Movement is life. Life is a process. Improve the quality of the process and you improve the quality of life itself.
– Moshe Feldenkrais, D. Sci., 1904-1984
Central Metro Classes
Twin Cities Feldenkrais runs two weekly public Feldenkrais Awareness Through Movement (ATM) classes at the St. Paul JCC, located 5 minutes east of MSP airport at 1375 St Paul Ave, St Paul, MN. The JCC is an inclusive, welcoming community center with a full fitness club and pool.
- Tuesday mornings, 9:30-10:30 am, normally led by Nick Strauss-Klein. Childcare is available, for a fee (call ahead: 651-698-0751).
- Thursday evenings, 6:00-7:00 pm, normally led by Maggie Vogel-Martin.
Classes run weekly with some exceptions. Always check our homepage or calendar for the upcoming schedule.
Class Description
Move better, feel better! Everything we do in life involves sensation and movement. Deepen the sense of how you move, and discover the profound effect the Feldenkrais Method has on your ability to act with precision, power, and spontaneity. Come to ATM classes to:
- REDUCE PAIN AND TENSION, and discover how to better prevent or recover from injury.
- ENJOY your body in motion and improve the quality of your day-to-day life.
- REFINE your workouts and physical practices like yoga and Pilates.
- LEARN to organize your whole self – body and mind – more efficiently and pleasurably.
- UNLOCK a quieter state of mind, a natural neurological response to clarified movement, more skeletally-grounded support, and reduced extraneous effort.
Single classes are $20 for the public, $15 for members of the JCC. Registering for a month of classes offers savings over the single class price, and flexible attendance between the Tuesday and Thursday class is encouraged when you have to miss a class (see below).
Monthly pricing depends on the number of class meetings in the month:
Five classes: $92.50 / $62.50 JCC Member Value Price (MVP)
Four classes: $74 / $50 MVP
Three classes: $55.50 / $37.50 MVP
Two classes: $37 / $25 MVP
Call 651-698-0751 or click here and type “Feldenkrais” into the search bar to register for a month of class.
Flexible attendance policy: Any lessons you miss during the month may be made up in the other ongoing section during that month, and you can even make up an anticipated later absence. For example, if you sign up for the Tuesday class but have to miss two Tuesdays, you may attend any two Thursday classes any time during the current month to make them up, and vice versa. Each class is a unique ATM lesson, so you won’t be repeating a lesson while attending twice in one week to make up missed classes. When you arrive simply tell the teacher you’re doing a make-up.
Drop-ins and newcomers are always welcome. Please arrive 15 minutes early for your first class, and always bring a photo ID. At the front desk, purchase a ticket for a Specialty Class, and please give the instructor the ticket before class. These drop-in tickets are $20/class for non-members, and $15 for JCC members. On the first class meeting of a month you may also convert a drop-in ticket toward payment for the whole month at the main desk after class.
Here’s our handout for newcomers explaining what happens in class. Movement explorations are done gently and reflectively, usually while lying on a mat in various positions.
Mats are provided. Please dress in layers. Soft clothing is great. It doesn’t have to be workout clothing. Bring a bath towel to fold for use as head support in class (please don’t substitute a bundled sweatshirt or similar – it’s not an even enough surface for our purposes). Class is normally done without shoes.
Open to the public, ages 16+. No experience necessary. The only prerequisites are being able to safely get down to lie on a mat on the floor and get back up again, and fluency in aural English. (Group Feldenkrais is taught verbally, not with visual modeling. Instead of copying the instructor’s movements you learn to move in the best way for you.)
The Jewish Community Center of the Greater St. Paul Area is an inclusive environment. Membership and guests of the JCC are as diverse as the wider community. Here’s the mission statement: “We strengthen the Greater St. Paul community by nurturing physical, intellectual, social, and spiritual growth in an inclusive environment defined by Jewish values and culture.”
The JCC includes full fitness center, gym, pool, and childcare facilities. Membership is open to all. Regular exercise classes in many modalities are free with membership. Specialty classes like Feldenkrais Awareness Through Movement classes are an additional fee, but JCC members receive a discount. Call 651-698-0751 for more information about membership.
The aim is a person who is organized to move with minimum effort and maximum efficiency, not through muscular effort, but through increased consciousness of how movement works.
– Moshe Feldenkrais, D. Sci., 1904-1984
Learn to move, move to learn. This class is devoted to exploring the basic process of Feldenkrais study: to learn, by developing your self-awareness, to function more effectively and comfortably in all you do, in order to improve your quality of life. Feldenkrais will help you notice habits of action and movement where you work against yourself, and provide you with the means to replace those habits with ones that are more efficient, pleasant, and sustainable over a lifetime.
If your habitual ways of moving are working against you, to the point that you are breaking down more than you are able to restore yourself, then this is the class for you. But it is also for any person, of any movement skill level (including athletes and artists), who wants to learn how to attend more deeply to how they create, initiate, and engage in movement. These lessons are highly integrative in helping you move with the quality and ease you want for your life.
You can learn more about ATM on our What are ATM classes? page.