Would You Invite Your Dog to Alexander?

Alexander teachers can work with animals.

Years ago, I began to think like this:

“If Alexander really did discover a fundamental movement principle, then it must be an evolutionary process stretching back a long time. Therefore, my Alexander touch should influence non-human recipients.”

Nothing like experimenting to test the veracity of an idea.

So starting in 1989, whenever the opportunity arose, I set about using my hands on other creatures. The first opportunity with horses was in Texas at a workshop organised by Alice Pryor. It was on a farm where a group of Feldenkrais educators were working with horse riders. I asked if I could use my hands on one of their horses…

After a few minutes of touching, the owner of the horse I was working with suddenly blurted out:

“How the bloody hell did you do that!???”

I looked up surprised and asked him what he meant. He replied:

“It can take me an hour to get my horse looking like that - you did it in 5 minutes. HOW?”

(“Welcome to the world of Alexander”, I thought. What should I have said to that owner? “Oh, I am demonstrating a profound discovery about vertebral movement, but it will cost around $40,000 and take about 7 years for you to have this ability with your horse.”)

No.

Instead, I just said:

“I am using my hands as every Alexander teacher is taught to do.”

***

If this topic interests you, here are a few links to read more about it…

HORSES
The Texas story in more depth: https://atsuccess.com/blog/2022/03/alexander-touch-horses.html

DOGS
Video on lessons with Lily: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VlggOXi1woQ
A blog about Lily: https://atsuccess.com/blog/2022/08/how-work-animals.html
Lessons with Mason: https://atsuccess.com/blog/2022/03/lessons-mason.html

***

Tomorrow, we go back to the battling duo of PSS & VMS (Posture & Movement), as they both claim the right to recruit the muscle fibres they consider best for your movement purpose.

As the Neuroscientist Emeritus Professor Tristin Roberts* was once reputed to have remarked after his Alexander lessons with Walter Carrington in the 1970s:

“I have clearly experienced a postural mechanism at work within me, yet there is not a word written about it in any scientific literature.”

We’ve come a long way since then, but there is still little consensus. However, we do have over a century of individual “Alexander” experiences which empirically uphold the existence of this remarkable postural phenomenon.

*I corresponded with Professor Tristan D. M. Roberts when he wrote the DIRECTION Journal I founded and published for 20 years. His article “Balance & Gravity” appears in Vol 2 No 1 “Equitation” issue. Roberts also published two important books which are no longer in print. In 1967, Butterworths published his “The Neurophysiology of Postural Mechanisms”, and he followed that up in 1995 with Chapman and Hall’s publication of “Understanding Balance: the Mechanics of Posture and Locomotion”. This book is available online here: https://www.google.com.au/books/edition/_/o8RvD3X8ur8C?hl=en&gbpv=1

Roberts took many Alexander lessons and 1984 presented a workshop for Alexander teachers in Glasglow entitled: “Basic Mechanics in Posture”. David Gorman’s website features an extract from his first book at this link: https://www.learningmethods.com/downloads/pdf/roberts--head.carriage.and.semicircular.canals.pdf