Walking on the Moon

Do you know how to do a Moon Walk?

Michael Jackson gets the hat tip for making it famous in dancing Billie Jean – it was originally called the backslide – and a moonwalk gives the illusion of moving forward, while the person moves backwards.

Yesterday, I taught it to my trainees.

Now please understand that I am a terrible dancer. I am not even sure how to waltz. 

So what am I doing teaching the moonwalk?!

Well, I wanted to demonstrate how to use Alexander's Discovery to learn something new. As it turns out, the moonwalk is not that hard. Here's a quick primer:

 (skip it if you're not interested – I've got more to say below):

*** HOW TO DO A MOONWALK ***

You first learn to switch between standing on the tippy toes of each foot.

Keep your weight on both feet, while putting one foot up on its toes. 

(Always one foot flat, one foot on the tippy toes.)

Just keep switching between feet. 

Easy.

Once you master that, you do the backslide.

Start with your flat foot in front, the tippy-toes foot behind.

Then slide your flat foot – keeping it flat on the floor -  till it is behind the tippy-toes foot.

Now switch foot positions as you practised previously and repeat the backslide.

Repeat, repeat, repeat – now you are moonwalking!

*** INSTRUCTIONS FINISHED ****

If you're anything like my trainees, the challenge will be maintaining your total coordination while you try to slide your front foot backwards – while keeping it flat on the floor – till it is behind your other foot. The first time you try this, you are confronted by a movement that your system has not encountered before. 

It requires quite a lot of effort. 

Or it appears to when you use brute force instead of thinking.

You need to consider how your effort can be made efficiently.

And most people don't. They just don't. They don't for any one or more of three reasons:

1. They have no concept of 'total coordination' – aka Alexander's Discovery.
2. They have a concept, but their executive brain narrows to the specifics and forgets total coordination.
3. There is no knowledge of how to make the specific effort in the most efficient manner.

As I wrote previously about my singer: “How Singers Sing: Effort is Not Your Enemy”

Effort is not evil. 

However, an unconsidered effort is evil. It will damage your body, exhaust you, shorten your life span and disturb other people. Have you ever had to endure a performance of an actor who keeps shouting all the time? Or a musician who is straining?

In terms of list above for 1. – you need direct experience with a teacher of Alexander's Discovery, and BodyChance teachers are more thoroughly trained than any other teachers in the world. (Ask me how!)

In terms of 2. – you need to practice. This is what happens in class; it's why learning about Alexander's Discovery requires patience. The rewards match your effort. Little in, little out. Big in, big out. Simple.

In terms of 3. – Learning the specifics of any movement requires knowledge of functional anatomy. This is what BodyThinking Online offers.

You can do something about the last one today.

As my own Christmas offering, you get a package that consists of:

- BodyThinking Online, the full Online course that our Pro Trainees study over two years
- Three live online coaching sessions with me – in January, February and March.
- a bonus online recording of a "Super BodyThinking Workshop" with Greg Holdaway
- A video of my 1-Day BodyThinking workshop in Tokyo (included with Greg’s Program)
- 5 Pre-recorded coaching sessions on BodyThinking issues in teaching and personal use.

Together these would cost you more than four times the price I am charging today.

BodyThinking Online is a comprehensive program that gives you an overall of our human design – how our bones, muscles, joints and movement work together with our brain to accomplish any kind of movement. All of it is informed by Alexander's Discovery – which makes it unique, and unavailable anywhere else.

It won't be a pushover at all. 

Which is why I include the live coaching, the past pre-recorded coaching, a workshop showing how I present the material to beginners, and Greg teaching the material in BodyChance’s training school

You can read more about it here, and find the link to order your access to BodyChance Online:

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