What Makes a Great Alexscovery Teacher - Part II (Or how to get a big, fat smile on your face)

It all started with getting in and out of chairs. 

That was FM’s inspiration. To that, he added a few more things - like whispered AH and hands-on-back-of-chair, going up on your toes, leaning back in the chair, wall work and some others*. There was the occasional golfer and stutterer, but not too much of that.

YET.

Then Marjorie Barstow came along:

“I think people learn better when they study what they are interested in.” 

And suddenly, there was a lot…

Archery, swimming, being pregnant, wind & string instruments, babies, eye strain, text neck, piano, school children, actors, karate, opera singers, tea ceremony, football, reading, tables, depression, fear of elevators, procrastination, existential crises, talking to mum on the phone - as students realise anything goes - the list grows exponentially!

At least, this has been my experience over 23 years of training teachers at BodyChance, based on Marj’s “follow their interest” pedagogy.**

And so I began to learn a little about a lot of things. This is a different game from knowing a lot about a little, as I wrote about in Part I of this series:

https://atsuccess.com/blog/2022/09/what-makes-great-alexscovery-teacher-part-i.html

***

One way I proposed that a freshly-trained Alescovery teacher could overcome this staggering array of problems was to lean into an alternative skill set they had.

So an actor might niche into applying Alexander's discovery to presentation skills or dating.† A flautist could niche into wind instruments, a salaryworker into office ergonomics. With this approach, your previous knowledge allows you to expertly analyse the problems you can solve - making it easier to attract students by explaining more specific benefits.

At the back of this approach, we still have the phenomenon of PSS (Posture Support System) and VMS (Voluntary Movement System), which I illustrated in my last Daily here:

https://atsuccess.com/blog/2022/10/lesson-bodychance-japan.html

The PMS - or coordinating movement - is the little thing we know a lot about.

The VMS - or activity movement - is the lot that you need to know a little about. 

Therefore, when you niche to your activity movement - e.g. playing a wind instrument - you already have a reservoir of analytical skills at your disposal. Add to that your understanding of the Postural Support System from your Alexander studies: and you are an instant Master in your niche. You can produce miraculous results in a wide variety of problems, almost like magic. 

The students follow, the cash register rings and there’s a big, fat smile on your face.

Niching is like turning “ChairWork” into “ThisWork” - some of our profession’s most successful teachers have followed this path. The Art of Swimming. EyeBody. Learning Methods. Total Vocal Freedom. The Art of Running. Neurodynamics. Embodied Learning Systems. 

But what about the rest of us (me included) who don’t have a speciality? 

The skill to analyse any kind of activity movement needs experience - training schools could do a lot more to equip trainees with some basic analytical skills to assist in understanding a wide variety of skilled actions.

And maybe you want to be generic?

It’s a challenging path.

I’ll get into it next.

Stay tuned.

*Thanks to Penelope Easten for compiling a definitive list of Alexander’s teaching procedures.

**In 2013 I put together a list of 7 things Marj did differently from the way I was trained to teach in London over 1976~1980. You can read that here:

https://www.alexandertechnique.co.jp/7-ways-marj-s-teaching-is-different

†I know of no Alexscovery teacher who has niched into dating, but it’s a vast and richly rewarding niche! There are ‘body language’ experts who flirt in this scene, but there’s a case for ethically clean, authentic, and joyful coaching in this area for lonely people. Any takers? I’ll give you a coaching session just for the fun of it.