Based on A True Story

Imagine this.

You are an Alexander teacher and registered nurse working in a large New York hospital's Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU). 

NICU is full of pre-mature babies cradled in cocoons of modern science.

Each cocoon is hooked up to machines that monitor metrics such as heart rate, respiratory rate, blood pressure, temperature, oxygen saturation and other blood gases, apnea, ECG, IV fluids inputs/outputs and even an EEG machine watching their little brains.

This is some serious science. And then it happens…

All of a sudden there is a cacophony of lights, noises, bouncing graphs and flashing metric changes on the screen tracking one baby. It’s like a lightning strike – but the metrics are all good. Far from something being very wrong – everything just became very right.

What the hell just happened?

Another nurse rushes over and asks you: “What did you just do to that baby?”

All the Alexander-trained registered nurse can answer is:

“I used my Alexander touch on its head.”

Yes, this actually happened.

***

Welcome again to Alexander’s final and most mysterious discovery – how to touch another person and bring about sudden and significant changes in breathing, circulation, blood pressure, heart rate and – most significantly – the way their Postural Support System is managing their movement at any moment of time. I wrote about this previously here:

https://atsuccess.com/blog/2024/02/alexanders-magic-trick.html

It needs to be felt to be believed, and only a well-trained Alexander teacher can do that.

Lucy Brown, a neuroscientist working at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York, gave a presentation discussing “Alexander touch” at the International Alexander Congress in Oxford in 2008. She cited research demonstrating the efficacy of “emotional contagion” – you know, you go into a room and then feel some weird vibes. Brown suggested that Alexander may have invented a form of motor-sensory contagion, and it certainly feels that way when the teacher touches you during a session.

These days, the “talk” of an Alexander teacher is fairly common. Many other techniques, methods and ideas explore the efficacy of posture as an influential factor in well-being, along with nutrition, exercise, mental health and sleep.

But no one touches you like an Alexander teacher.

This touch can not be copied because an Alexander teacher's skilful touch takes years to get to an even basic level of ability. After that – it involves decades of development.

My precious teacher Marjorie Barstow (1899-1996) once demonstrated to me how important she considered this Alexander way of touch. She was in Sydney in 1987, working with a group of about 30 musicians. It was the morning tea break.

Marj walked over to me with a satisfied look on her face:

“I got my hands on every one of them!” she proudly declared to me.

I carry that value today – you can be pretty sure that if you ever have a workshop with Jeremy Chance, he’s going to help you gain an Alexander experience through his touch.

I encourage all my Alexander-trained teachers to do the same.

It sets us apart – in this way, Alexander’s work is unique.