About The Work: Straight Talk on Craft and Method

The image shows lots of people lying on a gymnasium floor with arms and legs in different positions. Moshe Feldenkrais is on a stool, teaching and there is someone in front of him, filming.

These days, there are a host of methods (and Methods) available for looking after our bodies. They can save our lives, mess with our minds, and sometimes a bit of both. In this series, I offer a historical perspective on today’s self-care, fitness and performance-training methods.

Thanks to the digitization of books, newspapers, films and other primary sources, anyone with an internet connection can do this historical research. The information that comes out may disrupt cherished stories about the past: particularly the idea that bodywork automatically brings out the essential goodness in people. Look hard enough, and you'll find racism, sexism, eugenics, cultural appropriation and abuses of power among the many positive developments that draw us to these practices in the first place.

Is there a middle way between "cancelling" a method or practitioner, and living with a nostalgic view of the past? The object of this series is not to create easy answers, but to grapple with these histories, together. The landing page of this website epitomizes my approach. I think a matter of picking our way carefully, finding, and re-finding balance with every step.

Who will enjoy this series? Actors, dancers, and artists of all kinds, teachers, wellness practitioners, and anyone with an interest in taking charge of their health. I believe that everyone with a regular embodied practice is a practitioner (regardless of whether they've taken a professional training). And everyone has the right and the ability to help that practice evolve. Studying history is a great place to start.

By signing up, you'll get regular (but not too frequent) updates, and you'll be able to access the full archive of everything that's been published so far, along with interviews, blog posts, and other sundry treats.

Many thanks to Rolf Meindl for the cover photo ... and to you! Your subscription makes this site possible, and allows The Work to continue.

The presenter:

Maria Meindl is the author of The Work, Stonehouse Publishing (2019), and Outside the Box (2011)from McGill-Queen’s University Press, which won the Alison Prentice Award for Women’s History. Her essays, fiction and poetry have appeared in many publications including The Literary Review of Canada, Descant and Musicworks, as well as in the anthologies, At the End of Life: True Stories About How We Die and The M Word: Conversations About Motherhood. She has made two radio series, Parent Care, and Remembering Polio for CBC Ideas. In 2022, she received her PhD from the Centre for Drama, Theatre and Performance Studies at the University of Toronto for her award-winning dissertation on the German movement teacher, Elsa Gindler (1885-1961).

In 2005, Maria founded the Draft Reading Series which specializes in unpublished work by emerging and established writers.

A Guild Certified Feldenkrais practitioner since 2004, Maria teaches weekly Awareness-through-movement classes on Zoom.