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Soul
Survivor is a multimedia performance
launched in 2003 in the tradition of storytelling as
a way to connect people to one another. Its subject,
violist Rebecca Strauss, wanted others to know about
the resources that can help people with trauma history
rewrite the script. I represent the Feldenkrais aspect
of that creative process. The performance plays to different
sensory channels, incorporating sound, sight, and talk
through Rebecca’s viola playing, Susan Wilson’s
photos of her progress past pain, audiotaped segments
from our Feldenkrais sessions, and audience questioning.
Referred by a doctor who knew firsthand the effectiveness
of the Feldenkrais Method, Rebecca started out as a
freelance musician in too much pain to play her instrument.
The diagnosis was “myofascial pain of unknown
origin,” even after six years going from pillar
to post in both traditional and complementary medicines
— including psychotherapy, orthopedics, chiropractic,
acupuncture, Alexander Technique, massage, medical intuitives,
and psychopharmacology next on the list to deter depression
arising from failure to find a cure. Her year and a
half of intensive weekly Functional Integration work
was the missing link that got her back into her body
and reclaiming function.
This work was embryonic for me as well. It was a logical
outgrowth of my 2000 article on somatic empathy as connected
knowing and feeds into research I’ll be pursuing
on the culture that supports silencing (that is, not
political but physical shutting down). Rebecca’s
articulate access to her own experience made her an
ideal research subject. Exploratory issues were how
students make meaning out of what they’re learning,
and how teachers (and by extension, medical practitioners)
can connect meaningfully.
Looking to understand what actually is curative, especially
in the medium of empathic consciousness and touch, took
us toward taboo territory. Soul Survivor opens
the door to recognizing that people store effects of
violence and abuse in body memory as well as in the
mind. Feldenkrais pays attention also to how the stored
tensions and effects of everyday living get embodied
in habitual movements, and to how that hardening can
be reversed and flexibility recovered.
The work in progress includes Soul Survivor
itself, which is currently moving toward DVD in lieu
of live performance so as to reach a wider audience.
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