Dead Bird: Integrate the neck and spine
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Moshe Feldenkrais determined that holding an arm in front of your face with the hand drooping at the wrist is like the wing of a dead bird. I apologize for the image, but these are known worldwide as “the dead bird lessons,” so I am keeping the moniker.
I still remember the first time I ever did these lessons and the tremendous improvement in turning that occurred. It was one of those, “Oh, I can do that?” kind of moments. It highlights all the self-imposed limitations we put on ourselves, and how much more function there is in our ribs, upper back, and neck.
TIP: If side-sitting is a challenge, roll up a towel to support your rear end.
Based on Awareness Through Movement book lesson 10 and Amherst: Seated and twist, week 2, June 17, 1980
More variations on turning: What happens in the sit bones, hips, and ribs? I recommend doing these lessons in sequence as they do build on each other.
Just how much can the spine move? When you invite movement in the spine in many planes and with more vertebrae coming to the party, turning becomes free and fluid.
Even more spine movements, then a wholesale transposing to the other side—in your imagination! Find out how powerful this can be.
“We must re-establish the function of attending to oneself, to one’s desires, to one’s needs, to the feelings of the body. Then we will find an integration of the fluency of movement through each joint into action where the integration itself is a new way of being.”