Judith Aston's Story
Because of her innovative ideas and theory about the human body in motion, Judith Aston has been called "a living legend" in her time. She is widely recognized as a pioneer in the art and science of human movement, called kinetics.
As a young dancer, Aston was intrigued by the potential of the human body in motion. Early in her career, from 1963-1971, she created movement education programs for a community college, theater groups, dancers and athletes. In 1968, Dr. Ida Rolf asked Judith Aston to create the very first movement education program for the Rolfing foundation, where Aston taught her movement education curriculum until 1977.
Aston's discoveries continually prompted her to challenge the traditional viewpoint of the body as linear, constrained and one-dimensional, which eventually expanded her awareness leading her to divergence from the perspective of traditional postural models, and ultimately to the recognition of a new paradigm a dynamic 3-dimensional model for movement and posture for the human body.
Aston's distinct biomechanical model for the human body was based on a unique way of seeing the body in relationship to the earth. One of Judith’s first contributions to the Rolf organization was seeing the need for and creating the first course in 1971 to train professionals “to see” body patterns. In fact, it is Judith Aston's acute ability to "see" the body in stillness and motion and to train others to see, that established her discipline of bodywork and movement training. That insight is the foundation of Aston® Kinetics. Over a career that spans decades, many practitioners of Rolfing, Feldencrais, Hellerwork Trager, and many other disciplines, have taken courses with Judith Aston. She also designs and teaches programs which integrates her discoveries with existing movement disciplines such as yoga, Pilates, personal training/coaching, rehabilitation therapies, sports and dance and expression.
Vibrant testimony to her theories, Judith Aston is actively engaged in all aspects of her enterprises. She is an author of: Moving Beyond Posture - In Your Body On The Earth, the Aston Postural Assessment Workbook, and Aston's Walking the New Body DVD.
Judith Aston divides her time between presenting and teaching bodywork, fitness, performance, and movement workshops. She leads many Aston Kinetics training and certification courses, as well as, speaking at professional conferences. She devotes a portion of her time to work on her product designs, re-envisioning how products can work optimally within the body in various environments.
Aston designed a series of proprietary ergonomic products and has worked as a consultant on various designs. Her premise is the environment should be adapted to the human body, not the other way around. Judith Aston's designs support and adjust the position of the body to reduce stress which promotes the ease of movement in life by offering products such as specially-designed cushions to reduce positional tension and provide support during activities such as sitting while driving and working with a computer.
Judith Aston lives in Lake Tahoe, Nevada, the headquarters for her company, and part time in Hawaii. She may be contacted for requests for private consultations to corporations and individuals through this web site.