The Student's Dilemma...

Suddenly my phone is screaming at me…

(Who is calling at this late hour!?)

"Hallo, BodyChance Studio.

I'm sorry, but now we are close—"

"Please can you help me!?"

(I think: shouldn't we at least do names first?)

"Who is this speaking?"

"Oh I'm sorry, my name is Harry."

(I guess he needs to have this conversation now…)

"What's the problem Harry?"

"I am in a lot of pain. I can't stand it."

(Hmm, me a pain fixer? I think not.)

"Have you seen a doctor?"

"Yes."

"So what is the diagnosis?"

"There's nothing wrong with me."

(Well, I keep telling my Self that too.)

"But didn't you say you are in pain?"

"Yes!"

"So it means the doctor doesn't know why?"

"Yes!!"

"Have you done any physical therapy?"

"Yes!!!"

(I think: oh dear, we're getting nowhere fast.)

"I see."

"Can you fix me?"

(oops! time for a disclaimer…)

"Harry, I am not a health professional.

I am a teacher. This is education,

not therapy. I don't fix people."

"But I heard Alexander Technique is

like a miracle cure for back pain?

Didn't the British Medical Journal

publish a study proving that?"

(They did, but I can't really say that.)

"Harry, can you come to our studio?"

"Please. I am ready to do ANYTHING!"

(I think: oh, so I am "anything." OK.)

"Can I have your private therapy?"

(Hmm. Do I repeat my disclaimer?)

"Harry, I can teach you in a group session."

(Now we'll see if "anything" is still OK…)

A silence.

"In a group you say?"

"Yes, Harry. In a group."

Harry comes to the studio,

and when I first see him walk in,

it's so obvious why Harry is in pain.

It's what he is believing about his spine…

"Harry."

"Yes?"

"Describe your spine to me."

"I think of it like a steel rod.

I try to keep it as straight as I can."

***

Harry, like so many other people,

had an image of his spine that

did not match the reality of it.

Group teaching with beginners is economical. To paraphase Tolstoy:

“All happy [movements] resemble one another…”

YES.

Good co-ordination – across all sports and human activity – looks uniformly beautiful, elegant, almost musical. And this you can explain – using anatomically accurate descriptions, cogent exercises and a little Alexscovery touch - uniformly to the group.

It’s efficient.

Insist upon it when a musical school implores you to take on some individuals. Insist first that you have them all in a room with you, FIRST.

Like a chicken to her hen, bond these students to your group mastery FIRST; THEN see them individually. As Tolstoy continued in the opening lines of Anna Karenina:

“…but each unhappy [movement] is unhappy in its own way.”

And of course, that’s the fun of it – the next “individuals” in your group. Can you figure out Tolstoy’s “unhappy” in their co-ordinating behaviour?

It’s fun – all directed by the student.

Your Socratean unravelling of their co-ordinating behaviour facilitated by Alexander's discovery, creates theatre in your group: when you let-it-be this way (if you can?) you will see drama, tears, surprises, twists and turns, celebration, applause and joy – it is a divinrly theatrical experience.

Easy to fill up that 90 minutes!

They all walk out, uplifted and profoundly happy.

Once you grasp the profundity of Alexander's discovery, threatrical experiences are waiting…

All together, and one after the other. Applied to teaching in groups.

Another of 3 imporatant guiding priciples to hold in your attention as you start perfecting the art of communicating Alexander's discovery to groups.

Understand – it is Alexander's discovery you are teaching. This is a unique, never-seen-before, species-general application of constructive, conscious guidence of Alexander's discovery of the Primary Control (as he liked to call it).

All in my course, starting next week folks.

This is a first, time to jump in?

Jeremy’s Group Teaching Discovery Course