What yochananrywerant.com is about

This website is a work in progress. It contains written material, links, and references, and is intended for readers with varying levels of background and familiarity with the Feldenkrais inquiry.

My primary intention is to create, write, and publish material within a narrow field, namely the Feldenkrais profession. At the same time, the site includes the exploratory path known as the Feldenkrais Method.

Writing about this subject is not comparable to giving a Feldenkrais lesson, either individually or in a group, where one can rely on the participant’s experience of information arising without language. Reading consists only of words and language, while lessons are self-understood in a different way.

I encountered the Feldenkrais work during an extended stay in Israel while studying physiotherapy at the Wingate Institute between 1972 and 1975. In 1974, I began participating in the Alexander Yanai open ATM classes. 

I am a third-generation Feldenkrais practitioner, educated in Stockholm through a basic training between 1988 and 1991, followed by a Trainers Training between 1994 and 1996. I was trained by Yochanan Rywerant in the ABC of the profession, the meta-ABC, and the meta-meta-ABC. I have also completed advanced trainings with TAB trainers and with Mia Segal.

I have continued as a committed autodidact. From the outset, the consistent interweaving of theory with practical teaching that I received from Yochanan Rywerant made me professionally independent in my teaching.

I have maintained a continuous practice teaching the Feldenkrais Method since 1991. This includes meta-teaching seminars and advanced studies with teachers educated within the TAB format. Since 1995, I have published texts in books and professional forums. I also have a professional and personal interest in constructing websites and writing about the Feldenkrais Method and related subjects.

One intention of this website is to supplement, and at times to refute, material published about Moshe Feldenkrais’ discovery and path from other sources. Another purpose is to present Yochanan Rywerant’s legacy, including an overview of his teaching, writings, and biographical facts.

I call the Feldenkrais Method I learned from Yochanan Rywerant, and indirectly from Moshe Feldenkrais, Classical. It is traditional in style and form, grounded in Feldenkrais’ Hebrew work Shichlul HaYecholet: Halacha v’Ma’aseh, with particular reference to Chapter 4, The Structure and Virtues of Its Function, together with the authorship of Yochanan Rywerant. It has been sustained over a long period of time, from the early years in Tel Aviv, and remains vibrant.

Making Classical Feldenkrais explicit, and setting it apart in practice, also requires re-establishing the role that Yochanan Rywerant rightfully holds within the profession. This could help close the gap created by years of marginalization, neglect, and invisibility.

More than forty years have now passed since the death of Moshe Feldenkrais, and with time comes the risk of losing original intentions, orientations, and lines of transmission. In the absence of the teachings of Yochanan Rywerant, this deficit in learning has become evident across several generations of Feldenkrais practitioners. The purpose of this website is to help address and bridge that gap.

I suggest you continue with the article Classical Feldenkrais but of course you can choose your own path and search freely.