Feldenkrais First Hosts Vermont Retreat for Dancers, Musicians & Performers

January 17, 2025

Feldenkrais First’s spring retreat will bring dancers, musicians, performers, and anyone seeking an artful life to Potash Hill from April 14-19, 2025 for “Retreat Forward: Creativity, Action & The Feldenkrais Method.” The five-day retreat includes a variety of creative activities to integrate improvements into dancing, instrument playing, stage presence, and daily living.

The retreat offers a balance of structured, contemplative, and communal time. Morning sessions, afternoon explorations, and evening fun includes:

  • Awareness Through Movement (ATM) sessions tailored to individual skills, pursuits, and questions.
  • Dance and music master classes. Daily small-group workshops that relate the practice to real-world applications.
  • Optional one-on-one Functional Integration sessions for highly-specific, hands-on help with experienced Feldenkrais Practitioners.
  • Dance/music jams, informal performances, movie night, nature walks, and more.

The Feldenkrais Method is known for re-igniting performers’ natural capacity to refine their mental and physical coordination. The methodology offers tools to address nagging injuries, artistic and athletic goals, balance challenges, and the challenges of growth and development across one’s life span. It helps those who want to integrate their attentional and physical skills in the pursuit of better functioning and longevity.

Feldenkrais First’s spring retreat is led by Andrew Gibbons, MM. A practitioner for over two decades, Andrew has taught Feldenkrais for the Hospital for Special Surgery in Manhattan, the Doctoral PT program of SUNY Stoneybrook Medical School, for musicians in the Manhattan School of Music’s wellness program and in other public programs sponsored by the NY Department for the Aging, and has worked as an ergonomic consultant for The New York Times. He delivered a Tech Talk at Google’s New York headquarters on Avoiding the Black Hole of Computer Posture, and contributed a chapter about working with musicians for the recent book, The Feldenkrais Method: Learning Through Movement. Since 2008 he has taught Feldenkrais for the classical musicians at the Marlboro Music Festival.

For more information and to sign up for the retreat, visit feldenkraisfirst.com/spring-retreat.