Table Lesson RIP

In January, 1986 I vowed never again to teach Alexander-style chair and table work.

For the first year of my teaching after Marj visit to Sydney, my old students discovered there would be no more table work.

New students never knew the difference, but the old students didn’t like it:

“What are we going to do then?” they asked me.

“Well, what do you want to do?”

“I don’t know. You tell me. You’re the teacher!”

It was a good point. 

Up to that stage, I had been prescriptive in my teaching. I had a chair. I had a table. Both displayed in my room. In the past, when I asked: “What do you want to do?” there was only a choice of two things: tablework or chairwork. We usually did a little of both.

Suddenly that was all gone.

“Tell me the most different thing you have in the day?” I ventured…

“Oh, that’s the ride in the elevator” one confessed to me.

“Why?” I stupidly asked.

“I get claustrophobic, and I can’t breathe. I panic.”

(I thought: ‘How am I going to turn this into a lesson about Alexander’s Discovery?’
OK - this is me looking at the moon now, not its reflection)

“Can I see what happens? We can pretend the closet is an elevator…”

He looked anxiously towards the closet door.

“I can try.” 

Often it turns out that the pain of staying the same is worse than the pain of change. He was willing to experiment with me.

We cycled a few times through his waiting, then entering the lift, doors closing, flight up, doors opening again.

What was my job during all this?

To gather information about his postural movement during each of these stages. My words and touch reminded him to breathe with his head and whole body in motion. I would use my hands when necessary:

- to encourage his thinking; and 
- give him confidence in doing this later on his own.

It turned out to be easy. 

As I helped him direct his thinking towards his three critical joints in my 1-second plan, he replaced the thinking that ended in panic. It worked. He soon had elevators under control and was travelling in them again.

This was my style of teaching after my first year with Marj; and ever since. I was about to see a new path ahead, one that did not include my academic studies.

***

This was part of my teaching evolution, which I have documented at length in my two ThinkingBody courses online. To go deeper and develop your teaching, read more about the system at the link below:

https://bodychance.mykajabi.com/store/TGFBWut4

Make sure you enter the coupon code – JEREMYSURPRISE – to get a 70% discount!