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Save the Date for a New Feldenkrais Series – September 25 to November 13
Pelvic Floor and Deep Core Rapport
An 8-week Feldenkrais Series with Sarah Baumert

September 25-November 13
Sundays at 4:00pm CST
Wednesdays at 6:30pm CST

Available to take via livestream on Zoom or using the self-paced recordings
16 livestream classes
8 Awareness Through Movement lessons in total

A series of lessons to establish a harmonious relationship for your hips, buttocks, pelvic floor, and deep core muscles. Learn to relax and build strength as we relate to the abdomen and pelvis as a center of power sensitivity. This is a whole-body approach to pelvis and abdominal health.

For both men and women, improving the ability to both relax and engage the pelvic floor and the deep abdominal muscles can have positive effects and create a marked improvement for:

• Back pain
• Sensing a deeper and more relaxed breath
• Easier standing and walking
• Improved Balance
• Healing from hip replacements or abdominal surgeries
• Better sex through increased awareness, sensation and control
• More effective bladder control
• Lack of strength, coordination, or sensation in this area after giving birth

A Feldenkrais approach to pelvic and abdominal health:

A secret to this method is to reduce the force we create in our muscles in order to maximize the amount of information we have available for feedback. This means practicing intelligently and reducing the effort to get more refined sensations.

It may seem paradoxical to relax a muscle in order for it to become stronger. However, if a muscle is always contracted it has less ability to contract any further. It has less ability to move through its dynamic range of actions. A habitually contracted muscle is a weak muscle!  We will practice learning how to relax the pelvic floor and deep abdominal muscles in order to engage them when necessary. This will not be a practice of isolating the pelvic floor muscles with exercises like Kegels. These sessions will support you to become aware of and relax compulsive muscular tension in the pelvis and abdominals, so that you can then learn to integrate them into functional everyday movements.

Erin Sheppard offers a great workshop series for new and continuing hip hop dancers who love to move. Students will learn fundamental techniques and choreography while expanding their knowledge of rhythm and movement.

This class is a great foundation for any young dancer ages 7-10 years. All levels of experience are welcome!

Two classes remaining!

Sundays from 12:00-12:45pm:
September 25
October 2

Single class drop-in: $15
In-person only; limited space available.

Register today!

Save the dates for The Blending of Yoga and Feldenkrais Fall Series – September 26 to November 21

An 8-week series with Sarah Baumert

September 26-November 21
Mondays from 6:00-7:15pm CST
Live classes will be taught on Zoom

In this Monday night series, each class will infuse a more traditional yoga asana practice with the Feldenkrais® Awareness Through Movement method. I like to keep the theme for these Monday night series open, as I follow the lead of the seasons and needs of the students who attend.

Each of Sarah’s sessions are an interdisciplinary excursion of yoga, Feldenkrais Awareness Through Movement, self-massage, breathing exercises, movement puzzles, and a compassionate mindset to help you feel a greater sense of ease and comfort in yourself. Increase your ease and efficiency in movement, improve your flexibility and coordination, and rediscover your natural capacity for graceful and organized movement through these classes.

This will be a nonjudgemental, unintimidating space to create friends with your body (yourself!), and will specifically focus on helping settle the nervous system during these challenging times. You will train your sensitivity in such a way that you find yourself feeling more alive and vibrant.

Scholarships are available for this series. Please contact Sarah directly at sarah@body-matter.com for scholarship inquiries.

Tuesdays at The Arena
10:00-11:30am
Drop in: $17.
Register here.
Free parking on all side streets: Aldrich, Bryant, Colfax, 31st, etc.

Moving Practice is a weekly class series for professional dancers. Classes prioritize rigor, diversity of contemporary aesthetics, variety of class content, and commitment. Professional level dancers of all styles are welcome.

Alexandra’s class will begin with a full body wake up before moving into expansive movement. Students will be guided through articulate exercises and end class learning a phrase that invites them to explore their full range of movement from big to small.

Alexandra is a Carpatho-Rusyn American choreographer based in Minneapolis, MN. She creates original works ranging from solos to evening length group works for the stage and screen. She is a 2021 Ann & Weston Hicks Choreography Fellow at Jacob’s Pillow and a 2020 Jerome Hill Artist Fellow Finalist. Since relocating to Minneapolis she has been commissioned by Alternative Motion Project, Threads Dance Project, and the Performing Institute of Minnesota. She has performed with Berit Ahlgren/Honeyworks, Ethnic Dance Theatre, April Sellers Dance Collective, Jeffrey Peterson Dance, Helen Hatch/Hatch Dance, and Paulina Olowska & Jessie Gold. She was a company member of Black Label Movement from 2017-2022. Her latest work, dance film Heritage Sites, premiered in 2020 and has been screened at Movies by Movers at the American Dance Festival (NC), 48th annual Athens International Film and Video Festival (OH), Sans Souci Festival of Dance Cinema (CO), DanceBARN Screendance Festival (MN), and Astoria Film Festival (NY). She is currently working with Alternative Motion Project on a new work for their October 2022 show Viewpoints, and will premiere an evening length work Rock, Paper, Scissors (working title), at The Southern Theater in March 2023.

This eight-week workshop is designed for children ages 2-4 and their parent/caregiver who are interested in a shared movement experience that engages the senses of curiosity and play.

Both child and caregiver will participate in developmentally appropriate movement exercises that incorporate elements such as effort, shape, and tempo. Music will play an essential role in the class as students will be asked to respond to sounds as well as make sounds themselves. Participants will be encouraged to join at their own comfort level with the understanding that observation is often the best form of learning with younger children. This class will give children and caregivers the opportunity to learn more about themselves and one another through the art form of dance.

Saturdays, 9:00-9:45am

Session 1: October 1-November 19 (no classes November 21-27)
Session 2: January 14-March 4
Session 3: March 11-May 13 (no classes April 3-15)

Tuition: $120.00 per session