M. Cohen- Nehemia identified the Mitzvah Mechanism and developed and founded the Mitzvah Technique to activate the Mitzvah Mechanism, our body’s innate ability to elongate using our upward spring response to gravity.
Born in the old city of Jerusalem, Nehemia as we call him, performed and choreographed with the renowned Inbal Dance Theatre in Israel. He experienced the unique freedom of the head motion while performing biblical Yeminte dances. During this time Nehemia became interested in body misuse and developed skills for helping dancers deal with injuries and postural difficulties. Additionally he worked in physical rehabilitation at a hospital in Israel.
M. Cohen-Nehemia worked and conducted research with the late Israeli physicist Dr Moshe Feldenkrais who developed the Feldenkrais Technique. He spent five years in London, England studying the Alexander Technique, qualifying as an Alexander Technique Teacher.
Extensive studies of the movement patterns of young children, animals and the nomadic Bedouin of the Sinai Desert were conducted by Nehemia. It is through this research that he identified how the Mitzvah Mechanism is activated through the motion of the pelvis and the spine. He selected the word Mitzvah to mean a good deed for the body.
In the late 1970s Nehemia founded the Canadian Centre for the Alexander Technique in Toronto. Then in the 1980s he founded The Mitzvah Technique Centre and Training School in Toronto where gave individual sessions and teacher training.
M. Cohen-Nehemia has given lecture demonstrations and workshops in Canada, the United States, England, Germany, Spain and Austria to medical personnel, teachers, dancers, musicians, actors and other groups. Susan Green was in Nehemia’s first graduating class.
Susan Green highly refined her quality of hands on work through 25 years of continuous studies with Nehemia. She dedicated herself to actively participating his evolution of the Mitzvah Technique. Over the years, Nehemia constantly pared down the Mitzvah Technique discipline, distilling the exercises to only what brought the most improvements to postural patterns of body usage. He took away exercises that did not bring improvements as he continued to develop new and improved ones.
