Arriving in London in 1976

My dad was born in England, so getting through Customs at Heathrow was a breeze – I proudly flashed my newly acquired British passport, and I was in.

Finally - almost two years after my first flash of enlightenment - I had arrived to continue my long path of championing Alexander’s Discovery for the rest of my life.

I was so excited on my first day at school.

And it was bizarre.

I entered the gate to have my first interview with Paul & Betty. The school was open, but just as I was about to enter the teaching room, a nicely-dressed, middle-aged lady said in a rather posh, upper-class accent:

“May I dear?”

She was on her hands and knees before me at the door.

I was speechless.

“I am so sorry for my bad manners, behaving like this.”

And she proceeded to exit the teaching room, then crawl along the hall and go into the kitchen.

What had I just committed myself to?

***

It turns out that she was practising crawling, as babies do – a perfectly reasonable activity for an Alexscovery trainee to be exploring. Postural coordination begins on all fours – standing and walking come later.

After my horrific burns and confinement to a bed for three months at two years of age, my mother told me that I forgot how to walk. Since then, I’d always been full of chronic pains and troubles: asthma, pains at various places in my back, 13 dislocations of my upper arm. 

I was in a sea of troubles.

And then I met Margaret.

Margaret was a newly-minted AT teacher from Walker Carrington’s course. 

Walter worked with Alexander until FM died in 1955, then carried on the school with his wife, Dilys. I’d applied to Walter first and was told there was a waiting list. I subsequently discovered that - had they know I was coming from Australia - I would have jumped to the front of the queue. I was sorry to miss that chance with Walter. Instead, I ended up joining a school led by two of his dotty graduates: Betty & Paul.

Betty and Paul were an eccentric couple.

But they had nothing on Margaret, whose touch was so powerful that she earned the nickname “Electric Lil” amongst trainees. I was soon to learn that the quality of a teacher’s touch was the factor trainees used to calibrate who was the most effective communicator of Alexander’s Discovery.

I had now entered a fantastic new universe of postural experiences that only Alexscovery students can appreciate.

And “Electric Lil” was the best.

Why?

More on that tomorrow…