Chekhov and Feldenkrais®

I don’t have the answers. You do.

When you come to my Awareness Through Movement® Class, I am not asking you to do a movement with perfection, or how you imagine I think it should be like. I’m actually offering you guidelines and suggestions so that you can explore all the possibilities and potentials that can exist. If you’re into Theatre…it’s a bit like Chekhov; not performing Chekhov, but when reading Chekhov. Or if you’re in rehearsal and realizing there can be so many interpretations of the same sentence. All I’m doing is giving you a script, but the way you explore the vocabulary and where you bring your attention, informs you of how you might have been conditioned to interpret some words in a certain way.

You study the text slowly, trying a variety of possibilities, and you realize that every single time you repeat, it is never a repetition really. Because EVERYTIME there are some nuances—even if you tried to make it the same, it’s not. There is a world of difference on how a consonant is enunciated, how a vowel lingers; where you choose to speak slower, or where you speed up as to perhaps, hide something (from yourself?). Perhaps you speed up something because, subconsciously, there is a resistance…and then you realize Chekhov brought up some baggage to the surface. It’s not the words that did that. It’s you paying attention to the words. Same with the movement I invite you to explore.

Chekhov wrote the script. He’s not giving you the answers. He’s leaving space for your interpretation. You got to spend time with the text, play with it, let it resonate, and listen to what happens inside. As you read or hear the words, what information do you get, from within? And would studying Chekhov make you a better person? Well, at the least it will make you aware of the power of words, and how the way words are delivered have an impact, which makes you aware of the choices you have. So will that make you more mindful of the way you choose to communicate with others? How you speak to yourself? How you choose to stand, sit or move?

I don’t have the answers. You do.

So, how do you read yourself when you go to an Awareness Through Movement® Class? Next time, think Chekhov!

*Anton Chekhov, Russian playwright and master of the modern short story.