Friends of the Alexander Technique

AT Friends e-Newsletter

March 2010 | Volume 4, Issue 1

Events | Notices |  Articles

Books |  Past Issues | Web-site Home Page

Events & Forthcoming Meetings

London AT Friends

Tuesday 20th April

6:30-8:30pm, Friends Meeting House, 8 Hop Gardens,
St Martins Lane, WC2N 4EH.
Entrance fee: £5 (concessions £3)

Guest Speaker: Glenna Batson

If you would like to come to this event then please contact Friends administrator Janey Goodearl in the STAT office on 0207 482 5135 or email janey@atfriends.org

For map click here.

Tuesday 15th June

6:30-8:30pm, Friends Meeting House, 8 Hop Gardens,
St Martins Lane, WC2N 4EH.
Entrance fee: £5 (concessions £3)

Guest Speaker: Peter Ribeaux

Everything you wanted to know about the Alexander Technique but were afraid to ask: an evening with Peter Ribeaux

Please bring lots of questions and Peter will work with people as well as responding to questions.

If you would like to come to this event then please contact Friends administrator Janey Goodearl in the STAT office on 0207 482 5135 or email janey@atfriends.org

For map click here.

Notices

We are sad to report that Dilys Carrington (1915 - 2009) passed away on 22nd September 2009, and Elizabeth Langford (1929 – 2009) passed away on Tuesday 11th August 2009.

The obituaries which were published in the last issue of STATNews are available on request.

Articles (on-line: click the link)

The Performing Self

The Alexander Technique has for many years been firmly established in colleges of music, drama and, more recently, dance. We have within our community many experienced teachers working in those fields and there have been several special events with an opportunity for teachers interested in working with performing artists to exchange with others and develop their knowledge: the International Congresses and the Conferences for Alexander Teachers in Music Institutions particularly come to mind.

However, these events are very ‘in-house’ and give little scope for sharing our knowledge and experience with people outside the profession. AT Friends is keen to play a part in raising awareness of what the Technique has to offer to performing artists and also to provide a forum in which we can exchange with and learn from others working in that field: voice coaches, speech trainers and therapists, performance psychologists, movement teachers, etc.

We plan therefore to host an event entitled The Performing Self, offering themed workshops for performing artists and a forum for exchange with people who practise and teach other disciplines. To explore ideas around this theme, we are bringing together people experienced in this field to form an ad hoc steering committee: John Hunter, Dorothea Magonet, Peter Buckoke, Judith Kleinman and Penny O’Connor. We would be pleased to hear from anyone wishing to get involved with this exciting project: as an organiser, a presenter, with a good idea, or suggesting a good contact who might be interested to join us.

© Friends of the Alexander Technique 2010

Widening access to the Alexander Technique

report by Sue Fleming

The Trustees of AT Friends had no hesitation in supporting the project in the following report by Sue Fleming. We hope it might become a template for other similar projects which can take advantage of our status as an educational charity. If you would like to propose something in your area, please contact us.

As part of the Friends, three Manchester-based teachers – June Gill, Pauline Leng and myself, Sue Fleming – have worked to widen access to the ideas, principles and learning of the Technique. We were concerned that the Technique was known to a relatively small section of society and generally available only to those who could afford lessons. We wanted to open the Technique to more disadvantaged communities, to those without financial means, and those too fearful to take a first step into private lessons. To make this happen we needed to reduce our costs, by subsidising the teaching by giving our time at very low or no cost, and finding cheap or rent-free premises. As the aims were charitable, not profit-making, it was accepted for sponsorship by the Friends.

With the Friends as sponsor, it was possible to establish working relations with other charitable groups and to access resources available for community and civil society groups. As we aimed to work in one of the most disadvantaged neighbourhoods in the Borough of Trafford, we were also able to obtain free workshop space through the Neighbourhood Management Partnership, set up to narrow the gap between disadvantaged and more affluent neighbourhoods. It also makes workshop and meeting space available for community and other NGO and not-for-profit organisations working for the community.

The two introductory workshops we ran were timed to increase accessibility: one was during the week, and another on Saturday morning. The workshops were for women so as to open them up to women who would not feel comfortable in a mixed group, including minority and ethnic women in the area. The workshop space was a known and safe space within the community. The resulting workshops were enjoyed by all, and we had time for a mix of activities to illustrate and describe the Alexander Technique, and for some hands-on work. The range of women that came was very encouraging. Many had not heard of the Technique before, and would not have come if the workshop had not been close to where they lived, and at a price that was affordable to them. Several have committed to longer-term classes, and others asked for similar half-day workshops in the future. Plans for future work in the area include discussions with the local community centre and library, and links with the black and minority ethnic communities who are already interested in follow-up.

Please contact Sue Fleming for more information. 

 © Sue Fleming 2009

Alexander Technique: its application in education and acting

An evening with Penny O’Connor: Friends Meeting House, London, 24th November 2010

By Stella Weigel

Penny began the evening by briefly introducing her Alexander Technique teaching of both BA and MA student actors at ArtsEd, particularly the challenges which working within such a qualification-driven establishment presents, such as the marking system (it was stated that most students obtain a good pass). She mentioned that she had been observing students during performance that afternoon, making brief notes about specific aspects of their use which she would later be able to use in her ongoing work with them.

Penny then asked us to jog around the room, touching the floor, lifting an arm, jogging backwards, and so on, and then asked us to stop and remain in the position at that particular moment. Upon stopping, we were then encouraged to think about the space around us, above, below and behind, about releasing at our ankles and freeing our hips and knees; we then commenced jogging around the room again and again we were asked to stop as we were and to give our directions. It was noted that whilst one was standing in such an unusual position, one nevertheless was freeing oneself at the same time and also the unspoken drama which occurred as a result of adopting such a  position and taking on all the characteristics of this. It certainly created a powerful atmosphere which remained in the room.

Penny then introduced some small balls, with which we played around for quite some time, thus demonstrating how this helps students to explore the concepts of stimulus and response/inhibition and direction. Lined up in two rows of six, we threw a ball between pairs, without saying anything and then saying the words “stimulus” as the ball was thrown and “response” upon catching the ball. Direction and inhibition were then introduced by using one’s choice as to how one threw the ball, did one throw it immediately, under one’s leg or when the other person was least expecting it?

This theme was continued when Penny asked six of us to line up in pairs and throw a ball to their partner upon asking a question, any question which came into their mind, such as “Are you happy” or “Are you hoping for Santa to come down your chimney this Christmas?”. Upon catching the ball, the partner was asked to provide an answer, and, importantly, Penny mentioned that this choice/pause upon receiving a stimulus and the subsequent reaction, is that very same choice which actors have at their disposal whilst performing. The partner was then asked to return the answer followed by another question and a throw of the ball, thereby encouraging another answer/question and so on. As the questions/answers unfolded, so did each story and atmosphere, just as a story unfolds within a play, just as a ball had been thrown to and fro previously.

The final section of Penny’s talk covered her work with students at ArtsEd in more detail. She provided us with an “Alexander Quiz” given to students which chiefly covers a basic knowledge of anatomy. Penny also provided us with an overview of the assignments which are expected of the BA and MA students during their study of the Alexander Technique. The BA students study the Technique for two terms, whereas the MA students study for one year. Given the relatively short period of time available, certainly all the main Principles of the Technique are covered using a variety of learning tools:

·        a review of a chapter from an Alexander-related book demonstrating the student’s understanding of the Technique and how this relates to their work in and out of class and their work as an actor;

·        writing observational notes about themselves in respect of their habits during hands on sessions; this demonstrates that the student recognises personal habits that might impede their performance, that they have experienced themselves out of habit through ‘inhibition’ when working with a teacher, with good practice strategies being developed for themselves;

·        creating a presentation in pairs or groups of three that will demonstrate that the student has an accurate knowledge of the vocabulary and a clear understanding of the Principles (Primary Control, Use, Inhibition, Direction, Ends and Means, the Unified Field of Attention and Faulty Sensory Appreciation), differentiating between them and connecting them;

·        Balanced Resting State Report: students are expected to lie in semisupine every day during a vacation period and write a report on their experiences that will demonstrate that the student has had good insights into the regular practice of the semisupine position and the effects of this practice on their general use during this time;

·        Regular Individual hands-on work – two students to one teacher per half hour, during which students become familiar with their own habits and begin to come out of them. Students make notes on their discoveries each lesson which are handed in for assessment at the end of the first term.

·        Students meet in large groups for body-mapping and group experiments.

·      A week is dedicated to Alexander Thinking and students write a report on the results of this experiment.

Penny mentioned that she also used video at the start and end of the course to show students their habits, a medium which is used by other teachers in other areas of use of the Technique and it came as no surprise that it was also useful with acting students.

On completion of the Alexander Technique component a student should be able to demonstrate: 

1. An understanding of Alexander’s Principles;

2. An accurate body-map of the self with rudimentary knowledge of how the nervous system and muscles work together to create our natural balance and habits;

3. A recognition of personal habits which impede the co-ordination of mind and body;

4. he means to work on these, thereby developing insights on how to apply the Technique to their personal needs as an actor.

 © Stella Weigel 2009

"Suit the action to the word, the word to the action."

(Hamlet, Act 3, Scene 2)

An evening with Anne Battye: Friends Meeting House, London, 13th October 2010

By Hiranya Jayasinghe

My first encounter with the Alexander Technique was attending the weekend City Lit course, led by Brita Forsstrom, in January 2009.  I had no specific motivation for attending, just a realisation that the technique is not something that can be book-learnt, it has to be experienced.  Watching the “use” of other attendees – walking, sitting and standing – I became aware of the different “masks” they had on; the defence mechanisms that the technique could unveil, in order to reveal their “authentic selves”.  By contrast, the teachers leading the weekend had a presence, a sense of poise and physical confidence which looked a lot like freedom. 

Intrigued by the invisible iceberg beyond the surface, I embarked on an Alexander journey.  Since then, after around 50 lessons, I have witnessed an increase in confidence, a “freeing” of my voice and have “grown” a full inch!  This has given me a desire to train as an Alexander teacher, and it was with this mindset that I attended that AT Friends event on Tuesday 13^th October.

The guest speaker, Anne Battye, had trained with Marjory Barlow, qualifying in 1964, and, unsurprisingly, possessed a wealth of experience and thinking which she generously poured out upon us.  The evening was structured as a talk, followed by “hands-on” work, concluding with summing up discussion.

In her talk, Anne addressed the meaning of the phrases “to order” and “to give directions”.  For her, “orders” are perceived as a command, an intention arising from a chaotic state and a choice to inhibit old habits.  The “directions”, on the other hand, are like a recipe, a process towards an ordered state and a kind of centre-ing.  She explained how, when she first started training, she had to give herself the “orders” without any expectation that anything would happen.  Gradually, however, the words began to link up with her physical experience. 

This reminds me of the three stages we go through when learning to ride a bicycle.  First, our parent (the teacher) says the instructions “keep peddling” etc as we wobble along without stabilisers; later, we say the words to ourselves as reminders; eventually, the words become so internalised that our bodies respond to our intention to ride.  We need, no longer, say the words out loud; the thought and the experience are one.

Following a “hands on” experimentation with these ideas, Anne led an interesting discussion on the “mean-ends” paradox.  She explained that, “we must have ends, without ends we have no stimulus.”  Nonetheless, our focus is on the “means”, those “directions” – to “free our necks”, “head to go forward and up”, and “back to lengthen and widen” – as steps, used almost like a mantra, which can bring us into a meditative (or ordered) state. 

It is this philosophy which so fascinates me about the technique.  During the “hands on” work, Anne reiterated, over and over, that we are always “going into the unknown”, rather than harkening back to an old or habitual experience of what those “directions” might bring about.  A child-like state.  The idea of experimenting, indeed playing, within a safe environment; of exploring the “infinite abyss” without fear of “getting it wrong.”  In my opinion, it is in maintaining this “state of being” that the Alexander Technique truly has a gift to offer the world. 

 © Hiranya Jayasinghe 2009

Books

What Every Singer Needs to Know About the Body

Melissa Malde, MaryJean Allen, Kurt-Alexander Zeller, Plural Publishing Inc, 232pp, Ill. (B/W), pbk, 8.5 x 11", ISBN10: 1-59756-324-2, ISBN13: 978-1-59756-324-6, $49.95. (First published in STATNews, January 2010)

Review by Patrick Gundry-White

The Thought Propels The Sound
Janet Madelle Feindel, Plural Publishing Inc, 288pp, Ill. (B/W), pbk, 6 x 9", ISBN10: 1-59756-206-8, ISBN13: 978-1-59756-206-5, $45.00. (First published in STATNews, January 2010)

Review by Penny O’Connor

New Publications

The Integrated Musician

Pedro De Alcantara, Publ. Oxford University Press, UK, USA. June 2010.

The Practice of Presence

Patty de Llosa, Publ. Morning Light Press, USA, March 2006. http://www.practiceofpresence.com.

Now available as a downloadable audio and in Spanish.

Original version reviewed in Statnews, June 2006.

Please contact us with any ideas or contributions relating to books.

Announcements

Workshops and lessons on the Greek Island of Alonnisos with Penny O'Connor MSTAT
July 16th - 23rd teachers, trainees, advanced
June 18th -25th, July 2nd - 9th, Sept 3rd - 10th, all levels
€510 or £465

Walk down the mule track to the crystal clear sea every morning for Chi Kung and swimming, lessons up in the hilltop village, boat trips to nearby islands, glimpses of dolphins, wild flowers and herbs, singing under the stars, snorkelling and lazing, doing nothing!

The Charity for the F Matthias Alexander Technique: Company limited by guarantee and registered in England and Wales No. 3153329, Registered Charity, No.1053863