Hello, I’m Maggy Burrowes, welcome to my website
This website is intended to be both an information hub for all aspects of The Feldenkrais Method® and a continuously-developing resource for anyone interested in exploring on-going personal growth, and maturing into their most fully potent self.
If you would like regular updates about all my classes and workshops you can sign up for my newsletter here…
What’s coming up Online…
Daily Class–Immersive Courses
Effortless Shoulders & Hands
Our hands enable all the ways that we interact with the world, and with the people we love
– this workshop is about improving both the sensitivities and the abilities of our hands, and the whole self connections of our hands and our arms.
April 7th – 11th
1 hour of Awareness Through Movement & 30 minutes in-depth class discussion each day
Online – Recordings & Notes included
Times: Monday, Tuesday, Thursday & Friday: 2–3.30pm BST ~ 9–10.30am EDT ~ 6–7.30am PDT
Wednesday: 12–1.30pm BST ~ 7–8.30am EDT ~ 4–5.30am PDT
£100 (suggested fee, or any donation welcome)
This daily class series will focus on freeing, and then re-integrating our hands, arms and shoulder girdle with our whole self, with a focus on ease in our neck, and a better, more dynamic whole-self organisation built on the foundation of our natural and effortless inner core stability. Our hands are so used to working hard all day that we are often more aware of effort in our shoulder girdle, so naturally this course will focus on this whole complex structure, from finger tips to collar bones.
We will also be exploring the potential for improving motor awareness in our hands, building a clearer sense of our hands as a sensory detection system. We will…
Mobilise our hands…
…by exploring ways to integrate the whole shoulder girdle into the skeleton in motion
Sensitise our hands…
…boosting our sensory awareness by fine-tuning the way we use touch, and…
Energise our hands…
…using awareness practices adapted from classic Qi Gong forms
Our Hands Are A Powerful Way To Access New Learning…
We are still in the early days of understanding just how important “neuroplasticity” [our brain’s capacity for life-long learning] is when it comes to our ongoing well being, but what is well understood is that our hands are two of the most densely connected structures within our brain.
Hands are so influential because they are not just the structures we use to manipulate our world, but also the structures we use for so much of our sensing of our world. In this model of the sensory-motor nervous system the eyes, ears, lips, and feet are also very significant – if you make a 3D representation of this “somatosensory homunculus” you get an unattractive little ‘man’ with big eyes, a big mouth, big ears, big feet and truly enormous hands – and as you can see in the picture above, there are subtle differences between the two brain maps with movement having an even more dramatic effect of the brain’s image of our hands than our sensory capacity. Article and course description continues here…
These are very practical courses and you will receive notes and supporting materials to help you maintain the improvements you gain from your immersive Awareness Through Movement experience.
Potent Voice Sunday Workshops…
Vocal Strengh & Stamina
Improving your vocal health can also improve your general health – come and find out how!
April 13th
Online + Recordings & Notes
NOTE LATER TIME!*
5pm – 8pm BST ~ 12pm – 3pm EDT ~ 9am – 12pm PDT
£45 (suggested fee, or any donation welcome)
More information soon…
This class will focus on how you can use your natural breathing co-ordination to develop clarity, power and sustain in your singing or speaking voice. Many popular singers use a lot of ‘free breath’ in the voice and rely totally on their microphone technique for volume control. Free breath in your voice can cause dryness and discomfort in your throat, and develop into inefficient and damaging speaking and singing habits.
Once you understand the relationship between your breath and your vocal quality, power will come naturally and easily whenever you need it. Next we will explore how to adjust your laryngeal muscles in order to maintain a healthy and happy singing or speaking voice – with the added benefit of increasing your pitch range.
We will then go on to explore how to coordinate this way of ‘opening the throat’ with the kind of internal muscle control that gives you direct access to easy and flexible volume control.
The fee includes recordings and notes to make it easy for you to continue practising at home, and to minimise the need for note taking during the class.
*I am trying out a different time slot to see if it suits more people on either side of the Atlantic!
My Potent Voice workshops are beneficial for:
Singers, presenters, performers, and anyone interested in the voice, and any aspect of self-expression
Anyone dealing with chronic stress issues, or breathing problems/conditions
Anyone dealing with chronic tension in the face, tongue, jaw, neck, and throat
Anyone interested in meditation, chanting, and neural self-regulation
Anyone who feels that emotional inhibition is limiting their capacity for self-expression and self-assertion.
Please do contact me with any questions you may have, and note that BOOKING IS BY EMAIL, so you can contact me via this link if you want to reserve your place for any of my online events.
You are also always welcome to sign up for the recordings and notes of any course should you be unable to join us live.
More upcoming dates for your diary…
Unleash Your Potent Voice
Daily Immersive Summer Course
June 9th-13th
Find Your Vocal Ease, Power, Stamina, & Resonance
Summer 10-Day Immersive Course
A Deep Dive Into Your Senses
August 11th–15th & 18th–22nd
…All online sessions include recordings and notes. For more details click here for workshops, and here for regular classes…
FaceBook: Feldenkrais & Embodied Voice, HumanSong––Self-Expression & Performance
Movement Is Life!
Telegraph Hill Centre – Studio 2
Kitto Road, SE14
Awareness Through Movement Drop-In Class
PLEASE NOTE NEW TIME!
Wednesdays 2.45pm – 4pm
£12.50 / £10
“Movement is all important. From cardiovascular health, bone density, joint functioning to central nervous system optimisation. For the health of each and every cell in your organism, to your mental wellbeing and overall happiness. Movement is life. And life is movement!“
Rodolfo R. Llinás, MD, PhD
…but the phrase was a big favourite with Moshe Feldenkrais as well – I wrote a blog post about it…
Live class, extra info: I have enough mats and head rests that you do not need to bring your own, however in our current situation I would prefer you bring along a clean sheet or towel to lay over your mat and any headrests you might use, until our current covid-19 precautions become unnecessary. Do bring anything else you need to make sure you are comfortable on the floor – some people like to bring an extra-soft pillow or a blanket with them. The space is lovely, with big windows but also well-supplied with radiators; as the class is now in the daytime we should not have any heating issues, nevertheless it may be worth bringing a couple of layers with you if you tend to get chilly when you relax.
Customised Workshops for Companies & Organisations
I am always happy to design a workshop for a specific purpose – good ergonomic self-use for office workers, good vocal self-use for performance communities, good performance skills for everyone – contact me to discuss what you would like.
Feldenkrais International on YouTube
The International Feldenkrais community have been producing some attractive films to promote what is still a not very well known process with enormous benefits to offer. If you would like see the whole series in English click here. If you would like to see the full International Feldenkrais Federation film collection, which is available in multiple languages, click here view the YouTube Channel.