Bruce Fertman

My training is extensive, lifelong, and has always revolved around movement and meaning. I trained as a gymnast for 10 years with Olympic coaches, and with Dan Millman, receiving a full scholarship to the best gymnastic team in the country. I was a professional modern dancer for 12 years, picking up a Master's degree in Movement Re-education along the way. I apprenticed with Marjorie L. Barstow for 16 years, the first person formally certified by F.M. Alexander to teach his work. I studied in New York City at the Shr Jung Institute with Cheng man Ching's six senior American students for 8 years, and also for 8 years with Shuji Maruyama, a man who, as a boy, lived with and trained daily with Morihei Ueshiba, the founder of Aikido. I was awarded a scholarship to study at the Uresenke School of Tea in Kyoto, Japan, and with Iemoto Soshitsu Sen, the 15th generation grand tea master. I studied Argentine Tango with Pablo Veron and Gustavo Naveira in Buenos Aires.

For 45 years, I have worked with people from all walks of life, often with artists. I help artists learn how not to hurt themselves, how to be less anxious, and how to recover expediently from injuries. I help them become sensitive, powerful, and free. I've worked with members of the Berlin Philharmonic, Radio France, The National Symphony, and for the Curtis Institute of Music. I worked for the Five College Dance Program in Amherst, Massachusetts for 13 years, and for the Tango community in Buenos Aires. For 6 years, I taught movement for actors at Temple and Rutgers University.

I enjoy taking care of people who take care of people. I trained physical therapists at the College of Physiotherapy in Gottingen, Germany, for 10 years, and at the Furitsu Hospital in Osaka, Japan. (I was in Japan during the earthquake. Some of my students went north to help Fukushima victims. Some helped trauma victims in Tokyo.) I have worked with nurses, and hospice workers, with occupational and speech therapists. I have worked with rabbis, and with Christian and Zen Buddhist priests, and with thousands of teachers. I have taught kids too, and moms and grandparents, and electricians, and carpenters, and piano tuners. I have touched humanity, and humanity has touched me.



Bio cont'd...

In 1982, I co-founded the Alexander Alliance International, an intergenerational, multicultural community/school that now conducts teacher-training programs in the Alexander Technique, in Tai Chi Chu'an, in The Walking Way, and in The Peaceful Body. It was the first school to formally train Alexander Technique teachers, as inspired by the work of Marjorie Barstow. I remain the Director and Senior Teacher for the Alexander Alliance International, for the Alexander Alliance Germany, and for my new school - The Peaceful Body School, in Santa Fe.

I've recently completed a book entitled, The Peaceful Body - At The Heart of Lao Tzu. Renderings of the Tao Te Ching.