to experience the transformative miracle of 
efficient, integrated and aesthetically pleasing movement. This is because the Feldenkrais 
Method lessons are structured in such a way that enables individuals to develop in their 
self-awareness, and consequently discover and choose new patterns of movement which 
enables them to let go of old habits and patterns of movement for more efficient ones. 
Functional Integration is a hands-on approach that enables the practitioner to use his physical 
organisation and experience to guide the student to discoveries. In Functional Integration, 
lessons are bespoke and are selected by the practitioner to address the individual’s movement 
habits and physical organisation.  

Awareness Through Movement, on the other hand, is usually experienced through group 
lessons that involve verbal instructions in that exploratory journey to a more efficient and 
functional use of the whole self in movement. In Awareness Through Movement the practitioner 
uses verbal prompts and instructions to lead a group of students through a sequence of 
movements which are explored using gentle movement and repetition. At the heart of the 
teaching and practice of the Feldenkrais Method is the concept of “awareness” which it 
addresses using movement as a vehicle. Simply put, ‘Movement is the basis of awareness’ 
(Feldenkrais 1990: 36). Awareness, according to Moshe Feldenkrais, is ‘consciousness together 

 
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with a realization of what is happening within it or of what is going on within ourselves while we 
are conscious’ (Feldenkrais 1990: 50). This awareness using the art of “questioning” is central 
to the teaching and practice of the Feldenkrais Method – as an inquiry-based system of learning 
and unlearning movement habits.  

The Feldenkrais Method is quite useful to the performer in that it not only provides the vehicle of 
enquiry but, more importantly, it presents the performer with the clear indications as to “what to 
question” and “how to question”. The Feldenkrais Method offers the performer a space in which 
to listen to himself and to enquire about his physical organisation and relationship to the world 
around him. This space equally provides the performer with the unique opportunity to notice, to 
be uncertain and to change long held habits that will in turn lead to greater ease, sophistication 
and creativity in movement, play and action. Writing on this Moshe Feldenkrais notes that ‘the 
lessons are designed to improve ability, that is, to expand the boundaries of the possible, to turn 
the impossible into the possible, the difficult into the easy, and the easy into the pleasant’ 
(Feldenkrais 1990: 57). 

For some, uncertainty and puzzlement can often manifest at the early stages of a Feldenkrais 
Method lesson. However, as the enquiry deepens, and students begin to attain a greater sense 
of awareness, they will start to gain much better clarity about their subject of enquiry – their 
physical organisation and relationship to the world around them. In turn, they will achieve 
greater efficiency and fluency in movement, as well as the confidence that comes with the 
possibilities that this growing awareness presents. For the performer, this will most often lead to 
their being able to make better judgements about how they apply themselves in training and 
performance situations. In this system of enquiry, the answers are often not as important as the 
process of arriving at them. This is because, by emphasizing “awareness” of the process 
instead of finding the “right” answers, the Feldenkrais Method places the performer in the strong 
position to be an efficient and creative mover. 

Research Design and Pilot Project 

This paper draws on a longitudinal study that started in 2010 with a Higher Education Academy 
Teaching Development funding, and which has been sustained through my practice research 
work with drama and performing arts students, first at University of Wales Trinity Saint David 
(Swansea Metropolitan) and more recently at Canterbury Christ Church University. The 
research project that underpins this essay has as one of its key aims, the exploration and 
documentation of the growing practice of incorporating the Feldenkrais Method in movement 
and performance training within the UK Higher Education context. The project also looked at 
some of the strategies and approaches adopted by Feldenkrais practitioners in their work with 
actors, dancers, musicians and performers in general. The project employed qualitative 
research methodology in the form of teaching observation and interviews with fifteen 
Feldenkrais practitioners I had identified through the Feldenkrais Guild UK as being involved in 
performance training at higher education level. The teaching observation and semi-structured 

 
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interviews for this longitudinal project were carried out at the onset, between January and March 
2010, and have continued to feed into ongoing practical explorations with different cohorts of 
drama students at my institution. In addition to the teaching observation and interviews, the 
initial phase of the project also featured a demonstration workshop led by Richard Cave and 
Garet Newell, which provided a unique opportunity for students and colleagues from other 
Higher Education institutions to further explore the Feldenkrais Method in its application to 
performance training under the guidance of these two respected teachers and practitioners.  

When examined in relation to the other areas of the performing arts, dance practitioners have 
the longest tradition of using the Feldenkrais Method, possibly due to the fact that many dancers 
come to it as a result of injury. The composition of the interview sample of practitioners of the 
Feldenkrais Method was fairly evenly distributed among the subject discipline areas even 
though, as I anticipated from the start, dance and physical theatre practitioners using the 
Feldenkrais Method were better represented than those involved in drama and acting 
programmes. For each interview, I travelled to the interviewees’ institutions or practice locations 
to conduct a face-to-face interview with them. The focus of each interview was on their 
processes and experiences of working with, or training, performers within the Higher Education 
environment. Interviews were semi-structured, and after going over the participant information 
sheet and the project aims, interviewees signed consent forms allowing me to make audio 
recordings of the interviews. Each interview lasted an average of one hour.  

Interviews generally began with the interviewees giving a brief background to their Feldenkrais 
practise and their thoughts on using the Feldenkrais Method in performer training. The 
interviews focused specifically on the tutor led approach of “Awareness Through Movement” as 
opposed to the hands-on, one-to-one approach of “Functional Integration”. The rest of the 
interview was structured loosely around a number of questions which explored perceived value 
of the Feldenkrais Method in performer training, the level of institutional support available for 
developing this work with students, and whether the practitioners adapted the Feldenkrais 
lessons to suit the specific training needs of the students they are teaching, and how students 
received or responded to the lessons. The interviewees were also encouraged to, where 
necessary, digress and talk about other aspects of their Feldenkrais work with students that 
were not directly addressed by my questions. This approach resulted in interviewees identifying 
a number of concerns about the practicality of assessing the Feldenkrais input on performer 
training programmes. Given that assessments are vital in appraising students learning and 
achievement of set module or programme outcomes, the practitioners were encouraged to 
share their views on how best to measure and assess the impact of Feldenkrais lessons on 
students. Some of the practitioners work as guest lecturers at institutions where they are often 
called upon to teach students on courses with set assessments which address specific module 
outcomes. Consequently, they were not required to assess any aspect of the Feldenkrais 
Method work undertaken with the students. One such practitioner, Maggy Burrowes, reported 
that she sees her teaching of Feldenkrais as an opportunity to engage the students’ curiosity: 

 
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I have often found myself teaching students in a format that is not overseen by other 
members of the teaching community and not assessed as part of the students’ 
qualification. I always approach these situations as an opportunity to stimulate the 
curiosity of the student and encourage their confidence in their capacity for 
self-development. (Burrowes 2010) 

On the other hand, there are other practitioners who were interviewed as part of this project who 
teach modules that have the Feldenkrais Method written into it in ways that mean they could be 
assessed. This latter group hold the view that “reflective journals” by students have proven an 
effective means of assessing the Feldenkrais Method within a performer training context as 
individual students learn and experience the lessons differently. This is primarily because a key 
benefit of the Feldenkrais Method is its ability to transform the way students’ approach training 
and performing as they develop a heightened awareness of their physicality.  

Focusing assessment on students’ reflexive accounts of their embodied learning and 
engagement with the process, provides them the freedom to build on the awareness of their 
habitual patterns to move in ways that are most useful for the creative tasks they want to 
achieve. This is observed by Questel who notes that ‘to be able to fulfil one’s intention in action 
is essential to the ability to create a role and to tell a story’ (Questel 2002: 13). When it is taught 
effectively, the Feldenkrais Method can enable students and performers to develop a 
heightened awareness of themselves in stillness and in action. In other words, students are 
encouraged to take advantage of their increased somatic awareness in ways that enables them 
to sense how they are organised, moment by moment, in performance and everyday life and to 
eliminate “parasitic efforts” that are not necessary for the specific actions or movements they are 
trying to accomplish. The general view among the practitioners interviewed was that any 
assessment framework for articulating benefit to students should not be performance based but 
should consider the students’ developing awareness of habitual patterns of stress associated 
with particular movements and actions. The Feldenkrais Method develop students’ capacity as 
reflexive practitioners by creating a safe space for students to be curious, experiment with ideas 
and potentially “fail” without repercussion. This reflects Questel’s position that ‘the quality of the 
environment created by the Feldenkrais practitioner is one of safety, where people are free to 
make mistakes and to explore without having to succeed’ (Questel 2002: 13).  

Creating a supportive environment is essential for learning in general, and this is also true for 
teaching a Feldenkrais lesson. The support structure can take many forms including the use of 
small groups, with students observing and offering feedback to each other. This helps to create 
a community of enquiry as a supportive framework in which learning can take place. It creates a 
“scaffolding effect” around the learners by providing individual, tailor-made support, utilizing 
small group work and feedback as a mechanism to support and encourage enquiry and focus 
the students on the process instead of the outcome. Regarding the value of experience and 
collaboration in the learning process, Moshe Feldenkrais argued that ‘not everybody is capable 
of identifying himself easily, and one may be greatly helped by the experience of others’ (1990: 

 
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23). Such collaborative or “assisted” enquiry encourages curiosity and experimentation within a 
framework that is both supportive and mutual. This process of assisted enquiry is possible 
because, as Libby Worth observes, the ‘non-judgemental approach that the method supports 
encourages creative response and personal exploration/ discovery’ (2010). Kampe further 
argues that ‘as a non-corrective, and thus inclusive open-ended system focusing on the 
facilitation of learning through experience, questioning, and problem solving, it [the Feldenkrais 
Method] has had a tremendously empowering impact on my students in all areas of practical 
study - movement for actors, dance education and training, choreographic and performance 
making syllabi’ (2010). Adopting this approach to teaching the Feldenkrais Method encourages 
students to build on peer and tutor feedback to ask further questions about their physical 
organisation and relationship to the world around them. In this way, students working in small 
groups, act as co-enquirers by asking similar questions about their own physical organisation 
and relationship to the world around them as they work with each other. This relationship as 
co-enquirers also operates when a student is working directly with a practitioner of the 
Feldenkrais Method. Both of them function as “learners” in the sense that the practitioner can 
gain new and useful insight from the enquiry process of the student. However, in this 
relationship, the practitioner retains his primary role as a guide, helping the student to make 
sense of their experience of the enquiry.  

Recent Developments: Encouraging Curiosity and Experimentation 

Movement is an integral part to the actor’s ability to tell the story. This is true not only in 
terms of what is to be expressed and communicated, but also in terms of tuning, refining, 
and developing the instrument. The Feldenkrais Method presents a unique opportunity 
for the actor to create a role, as well as gain a deeper understanding of the creative 
process. (Questel 2002: 11) 

A key issue that emerged from the pilot study is that the Feldenkrais Method must not be 
construed as a technique that students have to learn and adopt to be good performers. Instead, 
it must be seen as helping to develop a viable foundation of awareness on which different 
techniques can then be built. Seen from this perspective, one can argue that the Feldenkrais 
Method is most useful for underpinning the teaching and learning of technique primarily 
because it does not function as a technique in and of itself. Since the pilot, I have continued to 
implement this approach and some of the strategies it fosters in my work with undergraduate 
drama and performing arts students. The strategies are useful as they operate in such ways as 
to encourage curiosity and experimentation in performer training. Principally, strategies for 
teaching the Feldenkrais Method in my work with students focus around its more generic use for 
developing embodied awareness or physical control, which can have a significant impact on 
their learning of techniques with regards to aspects such as balance, stability, range of 
movement, comfort and ease.  

 
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A second approach has to do with its more nuanced usage as material for creating 
performances, which draws on the students’ experiential knowledge of the Feldenkrais Method 
and the heightened psycho-physical awareness it engenders to uncover new possibilities and 
choices in movement. It is however worth noting that both approaches are not mutually 
exclusive and can indeed be applied alongside each other. Writing about her work in introducing 
the Feldenkrais Method within the undergraduate theatre programme at University Centre 
Doncaster (UCD), Dianne Hancock notes that:  

The Feldenkrais Method was introduced into the curriculum at UCD as an extension of 
the teaching in voice and movement. The application of Feldenkrais Method within an 
actual performance is left to the interpretation of the student and the challenge of 
bringing Feldenkrais Method into theatre performance has had varying interpretations. 
While Feldenkrais Method teachers such as Richard Cave and Libby Worth at Royal 
Holloway encouraged students to integrate FM lessons into their performances, students 
at UCD have opted to use the work as an underpinning skill for physicality on stage. 
(2015: 169) 

Even though Hancock’s approach to teaching Feldenkrais to her students seems to focus on 
what I have described as its more generic use for developing embodied awareness or physical 
control, students were also given the opportunity to experiment with integrating and applying it 
to performance making. However, from Hancock’s account, it is evident that colleagues at Royal 
Holloway encouraged this approach outright. This approach can also be found in the work of 
Thomas Kampe who further explores ‘the possible applications and resonances of the 
Feldenkrais Method within the context of performance making rather than performer training’ 
(2010b: 38). While my approach, like Hancock, has mainly centred on the generic use of the 
Feldenkrais Method for developing embodied awareness or physical control, I have 
nevertheless retained a keen interest in exploring its potential for inspiring curiosity as students 
experiment and push the boundaries of possibility in performance making. In this respect, I 
would often introduce a creative task as a starting point for the Awareness Through Movement 
enquiry, which may take the form of an improvisation or characterisation task.  

I would often start by asking the students to walk around and explore the studio space. While 
walking, students feel how they shift their weight around the pelvis, how they carry their heads 
and hold their shoulder. I ask them to explore the sounds they make as they walk around the 
room, both vocal sounds, their breathing and the sound of their feet against the floor. I 
encourage them to pay attention to these sounds as they continue to move and explore when 
they feel or sound the strongest/ clearest or weakest/ faintest. After some minutes of 
self-observation, I ask the students to lie down on the floor and take them through a mini 
Awareness Through Movement of an adapted “pelvic clock” lesson lasting about 15 minutes. 
This use of mini Awareness Through Movement’s emerged from the pilot study, which found 
that students, particularly those new to the Method, often found it difficult to remain engaged for 
the 45-60 minutes it usually takes to complete a full Awareness Through Movement lesson. 

 
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However, ‘spending an average of 15-20 minutes on each lesson when working with students at 
undergraduate level is recommended in order to retain their attention. The time spent on 
lessons can then be extended as the students develop in their training’ (Igweonu 2010: 21-22). 
After 15 minutes of exploring the “pelvic clock” while lying on the floor, students stand and 
continue to explore the lesson in standing. This is where the characterisation work begins. 
Drawing on their curiosity and sense of fun, the students move around the space once more 
while continuing to shift the weight of their pelvises in different cardinal directions and to 
experiment with sensations, postural shifts and changing sounds that each variation of pelvis 
conjures. Finally, I ask the students to reflect on their experiences of developing 
characterisation from this exercise and to share feedback with the group.  

Generally, I find that it is crucial, in working with undergraduate students, to introduce 
Feldenkrais lessons using appropriate ”scaffolding” techniques such as peer observation and 
feedback. At this point it is helpful to clarify that throughout this article, indeed throughout the 
research project that underpins it, I have directed my attention to undergraduate students 
studying at universities as opposed to those training at conservatories. Traditionally, 
conservatories have a much stronger vocationally-oriented training focus than universities, 
which have a more broad-based educational remit. Due to this emphasis on vocational training, 
conservatories are more highly selective than universities, and instead of a limited number of 
contact hours per week that university students would receive for practical training, conservatory 
students receive substantially more contact hours often encompassing a 09:00 to 17:00 daily 
routine, which is entirely training-oriented. So, while a scaffolding approach is beneficial in 
working with students in general, it has a crucial role to play in a university context where the 
contact hours devoted to practical training are limited. 

As part of the scaffolding approach, it is important not to underestimate the usefulness of 
allowing ample time for peer feedback after each lesson. In my practice, this includes 
encouraging students to use the time to record their experiences in their journals and logbooks 
as part of their reflexive practice. Comments from feedback sessions with students point to the 
effectiveness of scaffolding approaches that privilege group reflection and feedback. For 
instance, reflecting on the group feedback after a lesson in 2015, one student recounted how 
‘two other participants in today’s session commented that after the session, they felt as if they 
could ‘float’ home. They also agreed that they have experienced a positive release in their mind 
and body […] They both observed that they felt grounded to the floor in today’s Feldenkrais 
lesson, and also that their chests felt open with their shoulders loose and pushed back’ 
(personal communication, 2 October 2015). Reflecting on another lesson in the same year, a 
second student observed that ‘at the end of the session, when we were asked to walk around 
the room, I and others commented that we all felt taller; upright. Our horizons were directed up 
towards the top of the wall ahead rather than tilted down. The neck felt light and flexible in 
movement when looking over the shoulder both left and right. I felt a sense of confidence and 

 
Igweonu • ​Feldenkrais Research Journal, volume 6​ (2018-2019) 11 
 



 

alertness, which could be connected to walking upright and straight.” (personal communication, 
2 October 2015).  

Conclusion: Looking to the Future 

There is a growing amount of work being done within UK Higher Education performer training 
programmes, which recognises the immense benefit of the Feldenkrais Method to students. 
There is also considerable enthusiasm among the practitioner community to continue to explore 
creative ways of embedding the Feldenkrais Method within Higher Education performer training. 
It remains the case that only few performing arts programmes at UK Higher Education 
institutions have a Feldenkrais Method component as a distinct part of their curriculum, mainly 
due to the influence of individual practitioners employed at these institutions who are in 
positions that allow them to influence curriculum development. Even though many of the 
practitioners that took part in the pilot study contribute to courses that do not have the 
Feldenkrais Method fully embedded in them, they all expressed enthusiasm about some of the 
positive changes that are beginning to take place as more performing arts academics train to 
qualify as Feldenkrais practitioners. Nonetheless, there is still much work to be done in 
exploring the application of the Feldenkrais Method to performer training and performance 
making processes and embedding it more firmly within the performing arts curricula in the UK. 

The Feldenkrais Method supports many other techniques and training methods by facilitating 
efficient self-use and bodily awareness which can be applied to all other physical activities 
required by the actor. This is because at the heart of the Feldenkrais Method is the development 
of a heightened awareness of the self in stillness and in action. This need to awaken and 
develop awareness and self-reflection in students is key to the adoption of the Feldenkrais 
Method in performer training. The Feldenkrais Method has much to offer performing arts 
students as a heightened psycho-physical awareness and the ability to make intelligent 
movement choices can contribute immensely to their success as creative practitioners. What my 
work, and that of many other practitioners working in Higher Education, has shown is that the 
Feldenkrais Method is essential as a foundation in physical training and should be placed at the 
forefront of performer training in UK Higher Education.  

 

References 

Feldenkrais, M. (1990) ​Awareness Through Movement​. New York: Harper Collins 

Hancock, D. (2015) ‘Teaching the Feldenkrais Method® in UK higher education performer 
training’. ​Theatre, Dance and Performance Training 6 (2)​, 159-173, DOI: 
10.1080/19443927.2015.1043468 

 
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Igweonu, K. (2010) ​Feldenkrais Method in Performer Training: Encouraging Curiosity and 
Experimentation​. Project Report. Swansea: Centre for Innovative Performance Practice 
and Research 

Kampe, T. (2010) ‘Weave: The Feldenkrais Method as Choreographic Process’. ​Perfformio​ 1 
(2), 34-52 

Questel, A. S. (2002) ‘The Feldenkrais Method: Application for the Actor’. ​Feldenkrais Journal 
(14), 11-16 

Worsley, V. (2016) ​Feldenkrais for Actors: How to do less and discover more​. London: Nick 
Hern Books 

 

Interviews 

Burrows, M., interviewed by Igwenou, K., February 15, 2010 

Kampe, T., interviewed by Igwenou, K., February 26, 2010 

Worth, L., interviewed by Igwenou, K., February 2, 2010 

 

Biography 

Dr Kene Igweonu is Deputy Dean (Research and Knowledge Exchange) for the Faculty of Arts 
and Creative Industries at Middlesex University London. His research and publication interests 
are in actor and performance training, directing, black British theatre, theatre and performance 
in Africa and its Diasporas, as well as the Feldenkrais Method in health, wellbeing and 
performance training. 

 

 
Igweonu • ​Feldenkrais Research Journal, volume 6​ (2018-2019) 13 
 


