Awareness Through Movement #304

The foot and its movements in space - with Marianne Rivington

This lesson involves foot movements …done in the unusual position of lying on the stomach with the knee bent so the foot is in the air..the student is asked to notice the relationship of the sole of the foot to the floor and ceiling…when is it parallel to the floor/ceiling and when not?

This image depicts the sensory and motor representation of the body in the brain… the foot movements lying on the stomach are intended to clarify this sensory image…

“Pay attention to how difficult it is to know what you are doing.
Slowly, you will see that only after you know what you are doing,
does the foot begin to do what you want.
In other words, it becomes “my foot’
“It is me”.

Moshe Feldenkrais

As he describes in the lesson, the movements that tend to get confused are:

1. The heel tends to be held closer to the ceiling held in plantar flexion due to residual tension in the calf muscles.

2. Inversion (lifting inner border foot) tends to substitute for rotation heel outward and eversion (lifting outer border foot) tends to substitute for rotating heel inward.

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What I call “Stepping Stones”,
or… details I found helpful to clarify this lesson.

Perhaps, you may find it helpful to explore these basic foot positions shown in these photographs… with the floor as a reference point?

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Dorsiflexion.. forefoot up/heel down:

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Plantar flexion… heel up/forefoot down:

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Inversion… inner border foot (big toe side) lifts off ground,
outer border (little toe side) presses ground:

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Eversion… outer border foot lifts off ground/inner border foot presses ground:

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Rotation of tibia and fibula… sole of foot stays flat on ground,
heel rotates outward/toes inward:

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heel rotates inward/toes outward:

Enjoy learning from this lesson (below)!

Marianne.