News Release

DARCIA DEXTER, INTERNATIONAL MOVEMENT EXPERT, LAUNCHES
FELDENKRAIS CENTRAL

Breakthrough Method of Physical Movement
Designed to Maximize Mobility, Prevent Injury and Relieve Chronic Pain
Now Available Online at FeldenkraisCentral.com

"Feldenkrais TO GO" Offers On Location Availability
for Hollywood Sets and Corporate Wellness Programs

Tustin, CA -- December 1, 2006 - Got a minute? Learning to move with less effort makes daily life easier and improves the quality of life.

Darcia Dexter, an internationally recognized Feldenkrais practitioner, is expanding her 20-year expertise in guiding others to overcome physical limitations brought on by stress, misuse, accident, or illness with the launch of feldenkraiscentral.com.

With the tagline, What Moves You?™, feldenkraiscentral.com is the newly designed resource center for both consumers and practitioners TO GO for on-site applications on Hollywood sets and corporate offices for information and updates on all elements of the Feldenkrais methodology. The new venture features a learning center with one to five minute audio lessons at feldenkraiscentral.com. and Feldenkrais, marking a striking departure from the traditional health center venues.

The Feldenkrais Method, developed by movement visionary Moshe Feldenkrais in the 1930's, consists of gentle lessons for anyone who wants to reconnect with their natural abilities to move, think, and feel. The certification process to become a Feldenkrais practitioner involves an intensive four years of study.

"You are as young as you move," noted Dexter, whose professional livelihood has centered on observing and addressing those subtleties in movement that define us and differentiate us from each other.

She continued, "Whether you'd like to be comfortable sitting at your desk, playing with your children and grandchildren, moving heavy objects or driving long-stretches in your car, Feldenkrais can improve your overall well being and make your daily activities more efficient, pain-free and less stressful. People are always surprised to discover that some of the life-changing techniques can be learned in less than a minute."

Because the Feldenkrais Method focuses on the relationship between movement and thought, increased mental awareness and creativity accompany physical improvements. Everyone from all walks of life, from actors and athletes to automobile mechanics and attorneys, can benefit from the Feldenkrais Method.

Feldenkrais offers two learning styles: In Awareness Through Movement® lessons, the instructor verbally guides a sequence of gentle movements intended to help develop a greater awareness of how one moves. Traditionally lessons occur in a group setting.

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Darcia Dexter is updating this methodology for today's audience. At feldenkraiscentral.com, these short lessons will now be available via computer for personal convenience at home, enabling discovery of how to take charge of one's own improvement.

The learning process is full of pleasant surprises and personal breakthroughs. After experiencing Feldenkrais® lessons, people often express feelings of relaxation and ease. They may breathe more freely and find their thoughts have more clarity.

Dexter will continue her private practice, employing Functional Integration®, the second hands-on style of Feldenkrais learning. Communicating through touch and movement in addition to words, Darcia guides clients in a one-on-one process of self-discovery.

With this technique, Dexter has become a welcome addition on Hollywood sets where cast and crew members take advantage of her abilities to find moderation in on-set movements to improve job efficiency.

Darcia Dexter authored the Summer 2006 cover story, Taking a Minute to Move On the set... and Off, for the Motion Picture & Television Fund's Wellness Newsletter. She recently demonstrated to the cameramen of ICG, the International Cinematographer's Guild, tricks that could be applied to their trade. The issue of alleviating stress and fatigue during notoriously long work hours on location has recently evolved as an industry concern and focus.

Darcia Dexter is a certified Feldenkrais practitioner since 1996, based in Southern California. Her practice expands to such European countries as Spain, France and Italy. In addition to her private practice, Dexter teaches at the Cordelia Knott Center for Wellness and the Center for Physical Health, based in Orange and Los Angeles, California, respectively. She continues to work with the International Cinematographer's Guild and the Motion Picture and Television Fund. Additional information is available at feldenkraiscentral.com. ###

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Darcia's Bio

Darcia Dexter, an internationally recognized Feldenkrais practitioner launches feldenkraiscentral.com. As Chief Mover & Shaker, she is expanding her expertise in guiding others to overcome physical limitations and enhance functioning by expanding her 'public practice'. She currently teaches for the Motion Picture Wellness Program, the Cordelia Knott Wellness Center, Oasis Senior Center and the Center for Physical Health in addition to private clientele. With feldenkraiscentral.com the services will focus on location for business including set visits in the Motion Picture Television industry and increased alliance in the corporate wellness structure.

Dexter's first Feldenkrais experience in 1988 resulted in regaining binocular vision and decrease of stress condition of alopecia areata. After graduating from University of California at Santa Barbara with a Spanish degree, she went to work in the garment manufacturing business where the stress was taking its toll on her, the result was chronic neck and back pain with headaches when she decided to do the Feldenkrais Professional Training Program with the Reese Movement Institute in San Diego.

Over the past ten years, she received Pilates certification, Hemispheric Integration™ and Bones For Life^®. She has given many lectures and demonstrations within the Southern California community to healthcare corporations and the university system. Dexter served as the Regional Representative for the Feldenkrais Guild^® of North America from 2000-2005 and on the Grievance Board from 200-2003. During this time she was instrumental in major fundraising efforts and along with the team of Representatives received the Volunteer Award of Excellence in 2004. She is known for her spirit of community building and a passion for helping people.

Moshe Feldenkrais Bio

The Feldenkrais Method was developed by Dr. Moshe Feldenkrais (1904-1984).

Moshe Feldenkrais (Doctor of Science, Sorbonne) was an engineer, physicist, inventor, martial artist and student of human development. Born in eastern Europe, he emigrated to Palestine as a young man. Later he studied at the Sorbonne and worked in the Joliot Curie laboratory in Paris during the 1930s. His interest in Ju Jitsu brought him into contact with Professor Kano who developed the sport of Judo. Dr. Feldenkrais was a founder of the Ju Jitsu Club of Paris and was one of the first Europeans to earn a black belt in Judo.

Escaping the Nazi advance he went to Britain and worked on anti-submarine research for the Admiralty. It was there in the 1940s that he began to develop his Method and wrote his first book on the subject. A knee injury, and uncertain prospects for surgery, began Feldenkrais on what was to become a life long exploration of the relationship between movement and consciousness.

In developing his work Moshe Feldenkrais studied, among other things, anatomy, physiology, child development, movement science, evolution, psychology, a number of Eastern awareness practices and other somatic approaches.

Dr. Feldenkrais authored a number of seminal books on movement, learning, human consciousness and somatic experience. He taught in Israel and many countries in Europe through the 1960s and 1970s and in North America through the 1970s and 1980s. He trained his first group of teachers in Tel Aviv in the early 1970s. This was followed by two groups in the USA - one group in San Francisco and another in Amherst NY.

In his life Dr. Feldenkrais worked with all kinds of people with an enormous range of learning needs -from many infants with Cerebral Palsy to leading performers such as the violinist, the late Yehudi Menuhin. He taught over a number of years for the dramatist Peter Brook and his Theatre Bouffes du Nord. He was a collaborator with thinkers such as anthropologist Margaret Mead, neuroscientist Karl Pribram and explorers of the psychophysical Jean Houston and Robert Masters.

The breadth, vitality and precision of Dr. Feldenkrais' work has seen it applied in diverse fields including neurology, psychology, performing arts, sports and rehabilitation.

Photo copyright IFF Archive of the Feldenkrais Method used with permission.

Q & A With Darcia

Interview with Darcia by Jeff Bond for the Dynamic Wellness Center, July 2006

Tell me… How did you stumble across the Feldenkrais Method?

The Feldenkrais Method discovered me when I was 19. I had a stress condition where my hair was falling out - had been falling out since I was three. We'd tried so many things, my mom and I, and then she saw a flyer for a Feldenkrais practitioner at her gym. So I went - and being only 19, I thought I knew everything - and I couldn't make sense of why the practitioner kept pushing through my feet, and asking me about my left foot. Finally she asked me, "Did something happen to this foot? Did you ever break the ankle or something like that?" I told her, "Well, I was born with a clubfoot." That seemed to satisfy her and she worked some more - and then when I got up I felt really different.

That's what really interesting about the Feldenkrais Method, because the next morning I noticed something extraordinary. You see, I was born with that clubfoot and by the age three my eyes started to cross and I started losing my hair. But that morning, 18 years ago, I was walking around my kitchen and I noticed that I could see out of my left eye. And I had never used my left eye. I'd had two surgeries to correct it but I still didn't use my left eye. But my mom was standing to my left and I told her I could see her - and she told me, "No, no. The doctors say you don't use that eye, not unless the other eye is covered." And I said it again and she still didn't believe me. She said, "How many fingers am I holding up?" And I said three and she said, "Well, that was just a good guess." But I told her, "Yes, Mom, and you were wiggling your three fingers!" We both knew right then that I could really see with both eyes at the same time.

From that, everything changed for me. I knew where I was in space in a different way. I could begin to play sports for the first time - because now I had depth perception. It was like I had been missing a connection to the world in a certain way... all because this woman had worked through my feet.

So I went back for more lessons, and after college I decided to get some training myself. And my mom - who was thrilled with everything I was getting out of this - she said, "Hey, don't do it without me!" And so we did the training together. That was in '93...

So you and your mom did the training together, at the same time?

We did. We were like the Bobsey Twins, inseparable. Even now in the Feldenkrais community we're still closely linked - even though our lessons are very different. It's nice to know that, even if we share clients, they're well-taken care of either way.

And your clients: You work with a lot of people in the motion picture industry. How did that come about?

A guy was referred to me - he was writing and producing these travel shows, with a lot of hand-held camera work that he was doing himself. He was having these hip pains - you know, trying to do all these big panoramic scenes with a hand-held camera. I worked with him and we got really good results. Just through some very simple suggestions, of him lifting his right heel when he turned left, and his left heel when he turned right, we got it so he was able to turn, full circle, without pain, so he could get those 360 panoramic shots he wanted. He was so happy, and he said, "You know who you should really be working with is the Steadicam guys; they really need your help." So he referred someone whose family happened to be big in the union. He was wearing a neck brace, he'd had neck trouble, neck surgery… And after a few lessons, after he started to get results, he helped me become a part of the Motion Picture Wellness Program.

What's the Motion Picture Wellness Program?

It's a program for crew members, available to them through their insurance. It's funded by grant money, and it offers programs, in things like weight management, smoking cessation, family health, and parenting skills…Since 2002, the Feldenkrais Method has been part of the stress management program.

Is there a specific repetitive stress that cameramen have? Or a specific movement that they want to do well? Or is more about endurance?

All of the above. Repetitive movements, they're everywhere. For camera guys, it's bending, lifting. For make-up people, it's reaching. For location scouts, they're driving all day...

Endurance: Right now there's a big push in the industry to prevent fatigue, to get better hours - the campaign's called "Twelve on, twelve off." But no matter what the hours are, there are movement tricks, things my clients can do all day long - I call it "stealing moments on the set" - to notice how they're moving.

And why notice how they're moving? How does that help?

Because it stimulates the brain, which helps prevent fatigue and injury. Any change of attention gets the brain stimulated. We do it all the time. We steal moments all the time for other things - checking messages, getting coffee… They're like life's little commercial breaks.

Commercial breaks: that's a good metaphor to use with people in the entertainment industry.

Yes. And we can use some of these breaks to notice how we move. For example, when you’re checking messages on the cell phone you can take a moment to notice what hand you’re holding the phone with, which way your head tilts or anything else about your movement patterns in that moment and then notice how changing one element at a time, like switching hands (and listening ear) affects your posture.

What other kinds of metaphors do you use, when you're describing the Method?

Well what I love about working with people in the motion picture industry is that they really understand nuance. One more stroke of blush and you've made all the difference. And lighting: same thing. They understand it. I describe Feldenkrais as more like a new way they can apply what they already understand about nuance.

I like working with people like that, because when we've moved them beyond the pain, we get to see that what's on the other side of it is all the creativity that lends itself to the business.

I take it you like working with creative people.

I love working with creative people! I'm a thinker myself, and I tend to work with people who like to think. These are the people who are really attracted to Feldenkrais work.

So do clients come back, after you've worked through the pain - for other things?

Yes. When they've moved beyond the pain, there's a maintenance quality, there's a preventative angle. And there's just realizing your full potential. Part of my long-term plan is to be on set, helping people all day long, all the time.

So, over the years, working with your clients, have there been any real surprises?

Every session is full of surprises! I can compare Feldenkrais lessons to rides at Disneyland. Having grown up ten minutes from The Happiest Place on Earth, I know what to expect on most rides and no matter how many times I’ve been on the same ride there is always something new and fun to notice.