Outdoor Adventures with Feldenkrais
Kevin offers Feldenkrais exploration as a companion to outdoor adventures.
During Alaskan summers he offers Feldenkrais informed hiking trips into the Chugach Mountains from his cabin on the edge of the Chugach National Forest.
Other outdoor Feldenkrais adventures and retreats are in the planning stages.
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The Grand Canyon trip my husband and I went on with Kevin was the trip of a lifetime.
Kevin was superbly organized, knowledgeable, and a delight to be with.
I have such joyful memories of floating through the scenic canyon, running rapids, discussing geology, inspecting ancient ruins, sharing music around the campfire, helping to prepare amazing meals, and enjoying the camaraderie of the group.
Thank you, Kevin.
- MW
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Kevin made his living as a river and wilderness guide for 18 years ... in Alaska, a dozen US states, and two foreign countries. He captained an Alaskan whitewater river running team in two international goodwill games, in Costa Rica and the US, taught rafting classes for the University of Alaska Wilderness Studies Program, trained river guides around the US, and has been featured in TV & cable documentaries, newspaper stories and magazine articles.
When he discovered Feldenkrais he realized it built on everything he had discovered about flow and ease and power in his river running and guiding career.
A skilled river guide becomes so adept at listening to, feeling, reading and harnessing the power of the river as to be able to take a raft full of people through ever-changing mazes of class 4 and 5 whitewater, hydraulics, boulders, with ease that make the run looks effortless -- like a dance, like art.
Feldenkrais, Kevin realized, was this same kind of exploration and cultivation of flow and ease and power in human movement, i.e. in the human body itself.
In modern culture where our conditioning is often speedy, mental, stimulant-driven, and goal oriented, Feldenkrais offers the powerful medicine and balance of process orientation — which involves slowing down, tuning into somatic intelligence and discovery and consciousness itself, feeling, feeling the pleasure of conscious engagement in physical activity and life, feeling powerful, feeling complete, learning, enjoying, nourishing.
For many people Feldenkrais offers a life-changing paradigm shift, a transformative practice equal to any of the great spiritual traditions and transformative practices. It offers a deep exploration and discovery of our natural animal inheritance as homo sapiens, or what Moshe Feldenkrais called "biological intelligence." There is no more nourishing setting for making Feldenkrais-ian somatic explorations and discoveries than the natural world in which we evolved.
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The Grand Canyon trip was a life changer for me … a magnificent gift and something I will always cherish.
- KC, Naturalist and Educator
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Other Outdoor Adventures
Feldenkrais walking trips on the Camino de Santiago in Spain and various routes in Ireland are in the planning stages. Contact Kevin for more info.
More Reviews
My Grand Canyon trip with Kevin was one of the highlights of my life.
Days were all about the river; drifting lazily in nearly slack water, then racing through huge standing waves in the biggest rapids.
But every night, under the desert stars, we circled up with our instruments and played every song ever written. It was beautiful and raucous, and perfect.
- TH, Coach
When I signed on to raft the Grand Canyon with Kevin, I wasn’t even aware yet how powerful a musical experience it would be. I honestly went along for the exhilarating boating, rigorous hiking, and time with friends.
I got all of that, but also found myself sitting in the soft glow of an October campfire bathing in the collaborative swell and roll of music. Every night.
A reluctant performer and insecure musician myself, I listened and appreciated for the first few nights, caught the rhythm bug and began to tap sticks and stones together and eventually opened my mouth and sang.
Not beautifully at first, but with practice comes improvement and the joyful celebration of music on the river with Kevin and company started me on my way to decades of music-making enjoyment.
- JAJ, Artist