This book is a collection of writings on principles and techniques by the pioneers of bodywork and body awareness disciplines. Together, they represent a historical record of the field of somatics. Ranging from hands-on workers like Ida Rolf to phenomenologist Elizabeth Behnke, their lives span this century. In these lectures, writings, and interviews, editor Don Hanlon Johnson has sought to revel the unbroken lineage, theoretical differences, and major similarities of these originators.

Contributors: Elsa Gindler, Charlotte Selver, Carola Speads, Marion Rosen, Ilse Middendorf, F.M. Alexander, Moshe Feldenkrais, Ida Rolf, Bonnie Bainbridge Cohen, Judith Aston, Irmgard Bartenieff, Mary Whitehouse, Gerda Alexander, Emilie Conrad Da’Oud, Elizabeth Behnke, Thomas Hanna, Deane Juhan.