Tips for Teaching Online – Part I

Some of my readers have never experienced an Alexander lesson!

Other readers are teachers who have lost count of how many lessons they have had.

However, what is common to everyone is the desire to feel better.

This experience of lessons – the joyful and unexpected satisfaction of a unified sensory experience – initially drives most people to continue.

And of course, the hidden secret of Alexander lessons is the touch of your teacher. When I was training in London, we were obsessed with this touch. We kept comparing teachers with expressions like:

“How good are his hands?” and “I really like her touch.”

Because of this, first lessons often surprise new students – the teacher guides them, and suddenly they feel they are floating off the floor; that they have ‘disappeared’ into a feeling of nothing. Universally – they like it.

But what happens online?

Well, even in the first lesson, I want people to understand that it is not me that is supplying this experience through my touch guidance. I may touch you, but your nervous system generates the changes, not me. You are experiencing your Self, not my hands. This is such an important point for new students to appreciate.

In that, online can help.

A straightforward way to understand is using what Cathy Madden likes to call “reverse Alexander.” 

Try this experiment out on your own, in a group lesson, or… yes! 

Online.

STEP ONE
Walk to somewhere in the room and express your experience of it. Most people haven’t got much to say in this step. It’s important to note that: the richness of their experience is non-existent.

STEP TWO
Now lift up your chin and push it forward and walk. How does that feel? This time around, students are far more vocal. They express changes in breathing, ease of movement, emotions and visual awareness. Suddenly they have a wealth of information to share! Why did that happen?

STEP THREE
Ask this question: did you intend to make any of those changes in your emotion, breathing, ease-of-movement or visual acuity? Universally – in my experience – participants answer no. 

STEP FOUR
Start walking normally and – as you are walking – go through Steps Two and Three again, then return to normal – all while walking. The experience people have returning to normal walking – after ‘reverse Alexander’ - approximates what happens in an Alexander lesson when your teacher users their hands. And the details and feedback they can give about this are rich – especially if you remind them how little they had to say in Step One.

These steps are very effective - I have been doing it this way for a long time.

But recently, I discovered a much better way.

A way that is clearer, more effective and does not involve people deliberately “reversing” their Alexander and potentially causing harm. 

You’re gonna have to catch it tomorrow to find out more.

Of course, this information is part of my presentation “Creating a One-Second Alexander Plan” within the Golden Week Symposium on “How to Teach – and Learn – Alexander Online.”

Read more at this link:

https://bodychance.mykajabi.com/how-to-teach-alexander-online