AY #113 With the arms sideways; turning the arms

Before this lesson starts, Dr. Feldenkrais spends a little time encouraging his students to, "… do it as a game, without trying for it to be good or beautiful….as if to waste the time, not in order to accomplish anything…." (AY, Vol. 3, Part A, pg. 743.) After a couple of movements he mentions that, "It is possible to do this a lot more comfortably in order to play and waste the time." (ibid.) More than in any other AY lesson so far these ideas are repeatedly stressed: treat the lesson as play, do the movements without the desire to do well or to accomplish anything. Looking at this lesson's structure, you might call it, "Advanced Dead Bird". This lesson is all done in side sitting, the trunk is twisted and differentiation of the head and shoulders is brought in. However, here the arms are held straight out in front with the fingers interlaced and not having a hand to lean on makes the movement much more difficult and this is why (I think) Moshe spends so much time encouraging people to play, to keep it light; it's a way to try to convince the system that it should stay in learning mode while doing something that's somewhat stressful. Toward the end of the lesson Dr. Feldenkrais says, "If there is freedom in the back--which is why we did all these movements… so the back will be able to move.... Later you will see the difference in other movements." (AY pg. 749) It's always great when he tells his students (and us) exactly what the lesson is about. For me, I felt a huge difference in my lower rib cage. There was an opening around the 8th, 9th and 10th ribs that caused me a bit of pain the morning after the lesson (obviously, I was trying to accomplish something and I wasn't being quite playful enough). It's a good lesson that would work very well as part of a series with AY 41, "Basic bending" and AY 94, "Twisting right and left."