STATnews May 2021 - with 1 June amendment

news The Newsletter from the Society of Teachers of the Alexander Technique

May 2021 • Vol 11 Issue 2 • alexandertechnique.co.uk

Adapting to circumstances

Teaching continues at the Alexander Teacher Training School, in North London, run by Anthony Kingsley (photo credit: Ruth Hommelsheim)

12th International Alexander Technique Congress 22 - 28 August 2022 Technische Universität Berlin | Germany

Let‘s get back together* in beautiful Berlin, Germany A BIG THANK YOU TO OUR TEAM, THE ATCA BOARD AND ALL THE TEACHERS WORKING WITH US THROUGH THESE SPECIAL TIMES – YOU'RE THE STARS OF THIS CONGRESS. We are committed to bringing an unforgettable week to the AT community. Stay safe and well.

Rossella & Andreas // www.now2022.de *We are keeping a close eye on the pandemic as it continues to unfold, of course. But we are optimistic that we all will be able to get together again next year, after being physically and socially distanced for such a long time.

CONTENTS May 2021 • Vol 11 Issue 2

STAT UPDATE & NEWS

CPD & EVENTS

FEATURES

3 From the Editor 4 From the Chair 5 From the Office 6 SRG Report 8 Alexander in Education SIG Update

9 Report on the AT Diversity

Coalition (ATDC) 11 AT Congress is coming in

summer 2022 12 STAT’s ‘teaching online’ workshares:

14

18

Walking: Its dependence on how we stand Alexander Technique and its elocutionary inheritance: A view of how we got to here

REGULARS 8 Local Contacts 23 Letters 25 Books 29 Obituaries Editor Jamie McDowell Production Editor Paul Marsh

Jamie McDowell, Editor of Statnews

FROM THE EDITOR

The Society of Teachers of the Alexander Technique (STAT) PO Box 75989 London E11 9GZ Email info@stat.org.uk Telephone 020-8885 6524 Fax 020-8808 2135 There are national Affiliated Societies in: • Australia (AUSTAT) • Austria (GATOE) • Belgium (AEFMAT) • Brazil (ABTA) • Canada (CANSTAT) • Denmark (DFLAT) • Finland (FINSTAT) • France (APTA) • Germany (ATVD) • Israel (ISTAT) • Netherlands (NeVLAT) • New Zealand (ATTSNZ) • Norway (NFLAT) • South Africa (SASTAT) • Spain (APTAE) • Switzerland (SVLAT) and • United States of America (AmSAT)

A

glance at the cover of this edition of STATnews confirms what you already know: We’re living through unusual times. Our community is doing its best to soldier on, and this recent image from the North London AT school offers a snapshot of that effort.

Whatever the wisdom of masks and many of the other mandates – and few subjects in recent memory seem as likely to cause argument or division, certainly within the realm of health – we can only do our best to balance our own wisdom and judgement with what the law and official guidelines currently require.

When it comes to the matter of meeting a stimulus that might normally put us wrong, and learning to deal with it, to paraphrase a well-known coinage, we can see many members coming together in a promising collective effort to develop online teaching to the fullest extent possible, and Esther Miltiadous and Jane Morris have written about STAT’s new teaching-online workshares on p12.

With the situation we’re in, it might be another instance of “everyone has their own way of doing it” (i.e., finding ways to teach within the current restrictions), so it’s helpful if we can all share anything we might be managing to learn from the experience.

Such is the ethos in evidence with the everyday activity of walking, if Ian Lyons article on p14 is anything to go by, and his piece adds to a growing edifice of interesting explications of that activity, bringing his own experience with the technique to the effort to better understand what’s going on, and offering thoughts that might help our students to do so as well.

Sadly several teachers have died in the past few months. Ruth Murray and Jean Clark were both significant figures in their respective worlds, and this edition contains a number of tributes.

Belinda May, Chair

FROM THE CHAIR Spring blooms

I

am sitting here writing to you my last letter as Chair. It is March 29th, the first day of a gradual opening up of society after a year of lockdowns due to the corona virus. I hope and pray that we are emerging onto the new road that heralds the end of the pandemic.

As we slowly emerge from this latest pandemic lockdown, like the unfurling of blossoms of spring, I hope your teaching practices can once more bloom and flourish. To achieve this, I hope we can communicate and cooperate with each other by sharing ideas, skills and resources that will help publicise our work.

We could make it our mission to get the Alexander Technique as well known as Pilates or mindfulness. But that will take each and every teacher to do their bit.

I believe now is, potentially, an exciting time for the Alexander Technique. There is a lot of talk in the media about whole person health care. They write about the importance of the mind/body connection – psychophysical unity. We know how your thinking affects your functioning and the value of inhibition and direction. Many people, sadly, are suffering and the knowledge and practice of Alexander Technique skills could really help them in improving their general functioning.

I hope we can We are in a position to help.

We were hoping that this summer we could have an in communicate and person AGM, as it would have been so lovely to see fellow cooperate with each teachers again. However, after reviewing the situation we decided to hold the AGM online, which will now take place on other by sharing the 9th October 2021. You will receive information from the ideas, skills and Office in due course.

And finally as I’ve said before, and I’ll say again, the office resources that will and your council works extremely hard for STAT and you, it’s help publicise our members, especially over this last year.

Together with all the others who give so much of their time, work. and work, to STAT and the Alexander Technique, I thank them all.

STAT Council Chair Belinda May Secretary David Harrowes Treasurer Mike Cribb Ordinary Council Members Antonella Cavallone, Roger Kidd, Esther Miltiadous, Andy Moorhouse, Rhiannon Jones and Jane Morris.

Lay members Joe Abbott-Gribben STAT Office Staff General Manager Ilia Daoussi ilia@stat.org.uk

“

Contribute to STATnews STATnews needs your contributions.

Whether it be a review of a book you’ve read or a workshop you’ve recently attended, or a feature article about an aspect of the AT, please send it to us at the email address below.

Here are a few points to note regarding submissions and content: • Items are accepted for publication on the understanding that they may be shortened. We will contact you if we wish to request extensive edits.

• Please state if your piece has been

pubished somewhere else already.

• Copyright belongs to the authors and articles may not be reproduced without permission.

• Please include photography or suitable images to accompany your article, if possible.

• The views expressed in STATnews are those of the individual authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the editor or the society.

• If you are reviewing an event or a book, it is most appreciated if you can share some of the details of what

you learned. This makes for a more interesting and rewarding reading experience • Every effort is made to avoid inaccuracies but if you believe you have spotted one, please contact us (email address below).

• If you have an event, publication or product which you wish to advertise in STATNews, please contact us..

The September issue deadline is 1st August. Please send submissions to statnews@stat.org.uk

STAT Update & News Ilia Daoussi, General Manager

FROM THE OFFICE What’s happening with us?

T

his year, 2021, started with some big changes for the STAT Office, one of the most notable being Luke Chatterton’s departure. He has been a great colleague and friend, loyal and hardworking, and is already being missed. We all wish him best of luck for the future.

For a short period of time Rachael Head joined our team and has helped with this transitional time for STAT. She too is moving on to things that are close to her heart so we would like to wish her too good luck pursuing new endeavours.

New processes The pandemic and the lockdown, as you know, led STAT to make the decision of closing the office in Tottenham and creating a virtual office with all of us involved working from home. This meant that certain processes had to be reviewed and adapted accordingly.

1. Our address is now a PO box. I visit it to collect our post regularly.

2. Council and other office related meetings are now solely taking place online. Although we all crave some connection and getting back together at some point, we have recognised the flexibility but also cost-effectiveness online meetings offer and even when restrictions ease down, online meetings are here to stay.

3. Processing of orders of books or headrests, etc, require between 2 to 3 weeks to be completed as all merchandise now is in a storage facility.

Working from home Apart from the changes above, one which has certainly been the hardest is working from home. If you had to go to an office before the lockdown, I’m sure you know what I am talking about.

Although the commute is no longer there, which also means that you may be able to snooze half an hour longer in the morning, I bet you miss the opportunity for a chat with a colleague or a mutual coffee or lunch break. I have personally found that keeping a zoom connection open is a bit of a consolation.

Communicating with the Office We have received a number of complaints from members saying they have found it hard to get hold of us.

We are really sorry this has been your experience. We are now using a VOiP system for our calls and answerphone messages and we have notified the service providers that it has not been as reliable as we expected, as some answerphone messages do not actually reach us. We are trying to improve the service but for the time being if you have urgent requests, please also email us at info@stat.org.uk.

Changing systems Part of the changes we are implementing have to do with the other technical systems currently used.

At the time of writing we are in the process of getting transitioning onto Google Workspace which will make our internal communications and project management more efficient. This will mean that we will also be changing our email url, which will notify you in due course about.

Please note that the following emails are no longer in use: • office@stat.org.uk • luke@stat.org.uk Subscription renewals for UK members only by Direct Debit Please note that from January 2022 all UK membership payments will only be processed via direct debit. We would like to thank all of you who have already sent us your mandate forms. If you have yet to send yours, please contact us at info@stat.org.uk to request a form.

AGM 2021 – New date Council has decided to organise an online AGM for this year. In order for us to be able to organise it in the best way possible, it was decided to change the date of the AGM from the 17th July to Saturday the 9th of October. Relevant information will follow in due course.”

Image credit; LinkedIn Sales Solutions

Member’s Update

The AGM 2021 will take place online, via Zoom, on 9 October.

More details to follow.

5

STAT Update & News

The STAT Research Group

SRG REPORT

Potential for Alexander teaching in care homes The Covid pandemic has brought into stark relief underlying vulnerabilities and inequalities in social welfare in the UK. Nowhere is this more apparent than in the social care sector, which, unlike the NHS, is not free at point of use. An article was published about the Alexander Technique (AT) in the March/April 2021 issue of the Journal of Dementia Care, a UK-based journal read primarily by people employed in the elderly and dementia care sector.

The article is based on a small research study conducted by SRG member, Charlotte Woods in her mother’s care home in 2018. The study illustrates the types of changes observed in both carers and residents after Alexander lessons, and sets out ways in which the AT is a particularly promising intervention for both groups. Assuming restrictions on access to care homes continue to ease over the coming months, we can be confident that the STAT community has much to offer the sector. A longer article about the study will be submitted for the next issue of STAT news. The Journal of Dementia Care article lies behind a paywall but can be viewed via the Research section of the STAT website (see Research publications / Older People, or General).

Alexander Studies Online reaches out STAT Research Group’s initiative, Alexander Studies Online (ASO) has been busy over the last few months, collaborating with international Alexander teachers and researchers to explore a diverse range of interesting topics relevant to both AT research and everyday teaching.

Over December 2020/January 2021, ASO released a series of 11 videos with the theme of the AT and dementia.

Researchers Charlotte Woods and Lesley Glover of the STAT Research Group, and Emma Wolverson, a clinical psychologist from the University of Hull who specialises in dementia care took 6

STAT Research Group: (Top row, left to right) Lesley Glover, Julia Woodman, Kathleen Ballard, and (bottom row) Erica Donnison, Mark Vasak and Charlotte Woods

part in the conversation. The videos were very well received and reached an international audience that included people in the UK, US, Japan, Sweden, Canada and Australia. The series has now been released to the public in its entirety and can be viewed on the ASO website.

In February’s ASO blog post, Vancouver-based AT teacher, Gabrielle Minnes Brandes and Charlotte Woods set out to explain and illustrate different types of personal research that Alexander teachers engage in.

March’s blog post features Glenna Batson’s exploration of working with people living with Parkinson’s. From Glenna’s initial trepidation to how she found her way, the article explores her top insights for teachers, based on her own teaching experience, research background, and from working with others across a range of neurological challenges.

ASO continues to build up a community of people involved in AT research across a wide range of relevant disciplines. The ASO community includes researchers and academics; Alexander teachers, trainees and students; and anyone interested in learning more about, or contributing to, AT research. With the leadership of

the SRG, ASO is developing projects to encourage the exchange of ideas, resources, knowledge and experience that enable greater understanding of the AT. Visit the ASO website (alexanderstudiesonline.com) to join and support our efforts, or to read the blog posts or view the interview series described here.

New review into psychological outcomes of practising the AT The FM Alexander Trust and the SRG have jointly provided funding to enable a review into psychological and nonphysical outcomes of learning and applying the AT. This work has now been completed and a paper has been submitted to the European Journal of Integrative Medicine. We will give a full report if and when the review is accepted for publication.

Go-to resource for all that is AT research We have recently updated the SRG Research Resource. This is a compendium detailing all available Alexander-related research across different areas: Health, Performance, How the AT works, Qualitative research, and Teaching & learning.

continued overleaf»

STAT Update & News

«continued from previous page

The Research Resource also includes complete slide sets that can be downloaded by STAT members for use when giving talks (ATEAM, ATLAS and Fear of falling studies). Users are pointed in the right direction to find further information, and there is also a brief introduction to the SRG. The Research Resource is available to STAT members from the Teachers’ Resources section of the STAT website (go to: Member Portal / Professional / Teachers’ resources), and can be downloaded as Powerpoint slides or as a PDF. An education for life: The process of learning the Alexander Technique Describing the AT for the wider world can be challenging; a recent publication

by SRG members attempts just this.

The article was written for a special issue in the journal Kinesiology Review at the request of the Editor. It begins with an overview of the AT: its aims, the evidence for effectiveness, and historical background before describing and explaining the initial process of learning the AT. The challenge of capturing in words the direct experience of learning the AT, is addressed through an extended illustration of early lessons

and the types of change that can occur.

The text describes how the teacher guides the student to an awareness of habitual responses to stimuli in their environment that they were not previously conscious of. In turn this awareness can, for example, help the student reduce muscular tightening in anticipation of pain when moving, change habits that hamper breathing, or reduce over-reaction to perceived threats in the social or physical world.

The quieter, less reactive state that this learning process ultimately brings about can offer far-reaching benefits.

These go well beyond ease of movement and allow for positive changes in other aspects of individual functioning: physical, emotional, cognitive and social. The article concludes with learner perspectives on their learning experience drawn from qualitative research studies.

The publication is not open access but you can read the final accepted version on the University of Hull’s, hullrepository.worktribe.com site (or, direct link: https://bit.ly/3vLYOVb).

Reference: Charlotte Woods, Lesley Glover, Julia Woodman. An education for life: The process of learning the Alexander Technique. Kinesiology Review 2020;9:190–198.

Other new publications The Education for Life paper complements an article published

by Tim Cacciatore, Rajal Cohen and Patrick Johnson in the same journal issue. Their article summarises how the latest research from a range of disciplines is revealing evidence of the types of changes that the AT brings about, and contributing to scientific explanations of the AT’s benefits.

The publication is not open-access but you can read a lay summary on the Alexander Technique Science website (or, direct link: https://bit. ly/3d2KEGD).

Reference: Tim Cacciatore, Patrick Johnson and Rajal Cohen. Potential Mechanisms of the Alexander Technique: Toward a Comprehensive Neurophysiological Model. Kinesiology Review 2020;9:199–213.

If you become aware of any new research involving the AT, or are interested in our work please do let us know (email alexander@juliawoodman.co.uk). The STAT Research Group is: Lesley Glover, Kathleen Ballard, Erica Donnison, Charlotte Woods, Mark Vasak and Julia Woodman (Chair).

To advertise in STATnews, contact statnews@stat.org.uk

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STAT Update & News

Alexander in Education SIG update

(Photo credit: Edwin Andrade on Unsplash)

S

ince October this group has met regularly every two months online, with substantial numbers of teachers coming and enjoying fruitful in-depth discussion as well as some practical activities generously shared by participants. The themes discussed have been varied and included: Screens, Technology and their relation to Mental Health (our own and pupils); Connection to the Environment/Planet; Diversity & Inclusion; Adapting to Change. Having time to discuss in small groups and then feed back into the larger group has worked well and given everyone a voice.

In the pipeline are some video blogs for Alexander Studies Online on one or more of these themes.

If you are interested in how our work relates to young people, even if you don’t work in this area, please do join us! To join the mailing-list just send me an e-mail: polly. waterfield@ntlworld.com.

Polly Waterfield, Victoria Cresswell, Catherine Fleming

Local Contacts Bristol

Claire Coveney

claire@bristolat.co.uk

0117 987 0789

Cumbria/Lancaster

Erica Donnison

erica.donnison@mac.com

07771 602665

East Anglia

Polly Waterfield

polly.waterfield@ntlworld.com

01223 529763

miriamwohl@hotmail.com

0116 240 4243

East Midlands Edinburgh

Miriam Wohl

alexander@julia-woodman.co.uk

07932 967344

Fife

Julia Woodman George Coltart

george_coltart@hotmail.co.uk

01382 889116

Herts South West

Jan Moffat

supplepoll@yahoo.co.uk

07778 778 007

London Bloomsbury

Natacha Osorio

nataosorio21@icloud.com

07884 015 954

London North

Hidemi Hatada

motet1542@hotmail.co.uk

0790 5301645

London SW/Surrey

Ken Peacock

alexanderteacher@peacock-practice.co.uk

020 8393 1477

London West

Liz Dodgson

elizabeth@ATteacher.co.uk

020 8994 9527

North West

Bryan Stephens

mokshajyoti@gmail.com

0161 833 2528

Somerset

Gail Clarke

2attinfo@gmail.com

01460 242549

Sussex

Korina Biggs

appointments@korinabiggs.co.uk

01273 420259

West Midlands

Clare Dannatt

clare.dannatt@yahoo.co.uk

01384 824864

Yorkshire

Bridget Barr

attbridgetbarr@gmail.com

07957 981240

Ireland Spain

Richard Brennan Don Kirkley

info@alexander.ie

+353 91 555800

donkirkley@gmail.com

+34 981 588986

Local Contacts work on an entirely voluntary basis. They act as a point of contact within their local group and will forward any emails from STAT. They have also agreed to act as a contact for teachers living alone who may be in need of short-term practical assistance (i.e. in the case of injury). The role of the local contact would be to send out the request for help and not necessarily to get personally involved. STAT operates a failsafe system whereby a Local Contact can claim up to £50 if an event organised by and for members does not manage to cover its costs. Any claim must be submitted to the office with supporting receipts and must be made by a Local Contact listed in the Statnews current at the time of the claim.

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CPD & Events

Report on the International Alexander Technique Diversity Coalition (ATDC)

By Korina Biggs

F

or the past couple of months I have been attending weekly online meetings with the ATDC and wanted to find out more about how it came about and to describe a bit about what happens in the meetings. The following is a summary of my interview with two USA-based members of the voluntary organising team, Belinda Mello and Kristin Mozeiko, and my own experience of the coalition.

Beginnings Belinda has explained “that for a substantial amount of time people had been bothered by the limit to what we look like as a community.” As she puts it: “We tend to be very white, very college educated, middle-class and a lot of women”. For Kristin, she said this did not represent the community in which she lived or the students she taught and “something felt off”. In 2016 Belinda found out that Allyna Steinberg was organising the first Diversity Coalition that included teachers of colour, based on a format Allyna had learnt in

“

[The group’s] strongest desire was to operate through the principles of ‘diversity, equity, inclusion, social justice and belonging’...

her work in public health. Allyna’s office had been run by Mary Bassett who was committed to training people to be deeply, consciously and constantly aware and to creating an environment of belonging. From then on, presentations on diversity were given both at the USA Affiliated Society (AmSAT) and Alexander Technique International (ATI) AGMs. Conversations ensued over how to deal with Alexander’s writings and how to develop as a community. The Coalition continued to grow and they gave a presentation of their work at the 2018 Congress. Building on this, diversity became a main theme at the 2019 AmSAT AGM. Development of the regular meetings Since the impact of the pandemic, meetings became frequent as people sought community and a place to express themselves and possibly bring about change. The group expanded and it soon became clear that they needed a different type of facilitation structure. In the Autumn of 2020 they decided to take a pause and focus on their vision and mission. Their strongest desire was that it operate through the principles of “diversity, equity, inclusion (DEI), social justice and belonging”. Rather than a hierarchical structure, it sought to be more of a collective. Belinda felt that a format in which senior teachers participated equally with trainees was a strength and made the group more appealing, as did the fact that it is open to all teachers, trainees, students and fans of the AT (regardless of where they trained). Such a structure can be a way of overcoming the hierarchical and discriminatory behaviour that can be present in the AT community at large. In fact the community is felt to be richer from having input from the members of the different AT organisations, AmSAT, ATI, and the Alexander Alliance. As she described, the different ways of facilitating meetings in the various organisations have been shared; for example, formal-consensus, council, and affinity-group styles. Working with a Restorative Justice worker they 9

CPD & Events

«continued from previous page

created a new kind of meeting structure.

The structure Currently meetings are scheduled so that they alternate each week between skill building and action groups. Time is managed so that there is space for all to reflect, speak, listen and feel, with smaller break-out rooms to encourage these activities. In a spirit of equality and inclusivity, the roles of - for example - facilitator or doorkeeper are rotated each week. My experience so far has been akin to having a good Alexander session in that it feels like a safely held and supportive space in which to learn; and one in which habits of thought can be brought into awareness, and possibly let go of.

Skill building Kristin tells me that they actively encourage everyone to feel able to come forth and have the chance to present on a theme to stimulate discussion. Since I have attended the themes have included ‘The Five Fallacies of Racism’, ‘Stereotype Threat’, and ‘Primitivism’ - an aesthetic idealisation of the typically non-western, non-urban ‘primitive’. It gave me insight into why I have often felt uncomfortable with the frequent use of images pertaining to the “natural good use” of non-western peoples in books about the Alexander Technique. The themes also aim to be responsive to news topics. For example, a recent topic was ‘Implicit biases towards Asian Americans’.

“

Towards the end of last year we trialled ‘teaching online’ workshares, as part of the options for members CPD and benefits for UK teaching members...

• For more details see the article on p12 10

Action groups Belinda has explained that the formation of action groups reflects the needs arising. The current list of groups is as follows: 1) Teaching through the lens of DEI 2) AT Language and Literature 3) International Congress 4) Reading Group 5) Teacher Training 6) Affinity group for BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, and People of Colour) 7) Outreach Minutes are taken of each group’s discussion so there is a record we can look back and reflect on.

I have mostly been in groups 1) & 2). In terms of teaching it has been about digging more deeply into considering the teaching relationship - how hierarchical it is, the degree to which it is empowering and enabling, or in fact disempowering for the pupil. We may know we can bring about change with our hands, but when is it useful to know not to use our hands but to engage with the learner in a different way? When does it help to relate the learner’s experience to our own and when to endeavour to drop any assumptions?

In terms of AT language there have been interesting discussions focusing on when we could be reinforcing a hierarchical relationship. For example, making the pupil ‘wrong’ by using terms like ‘faulty’ or ‘poor’ use. Maybe using AT jargon is a code that can act as a barrier to learning.

In terms of literature the focus has been on to what extent can we extricate ourselves from the racist and eugenicist elements of Alexander’s writings? What might be the impact of these writings on potential pupils or trainees of colour? We live in a world now where the particularly offensive passages are just a click away, on the internet.

Diversity spotlight Roughly once a month, as inspiration and a way of showing what is possible in terms of sharing our practice, the spotlight is given to a teacher/trainee or student who has incorporated DEI, social justice and belonging into their work. Kristin gives the example of an Asian American teacher who has taken the AT and Tai Chi into prisons and working with homeless people. Up and coming presenters include Harriotte Hurie Ranvig sharing experience on ‘The blind experience and the AT’.

Belinda concluded the interview by saying “the opportunity at this ATDC is to be with a group of people where no-one is going to tell you that you’re right or wrong, but you’re going to have a chance to discover things about what you could let go of and to challenge yourself and to make mistakes in a very safe place.”

If you’d like to attend the meetings then you can join the Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/ATDiversity/ or email diversity.at@gmail.com

CPD & Events

AT Congress is coming in summer 2022

From the organisers Rossella Buono and Andreas Dirscherl

W

e sincerely hope you are managing in these difficult times. The Congress is a little more than a year away now, and while nobody can know for certain, we are optimistic that we will all be able to get together again next year, after being physically and socially distanced for such a long time.

We are hard at work to make sure that every Congress participant will feel safe, valued and supported in getting the most out of their time in Berlin. We aim to create a great environment for learning, practising skills, and sharing the work we all love.

Professor David Anderson confirmed as keynote speaker First off, we are very pleased to announce a new keynote speaker: Professor David Anderson.

David Anderson is the director of the Marian Wright Edelman Institute for the Study of Children, Youth, and Families at San Francisco State University. Professor Anderson’s expertise is in skill acquisition and the Professor David Anderson relationship between motor activity and psychological functioning.

He will introduce several phenomena that are currently being studied in movement science and sport psychology and which might have a bearing on our understanding of mechanisms underpinning the Alexander Technique.

These include such things as the einstellung effect, the kohnstamm phenomenon, ironic effects, the Quiet Eye and the Grenier Technique. We’ll have fun exploring how some of these phenomena might inform our understanding of the AT and might serve as profitable directions for further research

Rossella and Andreas

and understanding. Professor Anderson will also briefly introduce us to a couple of the specific studies he has done on the AT. We are also extremely excited to welcome Jeremy Chance, Rosa Luisa Rossi and Peter Grunwald into the fold of the Congress. More on their offerings coming soon in our next newsletter and on our website.

Speaking of which…

News from behind the scenes – website and workshops The website for the Congress is currently being completely re-designed, and we are creating new content for it every day. It will re-launch in summer, with all the pages and information you’d expect but also several new and exciting features.

Most exciting for us is that presenters of workshops and activities will be able to log in and directly submit their info to our page. For example, by uploading pictures and text themselves they can be sure that the published information best reflects and explains the workshop session(s) they will be offering. No extraneous forms or cumbersome procedures to go through, and fewer potential errors.

Finally, while keeping a close eye on the pandemic as it continues to unfold, of course, and in order to ensure timely organisation, we are planning on opening workshop submissions (and Congress registration too!) in September/ October 2021. For us, this is one of the most interesting and exciting elements of the Congress, showcasing what teachers are up to out there in the world. We can’t wait to see what you propose. And if you’re ‘on the fence’ we encourage you to come forward. Don’t hesitate to contact us!

As you know, we are facing a completely new and unpredicted set of circumstances. But we are committed to living by the adaptive principles of the Alexander Technique and bringing an unforgettable week to the AT community.

Stay safe and well.

Rossella and Andreas 11

CPD & Events

STAT’s ‘teaching online’ workshares: Nurturing community and sharing ideas Esther Miltiadous and Jane Morris write about one of the benefits of being a STAT member

O

ur community has been living through difficult times, facing challenges to the way we have traditionally taught, and been physically unable to meet up to workshare as usual. Some of us have been exploring different ways of supporting our clients during this time, including via remote teaching. These are new ways of working for many of us and we received feedback that members would welcome an opportunity to get together to share and learn from each other. Thus, towards the end of last year as part of the STAT Business Project, we trialled ‘teaching-online workshares’ as part of the options for members CPD and benefits for UK teaching members).

STAT Business Project aims to support teaching members to promote the benefits of the Alexander Technique and grow their businesses. We have been seeking to understand what business related support members would like so we can develop new membership benefits as part of this project. We started talking with members at the beginning of 2020, but as the Pandemic hit everything changed, as did the feedback we received. We realised there was a more immediate need to keep our community connected, combat the physical isolation imposed by COVID and find ways to support teachers to explore new ways of working.

This virtual workshare space offers members the opportunity to share ideas, activities or games and ask questions of others who are working remotely. One advantage of this new virtual space is that it provides us with the possibility of community and mutual support no matter where we live in the UK. A regular CPD offering that can be accessed in these challenging times.

When designing these ‘teaching online’ workshares, we understood there was and still are a range of views about this form of teaching; however, our aim was to create a safe space for members to share their experiences and be part of a supportive, nurturing community, rather than a place to

Jane and Esther, on Zoom

debate this way of working. We also wanted these workshares to be community collaboration, where we (Jane and I) as facilitators, helped co-create the workshares we all want to be part of. Therefore, after every workshare we ask for feedback and suggestions. In response to this different styles of workshare have evolved. As we come out of lockdown we are sure this will continue to evolve as we plan to continue to offer a virtual workshare as part of the STAT UK teaching membership benefits.

Why did members want to attend?

“I believe in cooperation and we have a lot to learn from each other. Your project provides us a platform to share ideas in a supportive non hierarchical atmosphere.”

Ilana Machover Meeting the needs of members We have something for everyone! There are three styles of workshare. One where we have 2 session leaders with time to try out the activity in smaller groups, one with one session leader that allows a little more time to focus on one activity or idea, and a final format that has a more traditional workshare feel. The ‘Say Hi and Give it a Try!’ workshare where participants bring an activity to explore in small break out rooms.

To date we have been lucky enough to have teachers volunteer offering sessions on a wide variety of themes including: • Ideas for supporting and connecting with your pupils online via video and lessons • The use of hands and everyday items to improve body awareness on-line • Adapting to teach on-line - teaching new clients and ideas for using digital materials • Helping students experience kinesthetically the AO joint and rest of the torso through spirally movement • Helping clients find quiet and connect to the bodies at the beginning on an online lesson

A wordcloud from the workshare

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We are grateful to our volunteers, and are always looking for more teachers who want to share their ideas so do get in touch if you’d like to lead a session.

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After coming to one of the workshares Kay Cady said “‘I have been inspired to create 2 minute videos. The first step has involved buying a webcam, which has really improved my zoom teaching as there is a wider lens and more clarity and clearer audio. It has made the thought of videoing less daunting. Gradually, I will practice by sending them out to clients so that they can review what they’re learning between lessons. Then who knows where inspiration will take me!”

Creating supportive workshare spaces We purposely keep the spaces limited to a maximum of 20 participants. By keeping the numbers low we hope to create a friendly atmosphere where all participants have the time and opportunity to contribute, ask questions and be heard. It also means that we can see each other clearly on a single screen, recognise friends and colleagues and get to know new people.

We have been delighted to see both familiar faces attending regularly and new faces on each occasion.

Looking to the future STAT are facilitating 2 workshares per month until the summer. After this time, we will be led by member feedback on workshare frequency. So keep your eyes peeled for our next email inviting you to book your workshare space.

We have been delighted by the amount of interest in the workshares and regularly have waiting lists. Although the workshares are a friendly informal space booking is essential so that the sessions can be planned and run efficiently based on the number of participants.

“I heartily recommend joining one of these workshares if you can. They are interesting, exploratory, open, un-judgmental ways to connect within our teaching community. To look at ways that we might be able to exchange more even when distance and circumstances are against getting together physically”.

Antonella Cavallone More member benefits on the horizon Now the workshares are established we want to turn our attention to developing more member benefits. We think it is timely to look at new ways to support members who want to build their businesses and attract more clients. This might include reviewing what we do to generate new clients or consider new ways we might develop more effective business skills. We will be holding a couple of open Zoom events in JUNE to share more about our thoughts for ‘Business Builder Groups’ and hear from members what they would find useful in terms of business support.

So, if you’re a UK teacher who’s interested in being part of a supportive group of teaching members sharing approaches to teaching on-line or you want to actively explore new approaches to building your business with other teaching members please get in touch for more information.

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Walking: Its dependence on how we stand Ian Lyon writes I frequently have people coming to me and saying, “Mr Alexander, I want you to teach me to walk.” A lady came to me one day and said, “My daughter walks badly, will you help me?” I said, “I can’t do it. It can’t be done. I can no more teach you to walk than I can teach you to breathe...”

F.M. Alexander1

W

alking is a strange business, particularly for a biped. Ordinarily you enjoy the security of standing on two feet, but when you walk you have to stand alternately on just one and then the other.

Meanwhile, at each step, the other leg - a significant mass - swings rapidly forward, from behind to in front of the standing leg. Thinking about it like this, you might suspect it all a little precarious; the control of balance tricky, and fairly critical. And I think you would be absolutely right.

Not that it seems this way to us as we walk. We don’t give it a second thought and for the most part it works just fine.

Occasionally, our attention might be drawn to something more complex going on under the bonnet; for example, when we step down off a pavement onto the road and land with a real thump because we’ve slightly misjudged the height of the kerb. What clever thing is it that we’re doing normally, when we judge things correctly, to avoid this sort of rather shocking bump?

If, like me, and like a lot of Alexander teachers I think (neurologists too), you are something of a voyeur of people walking, taking any opportunity to watch total strangers closely as they walk about, you will know that there’s an extraordinary range of strategies or of ‘repertoire’ on display.

All manner of leans, dips, bends and twists of the head, neck and trunk, together with a general tendency to oscillate from side to side in one manner or another, are reproduced faithfully at each step, and the interesting thing is that everyone has their own characteristic way of doing it, their own unique gait. In fact a number of computer systems are in development to identify people not from the unique features of their face but by the unique way in which they walk.

I think that “good” walking is not like this. Or, I should say, what Alexander teachers might ordinarily call “walking with good use”, but I think the term “use” circular and misleading, and therefore best avoided. It looks relatively featureless and direct, a simple forward motion of a largely immobile head, neck and trunk, the legs and arms swinging freely with each step. So what is all the variation (that we ordinarily see) about? What exactly is going on to produce the various eccentricities of different people’s characteristic gait? And is it a problem, or indicative of an underlying problem? If it is, how do you begin to tackle it? If not even Alexander himself could teach you, how can you learn to walk ‘well’?

Stepping to the side I’d like to start my answer to this daunting array of questions in what may seem a strange place - with the taking of a step to 14

the side, something I was first encouraged to think about and work at when training, with Brian Door, in the 1980s.

If you ask someone without any relevant previous experience to take a step to the side, perhaps in order to widen their stance width, they invariably start by moving their body weight over to the other side, to the other, non-stepping or ‘stance’ leg. This feels ‘natural’ and seems sensible because you don’t then lose balance when you lift the foot. But, typically, people are not really aware that they are making this preparatory weight shift. To them, stepping is simply something they do with one of their legs.

If you suggest to them that they try taking a sideways step without this preparatory weight shift, helping them with your hands and perhaps initially also standing to their side, to reassure or even catch them if needs be, they typically find it very difficult to do. The contact of your hands can help reveal to them that they are making the preparation, and help them to reduce it to a point, but they find it almost impossible not to do it to some extent. And, in this process, they tend also to introduce various strange bends, twists and stiffenings in their trunk and neck, as if engaged in some sort of struggle.

They often also cheat with a surreptitious ‘push-off’ with the toes of the stepping foot, sending their body over to the stance leg side at the last moment, just as their foot is coming off the floor.

I think there are a number of things going on here. First of all they’re worried - understandably enough - about falling, and so some of the contortions we see are probably attempts (futile, as we shall see) to arrest or slow the fall. But also, and less obviously, I think they’re having trouble flexing a leg that is ‘loaded’, loaded that is with half of their body weight. If your (only) way of supporting your body weight, of standing, is with excessively stiff legs then, in order to step with one of those legs, you have first to stop standing on it.

You have, that is, to unload it, and a preparatory weight shift over to the other leg achieves that nicely. When, courtesy of your Alexander teacher, that strategy becomes unavailable, or partially unavailable, the conflict inherent in trying to flex stiff joints becomes apparent, and contributes to the contortions in the trunk etc which we see.

There is also another part to this which is that, if you want to flex your hip joint to lift your knee and therefore take your foot off the floor, you need something solid to flex it on. Because stiff-legged standing is generally associated with a weak ... some of the or ‘wobbly’ lower back, contortions... the pelvis is not properly stabilised on the back are probably and would tend to tip attempts... to forward and down as the knee comes up. In order arrest or slow to stop this happening the fall...

I think people tighten their abdominals, and the

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anterior musculature of their trunk in general, and this too contributes to the distortions of the trunk and neck which we observe.

As the pupil’s general coordination, and with it the way they stand, improves, these problems slowly go away and eventually (it took me years) they are able to flex a free hip on a strong back/pelvis, confidently lifting their foot off the floor without any preparatory weight shift or distortion of the trunk and neck. They have then to put the foot back down again very quickly though, because without any preparatory weight shift you drop like a stone (albeit primarily sideways) as soon as your foot comes off the floor.

I think that working at stepping to the side without any preparation in this way is extremely useful for a number of reasons: partly as a barometer of how free your legs are when you’re standing, and partly as a truly fiendish challenge to your powers of inhibition. On the arrival of the ‘intention to act’ (lifting your foot) can you hold in abeyance every last vestige of your habitual response or preparation, even in the knowledge that doing this will lead to instability? It’s useful too in giving you experience of bringing a knee up (in order to step) without at the same time wanting to pull a rib-cage, shoulder and/or neck down to meet it. In other words to ‘stay up’ as you make the stepping movement. This requires that your back does its job of holding your trunk together meaning that the anterior, flexor musculature need be only minimally involved.

So it’s all undoubtedly excellent stuff but what exactly does it have to do with walking? Well, the stepping movement, the coordinated flexion of the joints of the leg, is essentially the same whether stepping sideways or forwards, and so the experience gained in ‘staying up’ as you bring the knee up is presumably transferable. But I think there’s much more to it than that. Because it turns out that in order to walk well you have at each step to do precisely the thing I’ve been discussing here: to flex a loaded leg and in so doing confidently allow yourself to fall (predominantly sideways).

And I think it’s people’s relative inability to do this that causes most of the problems we see with their walking. When they walk, that is, they’re engaged in essentially the same struggle - and produce essentially the same contortions - that we see revealed when we ask them to take a step to the side without any preparatory weight shift.

Centre of mass and base of support In order to see how this is so we need to be able to talk about body weight and balance in a slightly more objective and quantifiable manner. First of all we need the concept of ‘centre of mass’ - what used more often to be called ‘centre of gravity’. It’s defined as ‘the point at which all of the weight or mass of a body can be thought to act’. For a simple object like a block of butter it’s right in the middle of it. For a standing human it’s just above the pelvis in height and, if their weight is equally balanced between their feet, midway between them

(Figure 1A).

Another idea we’ll need is that of ‘base of support’. This is perhaps self-explanatory but it’s as well to be clear about where and what exactly it is in any given situation. So, for example, in normal standing, your base of support is the area bounded by your two feet (Figure 1B). If the ground were suddenly to fall away under one foot, or you lifted that foot off the ground, your base of support would immediately shrink

to the area of the other foot’s contact with the ground (Figure 1C).

It’s worth noticing in passing just how very small your base of support becomes when standing on one foot. We become, in shape, a bit like a tall slender candle balanced on its base - terribly easy to knock over. So, during every step of normal walking we render ourselves quite vulnerable really. It’s an inevitable consequence of bipedalism.

We can now look at the balance conditions during stepping to the side in terms of the centre of mass and base of support.

Doing it the usual way, with a preliminary weight shift, we initially see the centre of mass move from between the feet to be over the forthcoming stance foot (Figure 2A). Only then does the subject lift the other foot off the ground to take the step, resulting in their base of support shrinking to the area of the stance foot (Figure 2B). The important point is that at all times the centre of mass is over - vertically above - the base of support. This - centre of mass over the base of support - is the main condition for balance of any body, be it a human being or block of butter. In lifting a foot off the floor without a preliminary weight shift this balance condition is no longer met, which is why you fall (Figure 2C).

It’s important to understand that, when a body’s centre of mass moves outside of its base of support, the fall that ensues is in general entirely unrecoverable, unless and until the support conditions change. In this case, they change when the stepping foot comes back down to the floor. But if it didn’t, perhaps because for some reason it couldn’t, then you would topple over, and there would be absolutely nothing you could do about that. No amount of bending, stiffening, trying to pull yourself back to safety has the slightest chance of succeeding. You are going to fall over. It just goes to emphasise how vulnerable we become when standing on just one leg.

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what happens to your body weight during the step is not appropriate for the step and typically you land badly, for example as when, stepping down off a pavement, you misjudge the height of the kerb.

Other work has shown that this perhaps rather surprising strategy of falling, sideways and forwards, during a step continues in all subsequent steps of normal human walking (Figure 4A). And this, if you think about it, is why it’s so easy to trip and fall while walking. Anything which impedes or just delays the stepping foot returning to the ground in approximately the right place and at approximately the right time can result in a tumble because during each step you Balance control in stepping forward So what do we do with our body weight, with our centre of mass, when we take a step not sideways, but forwards, as we do when we begin walking? The interesting thing is that it’s sort of somewhere between the two extremes discussed above (depicted, respectively, in B & C, Figure 2).

Getting on for 25 years ago now, Brian Day and I looked into all of this a little more formally2 and found that subjects taking an initial step forward made a preliminary weight shift towards the stance foot side, but then lifted their other foot off the floor before it had got there (Figure 3A). In other words they lifted their stepping foot while it was still partially loaded with their body weight, rendering themselves unstable and therefore falling (predominantly sideways) during the step until ‘caught’ by their stepping foot returning to the ground.

Unlike stepping to the side, I think that some preparatory weight-shift of this sort is necessary for a step forwards.

Without it, the body would fall sideways too quickly and the stepping foot would not come down quickly enough or in the right place to catch this fall. And indeed, our subjects seemed to be making the preliminary weight shift to the degree they did because their intention was to step forwards. When we asked them instead to step diagonally, forwards and to the side, they still made some preliminary shift, but much less (Figure 3B).

We also built a simple mathematical model of the human body standing on one leg and falling freely under the influence of gravity, and found that, when given the same ‘initial conditions’ (position and velocity) that subjects had given themselves at the beginning of their steps, it closely predicted the subsequent movement of their body mass during the step.

We conjectured therefore that subjects’ strategy was to move themselves prior to the start of the step such that a free and unconstrained fall during it brought their body to a place in which it could reliably be caught by their stepping foot returning to the ground. Or, to put it the other way round, where you intend to step to, determines the preparation you make (and in fact must make) before the step. If for some reason you get this preparation a little wrong, then 16

really are falling: your centre of mass is not over your base of support, and, like any other genuine fall, this is entirely unrecoverable except by changing the support conditions, in this case by the stepping foot returning to the ground in timely fashion.

Walking Given then that it’s so precarious, why do we walk this way? I think it’s easy to answer this by just trying the alternative. If you try walking in a continuously stable manner, by shifting your body weight fully over to the stance leg side during each step (Figure 4B) - you know you’re doing this if you can take as long as you like over each step - you find that you don’t really get anywhere. Even if you practice it so you can do it fairly quickly you still end up spending most of your time waddling from side to side and making precious little headway. As in many other aspects of life, obsessively trying to ‘stay safe’ is simply counterproductive and debilitating.

That this manner of walking, of locomotion, is hopelessly ineffective is not surprising. The shortest route between two points is, after all, a straight line. Ideally then, we’d presumably move our body weight, our centre of mass, in a straight line but that’s not possible. So we just get as close to it continued overleaf»

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as we can. It’s precarious but effective.

But it goes wrong for people because it also requires a certain level of overall coordination, and in particular that you can stand with free legs and a strong back. To the extent that you cannot do this, that your habit is otherwise, this ideal form of walking is not available to you. Instead, you struggle to flex legs that are relatively stiff with supporting you, and to help with this are compelled to unload them excessively at each step producing some sort of exaggerated side-to-side motion.

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... it goes wrong for people because it also requires a certain level of overall coordination, and in particular that you can stand with free legs and a strong back.

This I think is the fundamental problem that gives rise to the rich variety of what I’ve called ‘eccentricities’ in people’s walking. Having the confidence, properly and fully, to allow yourself to fall, is a related problem, but I would argue that standing with free legs and a strong back is having this confidence. So in fact it’s just a different way of looking at the same thing.

It follows then that the only solution to ‘poor’ walking is a general improvement in coordination. Beyond that, nothing much is necessary or desirable. Walking is essentially ‘automatic’ - it ‘does itself’ - and your job is to keep out of the way and let it happen. This I think is what Alexander meant when he said that he couldn’t teach you to do it.

It’s not that, as Alexander teachers, we can’t work with it at all. The ‘exercise’ of stepping to the side without any preparation, for example, isolates and magnifies the fundamental problem, and your habitual interference with it, at the heart of walking. But, with this as with everything else, we’re always working at any specific problem obliquely or indirectly, always via the basis of our overall coordination, and always with the approach of learning to get out of our own way, a process of gaining insight into our own particular habitual hinterland.

My own experience has certainly been that, as my general coordination has improved, my walking has changed ‘by itself’ for the better. For example, one day I noticed that my weight was more towards the inside of my stance foot during each step and seemed now to be rolling satisfyingly forward along it onto the big toe as the step developed. It all of a sudden felt as if my stance foot was working properly during each step. It was not an experience I could remember having had before or something I had tried to bring about through having some theory about how best to walk. It just happened. I think it was ultimately due to my body weight being less over towards my stance foot side during each step, presumably because I now needed to unload my stepping leg less than before.

I have made the perhaps rather surprising suggestion before in these pages that the whole raison d’être of our peculiar, wobbly and precarious, fully extended human upright stance is that it enables us to walk the way we do3. I hope that this goes some way towards explaining that, and to explaining why how well we walk is determined largely by how well we stand.

Copyright © 2021 Ian Lyon Notes 1) An unrecognized principle in human behaviour. F.M. Alexander, 1925. in: F. Matthias Alexander: Articles and Lectures. Jean M. O. Fischer (Ed) Mouritz, 1995. p. 145 2) Lyon, I.N., Day, B.L. Control of frontal plane body motion in human stepping. Exp Brain Res 115, 345–356. 1997.

3) Human standing: Implications for working with your hands. Ian Lyon. STATnews 10:5, pp 12-14. May, 2020.

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Alexander Technique and its elocutionary inheritance: A view of how we got to here

By Malcolm Williamson. Part 1 of a two-part, serialised article Introduction When, around May 1893, F. Matthias Alexander began investigating the cause of his vocal difficulties, little could he have realised he was entering into the long tradition of rhetoric and the elocutionary arts (Fischer). We can divide the development of his technique into the period 18941908 when he was chiefly known as a breathing expert and, thereafter, the wider scope of his discoveries with publication of the booklet, Re-Education of the Kinæsthetic Systems (Alexander 1908). His early career shows the traits of an elocutionist (Alexander c.1900). He was the consummate self-publicist. In Melbourne and Sydney, newspaper advertisements appeared almost daily alongside glowing testimonials from grateful pupils: Triumphs in Vocal Culture and Breathing.

Cultivating Speaking and Singing Voice by New & Rational Methods.

Mr. F. M. Alexander Has been eulogised as a teacher and performer by gentlemen of world-wide repute – Mr Frederic Villiers, Professor Loisette, Mr E.W.G. Rathone (London art critic), Mr Robert Brough (Brough-Boucicault Co.) – the first three gentlemen having studied his methods. Their magnificent testimonials are in the new treatise.

Mr. ALEXANDER ignores old stilted methods of Elocutionists, and imparts the very newest systems in VOICE PRODUCTION, PROPER BREATHING, CURE of DEFECTIVE VOICES, Stammering and Stuttering, &c. Prevention and Cure of Clergyman’s Sore Throat, and Hoarseness. He is a NATURAL ELOCUTIONIST and Teaches NATURAL ELOCUTION. (Reporter 1897) Alexander could not have been accused of false modesty.

From his friendship with the Sydney surgeon Stewart McKay and then the London throat specialist Robert Scanes Spicer, Alexander gradually abandoned showmanship for more professional-sounding letters to the respectable press such as the Pall Mall Gazette.

As the roots of the Alexander Technique are firmly planted in the traditions of the nineteenth century elocutionist and we have to go back two centuries to understand how the elocutionary movement came about.

Eighteenth century The elocution movement The eighteenth century is characterized as the Age of Reason, Enlightenment and Polite Society. Fluent conversation and a pleasant manner were de rigueur for social and professional success. Fencing and dancing masters had tutored the wealthy classes in deportment and etiquette in earlier times. Now, specialists in the art of speech correction offered their services. Their clientele fell into two main groups: those wanting to add polish to their social 18

skills and those who needed to rid themselves of a worrying impediment of speech. This second group included men whose professional livelihoods required them to address large gatherings: the clergy, lawyers, army officers, politicians and speakers on the public platform or in the theatre. These people had to speak up to be heard and deliver their message clearly and persuasively. An impediment of speech would almost certainly preclude entry to a profession. The terms ‘Stuttering’ and ‘Stammering’ were mostly synonymous in meaning and applied indiscriminately to any impediment of speech including lisping or ‘throttling’ Hunt, pp. 7, 17).

And, for those without skill, the strain of raising their voice commonly led (as with Alexander) to the career-threatening condition known as ‘clergyman’s sore throat’ (Alexander, 1985, p. 24, footnote).

Ideas and sentiments were expressed by easy, eloquent conversation in the fashionable meeting places – coffeehouses, assembly rooms and theatre – and the florid Rococo-style full of classical illusions was replaced by a more prosaic use of language suited to rational debate. Spelling had already been standardized and pronouncing dictionaries

by Thomas Sheridan (1762) and John Walker (1791) helped socialites rid themselves of rough, provincial or foreign accents. In the theatre, too, David Garrick was creating a new ‘natural’ style of delivery, though it may not have seemed so to today’s ears accustomed to the close-up intimacy afforded by microphones and cameras.

Altogether, this new interest in the study of vocal delivery in the Georgian era was ‘an optimistic scheme of life’ imbued with the spirit of rationalism and science. Elocutionists strived to follow the natural laws governing speech and human behaviour: “nature still, but nature methodized” (Haberman, p. 294). Hence, Alexander at the start of his teaching career insisted that he did not teach elocution but rather, Natural Elocution.

Then there were those unfortunate clients who sought help with ‘defective utterance’. Stuttering attracted ridicule and severe cases caused the sufferer much anguish: ‘The tongue flies about the mouth, the face reddens, the countenance is distorted, even the eyes and temporal muscles partake of the general commotion; most of the respiratory and vocal muscles are thrown into a spasmodic action which extends to the limbs. The patient fumes and stamps, something pinching and hitting himself; frequently he feels a choking sensation, and the perspiration flows from his forehead; but despite all his efforts, he can only produce some discordant and inarticulate sounds’ (Hunt, p. 16).

Elocutionists targeted those clients who were capable of reasoning out and learning new habits and were potentially improvable. Anyone with a physical abnormality (cleft palate or dental disfigurement), the deaf or the severe mentally deficient were usually excluded. These were treated – if at all – by physicians or specialist educators of the deaf. Elocution was mostly for the wealthy and all the practitioners

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mentioned here provided full board and lodging for periods of a few months up to two years.1 ‘I make the residence in my family an indispensable condition. . . .If now the pupil is received in a family of which his teacher is the head, and in which family all the arrangements are made subservient to his cure, he loses his fear of being ridiculed, his mind acquires confidence, and he gradually attains that mental condition which, in my experience, must always precede all treatment, and without which all vocal gymnastics remain useless’ (Hunt, pp. 190-1).

The ideal age for treatment was six to thirteen years, but older patients were also accepted (Hunt, p. 233). General schooling was provided for children, and the syllabus for adults would cover healthy living and proper manners. Hunt advocated a regime of mentem sanam in corpore sano or ‘muscular Christianity’ as the movement was then known: Let him avoid those same hot slops . . . and all else which will injure his wind [breath] and his digestion, and let him betake himself of all manly exercises which will put him into wind and keep him in it (Hunt, p. 251).

Though elocutionists engaged in some charitable work, as a rule they did not want the gentility of their schools disrupted by ‘undesirables’. An inability to perform the apparently simple act of speaking brought a stigma that is difficult to appreciate. Stuttering might be a fault of genius (notably Charles Lamb, Joseph Priestley, Erasmus Darwin, George Darley and Charles Kingsley) but it could just as likely be the sign of madness and great pains were taken to correct or hide an affliction (Foyster, p. 29). Difficulties began with schooling that relied on reciting aloud and memorizing facts and tables by rote. Speech was, indeed, the foundation stone for the rest of life and a hesitant start seriously hampered one’s future social and career prospects. The letters of Lord Chesterfield to his son Stanhope show the concerns a parent had for a son who stuttered and who was assumed destined for public life: ‘DEAR BOY: Your very bad enunciation runs so much in my head, and gives me such real concern, that it will be the subject of this, and, I believe, of many more letters. . . .

Good God! if this ungraceful and disagreeable manner of speaking had, either by your negligence or mine, become habitual to you, as in a couple of years more it would have been, what a figure would you have made in company, or in a public assembly? Who would have liked you in the one or attended you; in the other? Read what Cicero and Quintilian say of enunciation, and see what a stress they lay upon the gracefulness of it; nay, Cicero goes further, and even maintains, that a good figure is necessary for an orator; and particularly that he must not be vastus, that is, overgrown and clumsy. He shows by it that he knew mankind well, and knew the powers of an agreeable figure and a graceful, manner.’

At a time before professional organizations (even medicine was regulated only from 1858) practitioners set up as

independent entrepreneurs, applying skills learned from personal experience or handed down as family trade secrets.2 There must have been many more elocutionists practising throughout the eighteenth-century than can now be identify from their surviving advertisements and books. James Ford of Newington Green was an early example, advertising in 1703: ‘. . . removes Stammering, and other impediments in Speech; and teaches Foreigners to pronounce English like Natives; and who has lately brought a Child to speak that was born deaf and dumb . . . On Tuesdays and Thursdays he is to be met with at Mr Merriden’s Sword cuttler, at the corner of Exchange-alley, at Exchange time, and at the Rainbow Coffee-house, by Temple-bar, at six in the evening on Thursdays.’ (Foyster 2018) Samuel and Charles Angier ‘Stuttering Masters’ Samuel Angier and his son Charles, practised from 99 Wardour Street in London’s bustling Soho district in the mid-eighteenth century. Samuel wrote a pamphlet, Art of teaching Pronunciation, for clergymen ‘whose tone, countenance and gesture, he can by no means approve’ (Critical Review 1756, p. 89).

The Reverend Joseph Priestley (discoverer of oxygen) was a client whom Angier was unable to cure. Priestley wrote in his memoirs: ‘But what contributed greatly to my distress was the impediment in my speech, which had increased so much as to make preaching very painful, and took from me all chance of recommending myself to any better place. In this state, hearing of the proposal of one, Mr. Angier, to cure all defects of speech, I prevailed upon my aunt to enable me to pay his price, which was twenty guineas; and this was the first occasion of my visiting London.

Accordingly, I attended him about a month, taking an oath not to reveal his method, and I received some temporary benefit; but soon relapsed again, and spoke worse than ever’ (Priestley, p. 18).

Cultivating habits of good speech in young children was frequently a role for women. In Norwich, Angier addressed twelve lectures ‘to the Ladies who have the Principle case in bringing children to Speak’ (Rawcliffe & Wilson, p. 209).

Notably, in 1751, Samuel Angier delivered a series of lectures on pronunciation to the University of Cambridge (Foyster 2016, pp. 24-5).

Charles took over his father’s practice in 1761. Like Samuel, he was keen to distance himself from ‘those unnatural Methods which many are afraid of’ such as binding or ‘cuffs and kicks’ ‘to force out the Words by Violence’ (Hunt, p.

204; Foyster 2016, p. 28). Physical force did not fit with the Angiers’ ethos. Speech difficulties were not merely caused by indolence but through acquired bad habits. Patients were taught exercises to correct the position of the lips, tongue and mouth, and (no doubt) breathing; to make different sounds, to repeat tongue-twisters and to recite passages from 19

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literature in front of a mirror. Throughout the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries instructors tended to adhere to a strict regime, regarding the body as a machine ‘designed’ to carry out its functions. But, the Angiers clearly addressed other needs to help boost their clients’ self-belief and confidence in overcoming a painfully demoralizing condition through dedication and perseverance using their method.

Nineteenth century John Broster (1757-1841) The elocutionist John Broster of Chester is an enigmatic character referred to as a stutterquack (Potter, p. 46). A correspondent with the British Medical Journal met Broster in the 1830s: ‘[Jacky Broster] was invariably successful, and charged a fee of three hundred guineas, and extracted a bond of secrecy’ (BMJ, p. 55). Church ministers had to promise to hand over a hundred guineas if ever they became a bishop! (Plumptre, p. 73) Broster claimed he had been given the ‘great secret’ of his elocutionary method in New York by the English actor, George Frederick Cooke (1756-1812), renowned for his ‘singularly powerful, melodious, and expressive voice’ (Plumptre, p. 72). Charles Plumptre related the story in his King’s College lectures (Plumptre, pp. 72-3) and it was retold by Charles Hartley in Natural Elocution, the first book cited by Alexander (Hartley, pp. 16-17). On close inspection, though, the story is hardly believable.3 Broster is linked with the so-called ‘American Method’ of Mrs. Leigh (Potter, p. 47; Hunt, p. 86) but whatever his ‘secret’, Broster ran lucrative practices in Edinburgh, London, Chester and Dublin.4 A writer in Blackwood’s Edinburgh Magazine (December 1825) describes Broster’s method as, ‘simple in principle; if rigidly and perniciously adhered to, it is in practice omnipotent. Moreover, it owes nothing to elocution; but is a perfectly original discovery. . . . those who can wrestle vigorously against an old, and firmly adopt a new habit, will be effectually cured by it’ (Blackwood’s, p. 731; Davies, p. 262).

Denyse Rockey concluded that the ‘secret’ was ‘nothing more than a habit of always breathing through the nose’ (Rockey 1979, p. 159) but there was perhaps more to it.

Rather than merely dispensing his ‘secret’ it is likely Broster used a variety of methods and his success lay in knowing how, when and whom to apply them.

20

Jeremy Davies (Davies, pp. 260-1) identified several possible techniques that Broster may have employed: -S peaking in rhythm or a “sort of chant” to prevent the spasmodic closure of the glottis;5 or, -C ommencing the out-breath with a continuous e-sound as in “berry” before pronouncing the consonant (Arnott in Potter, p. 47; Rockey 1980, p. 237; also B.M.J., op cit.).

-M rs Leigh’s ‘secret’ method of raising the tip of the tongue to the palate and holding it there while speaking (Potter, pp.

46-7).

The ‘widow’ Leigh’s American Method, was certain quackery (sleeping with a roll of linen under the tongue, for instance) but is worthy of some consideration. Hunt observed ‘raising the tongue and turning the tip towards the pharynx’ caused the larynx to descend and enlarge the glottis whereas, in stuttering, the larynx was usually raised and the glottis restricted (Hunt, p. 95).

Charles Plumptre suggested that ‘raising the tip of the tongue’ could be a well-known actors’ trick that allowed air be taken in through the nose without closing the mouth and may also be useful in retraining habitual mouth-breathers: ‘There is no occasion at the end of every sentence, or during the various pauses in a long sentence, to stop and close the lips, and then to take the breath by the nostrils; for if done to any great extent in this way, it is apt to be heard even at some little distance, and the sound is not agreeable. But if at the moment of taking in the breath, the upper surface of the tongue is just pressed gently but firmly against the middle part of the hard palate, it serves in that position as a barrier to prevent the passage of any air beyond. Then if the head and neck are very slightly drawn back, and the chest is properly expanded, a large amount of air enters by the nostrils, and in a very few seconds completely fills the lungs quite inaudibly; for not a sound should be heard even by the nearest bystanders.—This is the “great secret” that was sold at such a heavy price by the older elocutionists to their pupils. But in order to inspire the requisite amount of air quietly, inaudibly, and yet effectually, the inspiratory effort should not be made with the external orifices of the nostrils, but at the back of the posterior nares, where the canal opens into the pharynx. By the former passage it is scarcely possible to avoid the inspiratory effort being both seen and heard, but by the latter the inspiration is as inaudible as it is invisible’ (Plumptre, pp. 80-81) Mouth-breathing was well known as a cause of ‘clergyman’s sore throat’, wrote Plumptre:

“

Hunt observed ‘raising the tongue and turning the tip towards the pharynx caused the larynx to descend and enlarge the glottis...

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‘Believe me, that almost all the injury which clergymen and public speakers do themselves in the discharge of their duties in the church or on the platform, arises from this very common, but most erroneous, habit of gasping or pumping in the air through the open mouth’ (Plumptre, p. 70).

He quotes from a letter (1861) by his ‘late friend’, Reverend Algernon Thelwall: ‘The importance of the habit of taking in the breath only through the nostrils . . . cannot be well overrated; but I beg leave to observe, that though Mr. Broster might make a great secret of it, and exact a promise, if not an oath of secrecy, from those to whom he imparted it, the rule itself, for more than half a century, has been no secret. It was insisted upon by my late father, and imparted by him to all his pupils from the year 1802, when he first began to give instruction on elocution, really scientific, both by public lectures and by private lessons. . . . Moreover, I have openly expressed my conviction that this was the rule, which (as a great secret, and even under an oath of secrecy) was sold at a considerable price, not by Mr. Broster only, but (as I understand) by more than one teacher of elocution besides. Some medical men, looking at the subject on merely medical principles, and in a medical point of view, have seen the importance of the same rule, and enjoined the strict observance of it upon their patients; so that, in the medical profession, it has certainly been no secret’ (Plumptre, p. 71).

John Thelwall (1764-1834) Algernon’s father, John Thelwall, is seen as a leading player in the development of the elocutionary movement (Haberman; Rockey 1979).

He was born in Covent Garden, London and had early literary ambitions publishing a book of poems in 1786, age 22. However, his main claim to fame was as a reforming zealot in the turbulent years following the French Revolution. At with treason and jailed by the Pittone government point, he was for seven charged months in the Tower of London and Newgate Prison. On his release, his literary friends, who included Coleridge and Wordsworth, persuaded him to peruse a gentler lifestyle.

For two years he put his hand to farming in Wales but his temperament was unsuited to country living and before long he was impatient to return to the public platform.

On a visit to Manchester in 1801, a friend suggested that, instead of talking politics, he might use his talents to lecture in elocution (Thelwall 1810, p. 18). Thelwall’s grandfather

had been a naval surgeon and he had attended lectures in anatomy and physiology for a time at St. Thomas’ and Guys Hospitals (1792-4) (Thelwall 1810, p. 1; Rockey 1979, p. 165).

He had suffered from a lisp, harsh voice and weak lungs in his youth (Thelwall 1810, p. 19). These he had spectacularly overcome. At Thomas Hardy’s funeral, he addressed a crowd of over 20,000 and William Hazlitt described him as ‘the most dashing orator I ever heard’ (Rockey 1979, pp.

162-3). And so, having settled his wife and family in Kendal in England’s Lake District, Thelwall continued his lecture touring.

John Gough (1757-1825) Thelwall writes: ‘During this pilgrimage of my science,—this journey, at once, of promulgation and discovery, [. . .] occupied between four and five years; and which was extended to almost every considerable town, from Birmingham and Hereford, to Edinburgh and Glasgow’ (Thelwall 1810, p.

44).

He may well have met John Broster in Edinburgh and it was during the period 1800-1805 that Thelwall made the acquaintance of John Gough, the ‘blind philosopher’. Despite his blindness (due to contracting smallpox, aged three) Gough was a prominent intellectual and polymath, most notably influencing the young meteorologist and chemist John Dalton who laid the foundations of atomic theory.

Gough lived in Middleshaw and attended one of a series of eight lectures given by Thelwall “On the Science and Practice of Elocution”, in nearby Kendal in around 1803. Thelwall’s talk, “On the Education and Management of the Organs of Voice” prompted Gough to write him, November 3, 1803.

Five years earlier, Gough had given a talk to the Literary and Philosophical Society of Manchester, “On the Variety of Voices” where he proposed a compound theory of sound.

Sounds – including the human voice – owed their distinctive qualities to added resonances; the tone of someone’s voice was not simply due to vibrations in the larynx and vocal tract but also to added resonances of the chest and head (Nat. Phil., pp. 188-9).

Thelwall acknowledged that his own ‘theory of unisons and secondary vibrations’ was improved by Gough’s observation that: ‘ingeniously accounts, first for the different tones of different [musical] instruments . . . and then by inference and analogy, for the diversities of tone so remarkable in different human voices’ (Thelwall 1810, p. 32).

In a letter to the editor of the Manchester Magazine, published in February 1804, Thelwall wrote of ‘the expansion of sonorous power, and consequent diffusion of sound, through a wider circuit, in proportion to the number (not loudness) of the vibrating unisons, and of the application of the powers of volition to the purpose of bringing the respective vibratory fibres into the state of unison required’.

He quoted Gough’s example of a stage whisper: ‘. . . for my part, I shall take notice but of one incident 21

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of the kind; and this is, the circumstance of powerful whispering, which you mention in your lecture on the education of the voice. Actors differ from other men, as they use their endeavours occasionally to make their whispers intelligible to the multitude. This effort is exacted by the nature of the profession, which requires certain secrets of the drama to be communicated to the audience, apparently in the language of secrecy. The person who wishes to acquire this difficult attainment, will, probably, find the accomplishment of his enterprize facilitated by making a proper use of the following facts.

First, if a body is forced to vibrate in consequence of its connexion with another already in a state of vibration, the greatest effect will be produced when the two bodies are in unison. Second, the vibratory faculty of the chest may be altered by varying the pressure of the muscles belonging to this part of the human frame; in the same manner that the vibratory faculty is changed in a drum by altering the action of the braces. It follows from these properties of transmitted sound, that the man will whisper with the greatest effect who can put his head and chest into unison with his larynx, when it is in a state of extreme relaxation.

You very justly observe, that the science is yet in its infancy, which teaches the art of giving power to the voice by a judicious management of the vocal organs. . . .

Middleshaw, Nov. 3, 1803’ (Thelwall 1810, pp. 38-40).

Gough could recognize someone entering a room by the sound of their breathing and was aware that the quality of vocal resonance is partly due to the nasal cavity and other sinuses in the head. Alexander found that the most practical way to exploit these internal spaces was by producing a smile.

This ‘composed’ or inner smile has a very different quality to one that is put-on. The French neurologist Duchenne of Boulogne described the difference between a smile that is false and one that is genuine and brightens the eyes. From the (silent) film sequence of Alexander taken in 1951 we see the twinkle in Alexander’s eyes as he demonstrates a whispered ‘ah’ for the camera. Thinking of something funny in preparation for the whispered ‘ah’ first occurred to Alexander on his training course: ‘One day he [Alexander] came prancing in . . . He said, “I’ve got it, I’ve got it with the ‘whispered ahs.’ Don’t start with a smile, but think of something funny’ (Wielopolska & Pazzaglini, p. 2).

What a pity we shall never know for sure what Alexander’s ‘Ah’ sounded like. Peggy Williams who trained with Alexander at the end of his life was asked to describe it: ‘It was a rounded sound and easy to hear. I’ve never heard anybody else make the sound F.M. did. I can’t explain it; it was not a growl or a falsetto; neither high nor low – it’s a proper sound, a real breath out, and unforced.

What do you mean by the word rounded?

It’s not shrill and not forced. It’s a pleasing sound’ (Walsh, 22

p. 193).

This feature of vocal production is at the heart of what became Alexander’s technique. Was he producing the same ‘compound resonances’ that caught the attention of Gough and Thelwall? At the very start of his career, he quotes from Charles Hartley’s Natural Elocution: ‘Do not substitute loudness for intensity. Intensity relates to passion or feeling; loudness to strength of voice. The former should be proportioned to the language; the latter to the size of the place. The power of condensed energy in repose, with an accompanying clearness of enunciation which renders the suppressed whisper as impressive as the loudest explosion of agony is a mastery of the art which none but the most highly gifted and persevering can attain’ (Hartley, p. 27; Alexander 1894, p. 3).

(The second part of this article will apear in STATNews, January 2021).

Notes 1 Hunt, p. 171-2. S.&C. Angier, 99, Wardour Street; Broster, 41 Cadogan Place (1826), 3 Lower Belgrave Street (1830), Brook Lodge near Chester; Thelwall various London addresses (Bedford Place, 57 Lincoln’s Inn Fields, Dorset Place (Pall Mall East), Albany Street (Regent’s Park) (Rockey 1979, p. 171), T. Hunt had farm in Godlingstone near Swanage Bay (Rockey 1980, 184). J. Hunt, Ore House, Hastings; ‘country and marine residence as an adjuvant’ (Hunt, p. 233).

2 For many years Alexander’s method was kept with family members (Lillian Twycross being the singular exception). At various times his brothers, A.R. and Monty, his sister Amy and his brother-in-law, Norman Cleland tried their hands at teaching. There are numerous other examples of family businesses: Manuel García (1805-1906), author of L’Art du Chant, his younger sister Pauline Viardot (1821-1910), and his son Gustave (1837-1925). Francesco Lamperti (18131892) author of The Art of Singing, and his son Giovanni Battista (1839-1910). Emil Behnke (1836-1892), his wife, Kate (d. c.1915) and his daughter Kate E. Behnke (and Thomas and James Hunt).

3 For instance, Cooke’s biographer writes that he was attended by his wife ‘a faithful and exemplary nurse’ and makes no mention of a Mr. Broster (Dunlap, Vol. 2, p. 371; Rockey 1979, p. 159).

4 The Literary Gazette; and Journal of Belles Lettres, Arts, Sciences, &c. No. 418, 22 January 1825, p. 63. Literary Gazette, no. 701, 26 June 1830, p. 422.

5 The method was first advocated by the British plantation owner, Joshua Steele (c.1700-1796). ‘[rhythm] is the enchanter’s wand, the true solution of the Brosterian enigma’ (‘Physician’ [Smith], pp. 36, 54 in Davies, p. 261; Rockey 1979, p. 167).

Letters

Memoirs of training in the AT Dear Editor, Re-reading Taking Time – a book of interviews of teachers who trained with Alexander – I realised we have almost no recollections of later teacher training courses (TCs). Whereas we have some memoirs of what it was like to train with Alexander, from a variety of sources, there is very little on what it was like to train with first-generation teachers, e.g. Macdonald, the Barlows, Scott, the Carringtons, the Walkers, Barstow. (And Lulie Westfeldt’s course, but I don’t think there is anyone alive anymore who attended her course.)

There is almost nothing on later generation teacher training courses.

According to the online Companion to the Alexander Technique there have been over 185 TCs in existence (including present courses) worldwide.

Yet information available on these is scarce.

Naturally, all teachers know what it is like to be trained, and most have some knowledge of other training courses, by visits or verbal accounts by colleagues.

But each teacher’s knowledge is limited to one or a few training courses. Each society collects information on their own approved training courses, but some of this information is not public and not shared. I doubt that we – the AT body of teachers – know the full width and breadth of the structures, the approaches, the philosophies in existence.

To understand the development of teacher training over the years we need to know 1) how these training courses were/are conducted, their structure, time-table, the space, the environment, policies on attendance and qualification, 2) their approach and philosophy, that is, what attitudes were inculcated, what was deemed important, essential, and what was not.

Some TCs have their trainees read out aloud from books, others don’t; some TCs have discussion sessions,

others don’t; some TCs have anatomy and physiology, others don’t; some TCs include non-AT activities such as tai chi and yoga; others don’t; some TCs have a library of AT books; others have none; some TCs have their trainees do handson work from day one, others only after three, four or five terms; some TCs encourage students to lie down, others don’t; some TCs have tea breaks, others don’t; some TCs demand writing home work from students, others don’t; some TCs take place in a small living room; others take place in hired rooms shared with other activities. The list goes on.

These difference are individually of minor consequence, but cumulatively they add up.

It matters because some of our teacher training inevitably relies on tacit, implied understandings. Unlike academic degrees where a certain body of knowledge is fully documented, required and tested in examinations, AT training courses are imparting skills and attitudes which are difficult to encapsulate, meaning they are not captured by just a listing of principles, a curriculum and a few books.

Without first-hand records we are left with second-hand records, and it easily becomes rumours and hearsay – which historians are wary of – and ultimately lost.

I would therefore encourage any teacher – especially those who trained with first generation teachers or teachers who are no longer with us – to write down their experiences of their training. We need to know not only what works, but also what does not work.

The most useful information is often what does not work; we need to learn from mistakes, from what teachers tried but which failed. Unhappy experiences are just as valid information as happy experiences.

It would be valuable if such records of memoirs are published in STATNews, the Alexander Journal, and the like, or, if an auhor doesn’t consider their memoirs (or diaries) appropriate for publication, to send them to me, so I can collect and collate them for the purpose of publishing a future compilation, a

digest, a summary or at least to create a repository of such accounts. What is needed is first-hand accounts, i.e. people who were there.

Some TCs have been run – or are run – mimetically, that is, solely according to how the Head of Training was trained.

If we have more knowledge about differences, different approaches, then a future Head of Training will be better informed, perhaps inspired to learn from other people’s experiences, to vary their approach, welcome the unknown, and ultimately to learn more fully from their own experiences.

Jean M.O. Fischer Graz, Austria February 2021 Notes 1. The book contains indirect information about Barstow’s approach and training, but it reads predominantly as defense of her pedagogical method, a .... as to why her method is superior to Alexander’s and other teacher’s methods of training teachers. Of course Barstow on one hand claimed she was not training teachers, and on the other hand in all but name did certify people as teachers.

2. See article PDF in the article ‘Training courses 1945–Present’, https://mouritz.org/?article=trainingcourses-1945-present. Retrieved 1 February 2020.

3. For a listing of existing writings on training courses, see the article ‘Teacher Training’, https://mouritz. org/?article=teacher-training.

4. We have some video recordings but these are selected snippets, edited, and therefore not complete (there is no video recording of a complete day of a training course). Some existing memoirs or reports of TCs were written with an agenda in mind, i.e. for the specific purpose of proving or making a point, which makes them less reliable as a source of basic facts.

5. Although the number of trained teachers might be large it has to be remembered that far from all who 23

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trained become full-time teachers.

For example, only half the people on Alexander’s first training course continued to teach the Technique.

6. Many TCs used to issue a prospectus which can provide much valuable information, but these days most TCs have an online presence only, meaning once the training course has ended the information disappears.

CPD2 Dear Editor, I am preparing an article on the development of CPD in STAT. STAT first started organising workshops in

1990, calling them ‘STAT workshops’ or ‘postgraduate workshops’. STAT started to use the name ‘professional development’ in September 1991, and a little later it became ‘continued professional development’ (CPD).

After failed attempts to make CPD compulsory at the AGM in 2015, members voted in 2016 to require 20 hours of CPD annually, to be compulsory for any members joining after the 2016 AGM and voluntary for anyone else (STATNews in 2016, vol.

9, no. 8). If anyone has any information adding to the above time line I would be grateful to hear of it.

“

I would encourage any teacher especially those who trained with first generation teachers... - to write down their experiences of their training.

Jean M.O. Fischer Graz, Austria

THE ALEXANDER JOURNAL

Call for Papers.

The editors of The Alexander Journal (published by STAT) and AmSAT Journal (published by AmSAT) have joined forces in a bid to enhance the quality and international reach of scholarly writing on the Alexander Technique. They have formed an International Review Board and have had regular meetings over the past year to develop peer-review standards and to form a peer-review board of experts in their fields.

The Alexander Journal calls for articles and essays that focus on the Alexander Technique, encompassing a broad range of topics including, but not limited to, Alexander Technique practice, history, quantitative science, qualitative science and professional community.

For example how the Alexander Technique relates to: performing arts pedagogy, acting and performance, singing, public speaking and corporate training, research and history of the Alexander Technique, ethics, diversity and social justice, and private studio practice.

We hope that both the peer-review opportunity and the collaboration of STAT and AmSAT will stimulate a wider community of writers and the sense of an international readership.

Articles submitted that authors do not intend for peer-review are still welcome. Such articles submitted to STAT will be considered for STATnews and if submitted to AmSAT will be considered for AmSAT Journal. Book reviews, reports, and other non-original contributions are excluded from the peer-review process.

We encourage both new and experienced authors to submit articles. If you have ideas for an article, please seek our encouragement and support by contacting us directly. Articles are processed in the order they are received, so early submissions are encouraged. Submission does not guarantee publication. Publication timelines can vary, with The Alexander Journal published in print every 12-18 months. Articles may also be considered for concomitant publication in AmSAT Journal and STATnews.

The Alexander Journal prides itself on encouraging and supporting new and accomplished scholars alike. Authors will neither be paid nor have to pay for publication.

Submissions and inquiries should be sent to the review board: Jamie McDowell (email: jamie@fellside.f9.co.uk) Joe Alberti Genoa Davidson (email: genoadavidson@gmail.com) Paul Marsh We welcome potential peer-reviewers and invite you to contact us.

24

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I

n 1967 Irene Tasker gave the Alexander Memorial lecture to the members of STAT, outlining the many “Connecting Links” in her life that led to her long career as an Alexander Teacher. Regina Stratil follows and broadens the scope of these links, describing Irene’s early life, her schooling and the many influences that led her to meet and work with FM Alexander.

Irene Tasker was born in 1887 and came from a stable, reasonably welloff family in the Midlands. Her father was a Methodist pastor and, unusually for those days, ensured his daughter received a proper education. She attended high school in Birmingham and in 1907 enrolled at Girton College in Cambridge to read Classics – one of the first women to do so. When she left Cambridge three years later, wanting to earn her living as soon as possible, a friend suggested she tutor the children of Lady Margesson. Lady Margesson had been a suffragette and was a leading light in what was called the “New Education” – placing the child at the centre of educational activity, respecting the child’s interests and encouraging learning through activity and experience. Soon a small group of children of all ages arrived to join the ‘home school’ and in 1913, after two happy years with the Margesson family, Irene travelled to Rome to study with Dr. Maria Montessori. It is worth remembering that in the early 20th century there was no organised state education, so that many children were tutored at home using various methods (the PNEU system devised by Charlotte M Mason was one of which I have direct experience, and was used by Irene’s brother and sister-in-law to homeschool their children while in India).

In Rome, Irene met Alexander’s assistant Ethel Webb. Miss Webb introduced Irene to the work of FM Alexander and Irene helped her to transcribe and prepare for publication Alexander’s latest books Constructive Conscious Control of the Individual and The Use of the Self. An American lady, Miss Margaret Naumberg, was

Anne Battye

Global trailblazer Irene Tasker: Her Life and Work with the Alexander Technique

By Regina Stratil, Mouritz (2020), 458 pages.

Price: € 40

also studying with Dr. Montessori at that time and became interested in Alexander’s work. Irene and Miss Naumberg went to London to take lessons with Alexander, reasoning that since both systems concentrated on means rather than ends, Alexander’s ideas complemented those of Dr. Montessori extremely well. Miss Naumberg was a personal friend of the philosopher John Dewey and considered Alexander’s work of such importance that she insisted the two men should meet, so made arrangements for Alexander to set up a practice in New York.

On her return from Rome Miss Tasker began to teach in the UK according to Montessori principles. When the

premises of her training group in Darlington was requisitioned by the Army in 1916, Miss Naumberg invited Irene to come to New York to work in her school using Montessori principles.

An extra inducement was that whilst in New York she could further her studies with FM Alexander and attend lectures at Columbia University with John Dewey.

In New York Alexander invited Irene to assist him, giving “Application Work” to his pupils after they had had their lesson with FM. She remained in the States after Alexander returned to London, travelling with John Dewey and his family to California where she continued to teach “Application Work” and reinforce the Alexander principles.

She spent the next four years travelling between London and the United States working for Alexander.

In 1921 she went to India and spent four months with her brother Theodore in Bangalore, where he was working in the Indian Civil Service. He asked if Alexander lessons might help his son, who was in poor health, as were so many children being brought up in India at that time. Later the little boy Sandy was sent home to London and, as his guardian, Irene encouraged him to have daily lessons from FM while she tutored him to maintain his school work. A few more children of mixed ages and gender joined Sandy in these lessons and this group became the Little School, being taught according to the principles of Montessori and Alexander by Irene and Ethel Webb. With her degree in Classics and having worked for FM as his assistant for many years, Irene Tasker 25

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was well equipped to do this.

The first training course The Little School opened in Ashley Place in 1925. By 1931 FM realised that having the school there meant that he was able to start a training course for teachers of his Technique. The school could provide his students with experience of working with pupils.

Irene took part in the training as much as she could be spared from tutoring the children, mainly doing “application work” but learning to use her hands as a teacher, observing FM and studying with the first intake of trainees.

By 1934 the Little School had outgrown the premises in Ashley place, a promise of new accommodation in South Kensington fell through and Alexander decided to move the school to Penhill, his country establishment in Kent where the pupils would have to board. Irene was neither consulted about this decision nor invited to continue to run the School. In the new Prospectus for the School Alexander omitted to mention Irene at all, neither her previous endeavours nor the years of devotion she had given to it. Irene felt this rather cavalier dismissal of her efforts to be deeply derogatory and resigned.

Alexander suggested that Irene visit South Africa to give lessons to Mr. Jensen, a farmer in the Orange Free State who had read FM’s books and was very anxious to experience the work.

Irene was understandably nervous, as she would now be required to introduce the Technique from the beginning. Up until then, she had given “application work” and “lying down turns” to pupils who had begun lessons with Alexander himself. FM reassured her and so she left for South Africa. On the way she took a short holiday in the USA where she renewed her friendship with John Dewey and arrived in South Africa early in 1935.

Ms Stratil’s biography of Irene Tasker chronicles her work and life in South Africa and describes how she introduced the Technique. Irene had always separated “Alexander lessons” 26

from the way the principles could be applied to everyday occupations. This distinction is manifest throughout the book and is central to understanding Irene’s teaching. She learned both aspects of the work through her close association with Alexander, watching him give the primary lesson. Then Irene would take over, doing “inhibitory work while lying down” and “application work” as in her classes with children.

Teaching in South Africa Those early years in South Africa produced a remarkable effect on all those she taught, many of them influential scientists like Raymond Dart. She spent the next years teaching the Technique while also giving talks and demonstrations, in particular, one to the Transvaal Teachers’ Association.

About 80 teachers attended her talk and wanted her to demonstrate, so she invited them to come to her house over the next eight weeks, in groups of ten, to show them how she worked. This led to a number of highly qualified teachers taking lessons from her. In fact, her very success as an Alexander teacher almost led to the Technique’s demise in South Africa, for it was perceived to be a threat to the recently established Physical Education movement, exemplified by Dr. Ernest Jokl.

Dr. Jokl was trying to introduce orthodox physical training into the South African education system and found the Alexander Technique incomprehensible. Interestingly, Irene refused to give him lessons as she thought he should first study Alexander’s books – which he said he found unreadable. Jokl then wrote a vicious and libellous article in Manpower about the work of Alexander and, by inference, Irene. When this was seen by Alexander and his friends they found it highly defamatory, both factually and personally, so FM felt he should sue Dr Jokl for libel. Irene returned to London at the end of 1944 (with difficulty as it was wartime) anxious to renew her contact with FM and take more refresher lessons.

She returned to South Africa in 1946,

continuing to teach until she was called as a witness in the libel case against Jokl in 1948. After the hearing was over and Alexander and his work vindicated, Irene left South Africa and came back to England in 1949.

For the next eighteen years she continued to live and teach in Cheltenham, London, Cambridge, Hove and Milton Keynes until her death in 1977, living mostly with friends or relations, never for very long. She became interested in the science of homeopathy and consulted Dr. Margery Blackie, physician to the Royal family, who sent many of her patients for Alexander lessons. She also helped to promote the work of the newly formed Society of Teachers of the Alexander Technique, becoming its Trustee together with the eye surgeon Mr. A. Rugg-Gunn.

In itself, the story of her life is fascinating, but what makes this biography of her so important is the wealth of source material included as notes, articles, letters and appendices that takes up the second half of this book. Throughout the text are a plethora of notes and footnotes requiring us to turn to the back of this large volume, which could have been irritating if they had not been so interesting.

FM’s note on training Of great interest is the Memorandum written to Alexander from several of Irene’s students in Johannesburg who wished her to stay on in South Africa and start a Training course. Irene was certainly aware that some of the people she had taught were anxious that the work she had started in South Africa should continue. The writers of the Memorandum had suggested that one of the teachers she had trained as an apprentice, Joyce Roberts, should run a Training Course for teachers of the Technique, mentioning that they were not convinced that “the Technique can be taught only by persons who have served a long and arduous formal apprenticeship over several years.”

And “persons who realise their own

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misuse without having fully overcome it but have made some progress towards correcting this misuse, may be able to do much towards helping others to improve their use”. In other words, it was unimportant that nobody at that time had either the standing or experience of Irene, for the new teachers would doubtless come to improve their skills by practising the Technique “according to principle”.

Alexander’s reply to the Memorandum was typical – he considered that Miss Tasker was the only one of his teachers who was adequately trained for the purpose and she was returning to England. He added that the writers of the Memorandum obviously had not understood the principle of his work if they thought that a supply of inadequately trained teachers to “promote the Technique in South Africa” would be in any way desirable. He considered that to suggest such a course showed a degree of misunderstanding of his work that was truly shocking! Both the Memorandum and FM’s reply to it should be required

W

e have much to be grateful for in the Alexander world, not least of which is colleagues doing careful research and respectfully sharing their years of experience and expertise. There are so many examples of this. Teachers going into greater depth on particular aspects of “use” and kindly sharing previously unidentified territories of understanding for AT teachers. Examples of this are research on vision, breath, Dart work, and anatomy plus of course the invaluable work on scientific research.

All this information helps inform the application of our work, to our lives and teaching the AT principles and directed activities.

The relevance of Julie Barber and Carolyn Nicholls’s articulate and thoughtful article will not be lost on any of us. Titled “Only Connect” to reflect their approach to working with hypermobility, this piece explores

reading for anyone proposing to open a training course for Alexander Teachers.

Piecing together a portrait Ms Stratil paints a beguiling picture of an intelligent, high-principled, adventurous lady who travelled widely, made numerous friends and, though she never married, loved the children she taught and retained excellent relations with her friends and students. All her life she loved sport, theatre, music and travel, was interested in everyone she met and incorporated all these elements in her work with children. Together with Ethel Webb, her work on FM’s books was instrumental in preparing them for publication.

However, it is less easy to form a picture of Irene as a person. Of her teaching there is much evidence but there is less of her own personal interests and opinions. An early description of her as “a shy girl who hides behind the piano” indicates that there is much that she wished to keep hidden and most of what is written of her relationships with her fellow class mates, friends and teachers is

placed in the Appendices at the back of the book. This is where we find an indication of the high regard in which she was held. Irene’s own notes from the training courses are also put in here, with observations on some of her fellow students and how they went about working on each other, together with comments about her own work with FM. There are biographies of many of the people mentioned in the text, together with letters of appreciation and recommendation, articles on the state of the Technique after the war and her involvement in resurrecting the Society of Teachers.

The Alexander Technique continues to be the sanest and most effective means of helping us to address the chaos that surrounds us. Thanks to Regina Stratil’s meticulous research, it is a joy to have such a readable and accurate account of Irene Tasker, one of the earliest and longest-lived of Alexander practitioners. As Joyce Roberts wrote for Irene’s 80th birthday, “In the field of supervised application of the principles taught to ordinary living, she is unique”.

Judith Kleinman

Unpacking gratitude A review of the article “Only Connect: Working with Hypermobility” which appeared in The Alexander Journal 28, Spring 2021.

identifying and working with the ideas of connection and integration rather than encouraging people to overrelease.

As Julie explains, hypermobility has always been around but has not been recognized as an issue until relatively recently. Julie’s objective is to help AT teachers recognise common asymptomatic hypermobility of itself and be aware that it can change into Hypermobility Spectrum Disorder following an illness, injury or trauma

when a HM person is laid up and becomes less fit. HSD is perhaps becoming more widespread because “as a population we have become more sedentary with the concurrent loss of muscular conditioning and tone.”

This article with its clear but in depth unpacking of hypermobility and HSD is made more poignant by having the personal stories of both Julie and Carolyn explaining how they have needed, for various reasons, to unpack what it is to live with hypermobility but 27

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also to teach students who have it.

As we know it takes a lot of humility and patience to be an Alexander teacher, unpacking what we know and what we don’t know, acknowledging the time it takes to gather our developing understanding of our own use and our teaching.

This article does a lot of the work for us on understanding and approaching hypermobility. We can all be thankful too for the wonderfully useful colour illustrations, references, research and appendices throughout the article.

Julie has unpacked what hypermobility is, what causes it, how to recognize it, its massive impact on people’s ‘use’ with concurrent pain and discomfort, and of course the impact on people’s confidence and emotions.

She mentions that Dr Bull, through his clinic and the HMSA platform, continues to recommend the Alexander Technique to the hypermobility world as a very useful and important part of positive self management. Julie and Carolyn help us appreciate what AT has

to offer, which turns out to be a lot, if we better understand what we are dealing with.

I am particularly grateful to Julie as teaching young musicians at the Royal College of Music and the Junior Royal Academy, it is surprising how many students turn out to hypermobile and that seems to be increasing every year.

I also teach as part of the team at the LCATT training course where not only are some of our students hypermobile but because of Julie’s research we are now able to introduce this aspect of enquiry and observation into the AT training course for teachers. There is so much to cover on a training course but I think this is vital information for the training syllabus.

I am also so glad to have read Carolyn’s part of the article, ‘Joined up Thinking’ which gives us all so much more to think about in how we approach our teaching and hands on work. Carolyn, who is Head of Training in Brighton, has valuable insight into this topic, as she has personal experience of

Hypermobility and years of working with AT students. Carolyn describes working with the pain of the disorder (sheepskin on order!), how to prepare to teach and how to tailor and use connected language when conveying AT work to Hypermobile students. Carolyn talks about pacing the lesson and how to approach hands on work with an understanding of connecting in, as a priority alongside releasing.

I can’t recommend this article highly enough and think it will be a valuable resource to every training course, Alexander teacher, their families, and students. I think it is vital for future collaborations, particularly with the worlds of Education and Sport, to be well informed about this condition.

This debilitating disorder can cause so much discomfort and disconnection but with the right understanding, Julie and Carolyn have shown that Alexander teachers can have a great deal to offer for the restoration of integration, muscle tone and optimism! Thank you both.

To advertise in STATnews, contact statnews@stat.org.uk

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Knowledge carried lightly Ruth Murray 11 May 1936 - 15 March 2021

Tributes from STAT and the AT community The STAT Office writes: It is with great sadness that we announce the death of Ruth Murray, who died peacefully on Monday, the 15th of March, in the presence of her family. Ruth trained with Walter and Dilys Carrington from 1977 to 1980 and immediately started teaching on the Constructive Teaching Centre training course, becoming co-director at Walter’s invitation in 1994.

On Walter’s death in 2005 both Ruth and John Brown carried on the training course in Lansdowne Road and, on losing those premises, Ruth’s determination to find a new home for the CTC resulted in the acquisition of the building at Imperial Wharf, the only purpose-built AT training school in the world, in 2012.

Those who knew her or were privileged to be taught by her will never forget her generosity, not only in sharing her knowledge but her wardrobe.

The trustees of the Walter Carrington Education Trust, which runs the CTC, and the course teachers, not least Alan Philps, Ruth’s friend for some 40 years and co-director since 2014, have pledged to carry on her work, as Walter carried on the training course when FM died in 1955.

Ruth’s funeral will be held at Mortlake Crematorium on 12 April. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to The Walter Carrington Educational Trust, a/c 01516280, sort code 40 04 03; cheques made payable to the Walter Carrington Educational Trust may be sent to the CTC, 13 The Boulevard, Imperial Wharf, London SW6 2UB. If you wish to convey your condolences, please email CTC directly at constructiveteachingcentre@gmail. com.

Alan Philps writes: On the 15th of March, Ruth Murray passed away.

Her son Ashley and daughter-in-law

Hermione were at her bedside, holding her hand and speaking the names of all the people who loved her.

Ruth. Onetime manager of Cranks vegetarian restaurant and health food shop in Marshall Street in the West End; activist for compassion in animal farming – especially chickens; owner of many cats and dogs over her life.

Ruth of the wild red hair, Ruth the snappy dresser, lover of all things small, especially beautiful dollhouses – one of which she possessed herself. Ruth the theatre- and exhibition-goer, Ruth the truly urban girl who would have liked nothing better than to have had a flat on the roof of Liberty’s (perfect, darling).

Ruth: Alexander Technique teacher, and stalwart friend.

Ruth began having lessons with Dilys Carrington in the early Seventies because of back pain caused by a spondylitic condition of her spine. She had tried many other treatments, with very little success; but this strange thing called “the Alexander Technique”, as taught by Dilys, so improved and impressed her that she decided to train as a teacher herself when Ashley finished his schooling. This happened

in January 1977; she graduated in December 1979.

Walter and Dilys asked her to stay on at the Constructive Teaching Centre and work with them, which she did. Upon Walter’s death in 2005, she assumed responsibility for the afternoon class while John Brown oversaw the morning class. When John himself died in 2008, Ruth and I began directing the school together until December 2020.

The CTC weathered some fundamental changes during this time, leaving 18 Lansdowne Road and then spending a year at the Porchester Baths site before finally moving to Imperial Wharf in 2012. The CTC also became a charity, The Walter Carrington

Alan Philps and Ruth

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never once had an argument.

She will be greatly missed by all who knew and loved her, and especially by her family, whom she held so dear.

Rest in peace, Ruthie.

Image credit: Jean Fischer

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Educational Trust.

Ruth coped with these upheavals in her own inimitable way: “Well, darling, we’ll make this the best place in the world.”

Ruth assisted Walter and Dilys at many international congresses, including the first one in the United States; as a relatively new teacher then, she felt a little daunted as an assistant to Walter in his workshops, putting hands on wellestablished teachers. He had complete confidence in her, however; if he said she was fine, then she was.

She always kept to the Carringtons’ teaching of FM’s work, believing it had not been bettered. At the same time, she had her own distinctive style. When Ruth put her hands on you, you recognised them immediately.

She wanted to be able to keep working until the end. “It is so good for me,” she said. Thankfully, her wish was granted.

As the co-director of the CTC, Ruth imparted wisdom, understanding, sensible compassion and humour – there was always much laughter, as Walter and Dilys so enjoyed.

She maintained a respectful but no-nonsense approach to the work. She could be a little sharp behind the scenes with people who moaned too much or were too precious; but she was never unkind.

Ruth carried her knowledge lightly, but was no one’s fool – something many people discovered when they engaged her in conversation.

No one is irreplaceable, but some people leave a gap that is larger than most. Ruth is definitely in that class. Witness the huge number of letters, cards and emails her family and the CTC have received since her passing, full of stories about how she helped them, and gratitude for her work and for having met her. Ruth is remembered with much love, affection and appreciation by all who were fortunate enough to have come into her space, and who were at the receiving end of her hands.

I, for one, am full of love and deep thanks for having been her friend for forty-three years. If it is anything to go by, we 30

Alice Olsher writes: To me, Ruth was a treasure. She would say, “in our work we hold people and let them be where they are.” The stillness was the truth of her work, in her thought and in her hands.

I was saddened to hear she was in the hospital after the car accident, but was lucky to be able to FaceTime once, during which my family also got to see her and say hello. Sadly, it became clear over the weeks that she would not recover.

Ruth’s Alexander family began in the 70s, with her long association with Dilys Carrington, the training, and then working alongside both Dilys and Water Carrington.

I accompanied Ruth on the first stop of a trip to New York in the early ‘90s. She had always wanted to see the leaves turning in New England, so Laura Harwood offered to take us to Vermont. We arrived in Cambridge and Ruth and I went on a shopping trip (I still have the lovely shoes I bought). We spent two glorious days in Vermont, which set Ruth up for her work in New York. There she stayed with Pearl Ausebel, twin sister to Judy Lebowitz, and taught both private lessons and at ACAT(American Center for the Alexander Technique), arranged by Lori Schiff. Ruth spoke of that time for years to come.

Ruth was loved in the UK, Europe, America, and all over the world. She was a great teacher during my training and a wonderful colleague following. The lunches we shared in her room were a time to rest and discuss any issues that came up on the course. It was the cups of tea in Dilys’ kitchen and the lunches where the work’s loose threads came together.

Ruth was committed to change. She was committed to carrying Walter and Dilys’ legacy and to keeping CTC (Constructive Teaching Centre) going. And she did just that.

She was willing to turn up every day and, in her words, said, “I am here and I will be here.” Which she was … until her health prevented it.

In Chicago, at the International Congress, in 2018, it was wonderful to teach with her team (Alan Philps, Lou Saucell, Thomas Pope and I) again. This past year, during the pandemic, we texted and spoke often on the phone. It was good to be in touch. We spoke of the 2022 International Congress in Berlin (where she will be missed by so many).

Ruth touched many people’s lives. She carried the spirit and principles of both Walter and Dilys and herself in her commitment to the work. I feel grateful to have learned from her and worked with her and to carry this spirit of the consistency of training, being there with the clarity of direction and encouragement, as will many teachers.

Now it is Alan Philp’s turn to carry the legacy on and we will all support him to do just that.

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Lou Saucell writes: “Oh darling, my eyes look a bit puffy,” and she fished the cucumber out of her drink……

The morning after, Day 1 of the Congress, I picked up coffees for the UK team, thinking a little perking up might be good. Instead, Ruth, immaculately dressed, sailed past me by the reception, saying “Darling, I’m out to breakfast “and she had about ten old friends waiting and was (Above) Post-flight-to-Chicago, for ready to go again.’ Jetlag, the 2018 Congress forget it! The receptionists were pleased to have her coffee. When in Chicago I was constantly amazed at the extent of Ruth’s connections from around the world Ruth didn’t seek the limelight but took a central role in training from early in her life as a teacher, eventually stepping in beside Walter in the last years of his life. From qualifying, until London’s 2020 lockdowns, she was up at 5am and ready to teach her first pupil at 8am. She was always completely engaged in the work and this was felt by everyone in her teaching space. Students and trainees alike were energised by her presence, entertained by her humour and reassured and freed by her hands. Ruth’s approach was true to herself, non-judgemental and never insistent.

As a trainee, along with others in my group, we would marvel at Ruth’s ulnar deviation as well as her wide-ranging conversation. Ruth read keenly and widely throughout her life, had a huge collection of Persephone books, twentieth century fiction by mainly women writers, as well as being constantly immersed in contemporary fiction. She was always at the centre of a lively exchange of views. In January 2021, she was absorbed in Regina’s biography of Irene Tasker, which she hugely enjoyed and was so pleased and proud that Regina had written about a woman at the centre of the Alexander community. This was her last book of many thousands that she read.

Ruth’s long standing post-graduate Sundays, where half the participants had over 30 years teaching experience, show the respect teachers had for her work and many generations of LAMDA students benefitted from the trainee scheme she set up for newly qualified teachers.

Ruth introduced me to the Alexander Technique as a teenager and I continued to have lessons with her, from this time in my life, throughout my training in the 80s, right through to January 2021, when she continued to work with a few lucky people within her family and her bubble.

I was also fortunate after graduating, to work beside her over many years. In December 2020, Ruth downsized to a smaller retirement flat, shimmying up ladders in the process, redesigning the space to her taste and simplifying her life to free her up for her teaching. I miss her endless vitality. I thought, as did her adored family and many friends, students and trainees, that there were years ahead. I miss my dear friend, teacher and mentor. Ruth considered the Technique so wonderful that she would have taught and trained everyone in the world if she could have, starting with her new neighbours. I am sorry that she didn’t get another decade to do the many things she was looking forward to.

With great love, Lou xx

Marie Perez writes: I had the extreme good fortune of training not once, but twice with Ruth. First time round at Landsdowne Road between 2004 and 2007, then again at Imperial Wharf between 2013 and 2016.

For me personally I will always remember her relationship with my 2 boys, now 14 and 12. They came quite frequently to Imperial Wharf…one time they built an entire spaceship out of the IKEA stacking stools in the corner! She would buy them little gifts – a simple wooden skeleton with removable parts, a set of skittles and ball, and one time a wonderful illustrated edition of Harry Potter. They too remember her very fondly.

Of course we can’t talk about Ruth without talking about her clothes. It was always a pleasure to see what she’d be wearing that day. Beautiful tailoring, wide trousers, just-so shirts peaking out from cashmere knitwear… finished off with Nike trainers and a perfect scarf, or a brooch in the shape of a dog. She was inimitable. She also gave so much of her wardrobe away…I still own a summer skirt with a floral pattern in burgundy that she gave me at Landsdowne Road!

I think testament to her teaching and just general presence is the number of her turns of phrase that I find myself using when teaching myself – “let the ground come up and meet your feet”, “glorious neutral” and even just “nicely”! Ruth is 31

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At Lansdowne Road (image credit: David Levitt)

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always a sort of glimmer of background presence in my head when I’m teaching.

Ruth will be remembered fondly and for a long time to come.

Regina Stratil writes: When I think of Ruth Murray so many fond memories come up, it is hard to choose what to share. I will never forget her unwavering dedication to the Alexander Technique in general and the Constructive Teaching Centre and the Walter Carrington Educational Trust in particular. Teaching the Technique and training new teachers was her great passion.

Her enthusiasm for passing on what she had learned from Walter and Dilys Carrington - to whom she often fondly and gratefully referred - was never ending. Ruth was a wonderful and skilled teacher and experienced Head of Training, and she was truly great company, very well-read, very witty, with a keen sense of style (remember her brooches?!), and an infectious laugh. To me, Ruth also remains an example of someone who lived the Technique 100%. With this I don’t mean to say that Ruth was an example of perfection, but that the Technique was her constant, trusted companion through good and bad times, and “kept her going”, as she herself might have described it. I did witness some difficult times, like the gradual loss of her beloved husband Keith, but I can testify to the resilience and poise a lifetime of applying the Technique to “the act of living” had made possible for her.

I feel so lucky I have been able to work alongside Ruth for some time and I am grateful for all her kindness, generosity and support.

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Rita Stadel writes: I will always remember Ruth as a tireless teacher, undaunted by age, beckoning students to her favourite “teaching” chair in order to work on them - all the while chatting away about a TV programme or a theatre performance she had seen the previous night. As an Alexander “greenhorn”, it took me some time to realise that this was not a sign of a flippant attitude towards the Technique but a calculated strategy to keep the student from concentrating too hard on what he was doing with his body - this was another lesson for me: understanding that concentration in its conventional sense is not desired in the Alexander Technique.

But in the middle of the light chatter during a turn, Ruth would quietly focus and whisper:” Find your height, darling!

Find your feet! That’s it - now drop your nose a whisker ...”

- and whoosh - one never knew quite how - she had brought you out of the chair to standing - or sat you down.

Ruth’s voice is still in my ear when I work on my pupils now, I will remember the light touch of her hands - and her infectious laughter which was always ready to bubble up.

I will always be grateful for Ruth’s generosity with which she shared her experience and insights, for the patience she showed when I thought I would never ‘get’ it.

Her dedication to the Alexander Technique and the work of Walter and Dylis Carrington was absolute - and on so many counts, she will be missed.

Tessa Marwick and Paul Versteeg: With deep respect we remember Ruth as a teacher trainer with her undivided passion and loyalty to Walter and Dilys and their training course. Her consistent presence and support of us and the other students was remarkable, always supportive and yet never interfering She was a beacon example of how to lead others and when in 1994 we opened our own teacher training here in Holland we invited her to visit and teach as a mark of our gratitude and respect for what she had passed on to us.

Angie Harwood: For thirty years you have been in my life. As a student and teacher at CTC I was witness to your unforgettable teaching, wisdom, wit and intelligence. You were a wonderful example of living the work; an original. You will always be in my mind and heart. Thank you Ruth.

Obituaries

“Be to yourself a kindly teacher” Jean Clark 23 June 1933 - 29 March 2021

Jean Fischer writes

J

ean Clark died on Monday 29 March 2021 following a long illness. She was a well known and much loved Alexander teacher who gave workshops and taught on many training courses around the world.

Jean was born in 1933 and went to school in Streatham, London. She recounted that ‘at school my favourite subjects were science and art, which made it difficult for them to determine which educational stream to put me in, as the subjects were considered unrelated in the 1940s.’ She combined the two by becoming an entomologist at the Natural History Museum, later describing the Technique itself as a combination of science and art. She had worked at the Natural History Museum for seventeen years when she first heard of the Alexander Technique, going on to train with Walter Carrington 1966–69.

During her training Jean was introduced to the Dart procedures which became a frequent part of her teaching. She was also keen on the application of the Alexander Technique to the use of the eyes.

Jean had a busy teaching career. She taught privately in her small garden flat in Wimbledon but also travelled widely as a teacher. Amusing and undemanding, Jean made friends effortlessly and was able to put people

at their ease, especially regarding the Technique.

Jean was a regular guest teacher, along with several others AT teachers, at the International Academy for Continuous Education, J. G. Bennett’s residential school/community in Sherbourne, Gloucestershire. In 1977, together with Don Burton, John Nicholls and Robin Simmons, she taught on the first UK residential course for the Alexander Technique in Wales, the first of many residential courses, both in Wales and Totnes.

Over the years Jean was a frequent guest teacher at many teacher training courses, among them Axel and Jeanne Haahr’s training course (Totnes), the Alexander Technique Associates (in Old Street, London), the Cumbria Alexander Training (Fellside), and the Alexander Technique Studio (London). She gave regular workshops in Berlin and was a visiting teacher at the Ausbildungszentrum für F. M. Alexander-Technik Berlin. She was a co-director of the New Alexander School (later the Hampstead Alexander Centre) from c. 1988 to c. 1997 and ran her own training course 1997–99. She gave workshops at home and abroad, including Germany, South Africa, Australia (and visiting Tasmania with Marjory Barlow), and the US,

Jean Clark in 2006, by Jean Fischer

including residential workshops in Ojai, California. Jean often attended the International Congresses from 1988 to 2008 at which she also gave presentations, and was a STAT moderator from the inception of the system in 1994. Jean also served as a trustee on the F. M. Alexander Trust for some years.

Highlights of her teaching life are related in her article ‘Forty years with the Alexander Technique’ (published both in the 2008 Congress Papers and the AmSAT Journal). A revised and later version was given as the 2009 STAT F. M. Alexander Memorial Lecture, ‘Five decades: By your pupils you’ll be taught’.

Sadly, her last years were marred by the rare condition of cerebral vasculitis (giant cell arteritis) and the sideeffects of high-dose steroids. However, her mind was a sharp as ever and her interest in the Technique unwavering.

Before her death she distributed her considerable collection of AT books and material to teachers and students.

Jean was always cheerful, kind and encouraging. In her summing up of what the Technique had meant to her she wrote: ‘The Technique, first and foresmost, is not about teaching other people, but teaching ourselves. Be to yourself a kindly teacher, not a bully or a grumbler, but an encourager.’ She lived her philosophy and will be much missed.

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A sparkling and brilliant influence

At Manjushri Kadampa Meditation Centre, Ulverston, in 1978

Robin John Simmons remembers Jean Clark

A

t the very start of my teaching career, beginning in the early part of 1972, I found myself making every week for six months of the year for several years, a twohour drive down to Sherborne House, Gloucestershire, to give 24 half-hour lessons over two days at the Institute set up

by John Bennett, The International Academy for Continuous Education, and Jean was accompanying me and would also be giving 24 lessons in the next room to me in the stable block of the large Victorian Mansion.

As I was a complete novice teacher, I totally took in all the advice and guidance Jean had to offer about teaching during our conversations on these journeys both going down to Sherborne, and as well, on the way back, regarding the reflections we had of what had happened. We also had a chance to discuss the first 12 lessons after the first day of teaching over an evening meal since we stayed in various places overnight near Sherborne. Jean not only had experience of teaching but also a bubbly enthusiasm both for everything Alexander, and for life. She was no sports woman, yet I recall her telling me how she was in the skipping team when at school as a young girl. This joyful activity exemplified her energy. Her deceased husband had been a world expert on spiders and she liked to put two casements of what had been tarantulas on the window sills of her ground floor apartment “to ward off any possible burglars” – the exanimals were quite still, of course, but …. you never know…..

– this typified her serious playfulness.

Jean was also very enthusiastic about the work of Professor Dart and together with Don and Carmen Burton, we met regularly in the 1970’s at Don and Carmen’s place in Virginia Water to explore all matters Dart. So, I feel especially fortunate to have had such strong and significant inputs 34

into my Alexander and Dart awareness from Jean from the moment I started teaching.

In 1982 I found myself running what were effectively the remnants of the teacher training school originated by Betty Rajna (later Langford). It was natural for me to include Jean in the training staff and later when my co-director had to depart, I asked Jean to co-direct the school with me. This gave her the chance to fully expand her ideas for teaching the Dart work, and I still have some of her extensive notes she made about her Dart programme of classes. These inputs have stayed with me throughout my teaching life, and I continue today to employ much of what Jean taught me during those many years we worked together.

Jean was always eager to tell amusing stories related to her teaching experience like when a nun at the Nunnery in West Malling came late for her lesson with Jean and breathlessly explained she was engaged in some task and she had had “the lust to finish”. And when an ex-home guard chap was lying on her teaching table with eyes wide open and started snoring, whereupon Jean realized he must be asleep. “Were you asleep?” she asked, “Oh, yes I must have drifted off, sorry’” he said … “But your eyes were open!” Exclaimed Jean. “Oh yes,” he said, “ in the war we trained ourselves to sleep with the eyes open in case the Sargent came to check on us so we would look as if we were doing our guard duty properly.” (!!)

Although we got to be very close, years later it became obvious that our ways of working followed different directions. The consequence was we split the school and for 2 years Jean ran a school on her own. Despite the fact that I always felt strongly connected to her, Jean and I didn’t meet up again. I was saddened to hear of her terrible illness of recent times yet I was firmly advised that communication was impossible. And consequently, I have had no contact with her for many years.

For me her legacy is clear. I owe her a massive debt for easing me in to the world of Alexander Teaching and for all those conversations about the Alexander work and the procedures of Professor Dart. She has had an enormous influence on my life and it is especially sad that in her later years there was no possibility to re-connect. Her influence in the Alexander teaching world is also wide-spread and many across the world will be mourning the loss of a sparkling and brilliant Alexander Technique teacher.

The words of Dylan Thomas, to me, seem fitting: Do not go gentle into that good night, Old age should burn and rave at the close of day; Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

Obituaries

A warm and thankful remembrance

Diana Devitt-Dawson writes

I

was deeply saddened to hear via the later, to take up Alexander teacher AUSTAT e-news that Jean Clark training in London, which I did with had passed away on 29th March, Mr. Patrick Macdonald (1981-1984).

2021.

Jean trained with Walter Carrington “It’s about reaction really.” This skilful, and graduated in 1969. Throughout my minimalistic, accurate description was training and in post-graduate studies Jean’s reply to a journalist who asked while still in London, I visited Jean what the Alexander technique was socially and kept up lessons with her. about. I first heard this reply many years Jean’s encouragement, in those postafter my own training while watching grad years, before I returned home to a DVD of Jean teaching one-to-one Australia were confidence building lessons on a variety of pupils. I was and like many other senior teachers Jean with ‘Bonnie’ , North Sydney, 2009 immediately impressed then (and now), she advised, ‘just stick to the principles not only does it beg further enquiry but when teaching this work.’ where she gave workshops and private also it sets the pace in one’s mind that Jean visited Australia several times lessons. On Jean’s return to London perhaps the Alexander technique is a and stayed with Geoff and I, first in we kept up correspondence and had deeper, more integrative, re-education Hobart, Tasmania in1994 when she valuable exchanges about our thoughts than is generally thought. Then, was the visiting teacher at a rather and ideas on teaching various pupils, following further enquiry, Jean spoke special AUSTAT Conference that was which was an on-going learning for me. with a resonate, clear voice and gave held in Alexander’s small home town However, in December 2010 I received a clear, description of the teaching of of Wynyard, on Tasmania’s north coast. a troubling letter from Jean where F.M. Alexander, as a psychophysical Then in 2009 Jean visited Sydney she said she was diagnosed with a very re-education in the use debilitating illness. Sadly, of the self. And, that it It was to be a long battle for has benefits for all ages her. - May she now rest in who undertake a course peace. Jean, her teaching of individual, hands-on and her infectious giggle will lessons. Jean also spoke of be fondly remembered in historical importance of many countries in Europe, Alexander’s discover.

Australia, New Zealand and I am forever thankful the States. to Jean Clark who first “The Alexander technique said those two words to in a nutshell.” Jean’s me, Alexander technique, inscription on the cover back in 1979 at the of F. Matthias Alexander Findhorm community in - Teaching Aphorisms - a Northern Scotland. I well gift, before, I left London in remember the shocked 2000. look on Jean’s face when she asked me where I was About the author from and when I replied, Diana Devitt-Dawson Tasmania she exclaimed, is head of training at the “And you don’t know of Alexander Technique the teachings of F.M. Institute in Sydney, Alexander?!” Thus began Australia. Website: a very long friendship www.alexander and a decision, on my techniqueinstitute.com.au part, that literally turned my life upside down, when I decided two years Jean and Diana at ’The Blow Hole’ in Hobart, Tasmania in 1994.

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A student of nature

Jean Clark with Jane Evans at Fellside.

More tributes and rememberances of Jean Clark from the AT community James Gray: I last visited Jean in 2012, just before I moved to Bristol. She was not very well but grateful for having some hands on. I heard she was becoming reclusive which saddened me because she had such vitality and dedication to the Technique.

She was such an interesting, inspiring, exact, hugely curious and kind teacher and I have fond memories of lessons

at her home in Wimbledon. When she learnt about my mother’s sudden death in November 2010 she gave me a book of Alexander’s collected writings, The Resurrection of The Body and wrote an inscription in it about “our winter of discontent”, for Jean had fallen ill as well. She also gave me a book about cacti that had belonged to her late husband. It was clear that his early death had been a terrible blow for her.

She told me he was a great admirer of Admiral Nelson.

I remember her advice about learning from her students and her remarkable hands guiding me through Dart procedures, such a revelation.

I always marvelled at her somewhat cluttered little teaching room and slightly rickety teaching table which appeared to contrast to conditions one might expect an Alexander teacher would prefer to teach from but they were perfectly adequate.

One early summer she pointed to a beautiful, tall amaryllis plant in her front window. “It inspires me to go up”, she said. She was a student of nature, an entomologist and the natural world held her attention, providing her with provocations and examples to develop

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her understanding of the technique and illustrate its relevance. She had such curiosity. Her lessons weren’t lessons.

They were an experience, holistic and present, conditions for growth. On one occasion she explained her interest in colour ray therapy to me. I shall never forget her voice with its slight twang.

It seemed to glide along and sing. She called me Jim. I will always be thankful to her.

Sandra Antaki: Jean Clark treated me like her daughter and it was thanks to her that I was able to do the AT. Jean was an entomologist before she decided on doing the AT, as was her husband . She was brilliant and I had a session with her once or twice a week until I think 2014-2015 when she got the vascular arteritis. We went everywhere together.

I used to take her to the farmers market, we went to Eastbourne for a week for our eyes. She was very protective of me; Magda Gilbert used to say she treated me like a daughter she never had.

I used to phone her once a month or every fortnight, when I stopped going because she would not open the door.

... the natural world held her attention, providing provocations and examples...

Obituaries

Remembering Jean

John Edwards writes

I

n her letter to me of 2010, Jean told me about an emergency visit to hospital and the diagnosis of a rather rare condition called temporal arthritis, and that having always kept herself free from any drugs, was now on steroids to deal with the inflammation which could have led to blindness. She seemed to be dealing well with the situation, speaking of a learning curve, and the hope of a speedy recovery. Some time elapsed and the next I heard of her she had again been in hospital and emerged now on anti-depressants. I am not at all sure what happened in the intervening years, but from my occasional visits to her and several difficult phone calls it was obvious that her personality was gradually undergoing a change. In fact at the end of the last, and most difficult call she said that she wished to be remembered for how she had been and not as she now was. Such awareness must have been very painful.

Looking back to the late seventies, the first time I came across Jean was at Manjushri-- a Tibetan buddhist monastery, where Don Burton had organised an AT introductory week.

Besides Don, also teaching were Jean, John Nichols and Karen Wentworth. I was very impressed with the Technique and thought that the buddhists might

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not have a monopoly on spirituality but perhaps the AT might be another route to enlightenment, and with a better level of use. In the years following I travelled to Cardiff for occasional lessons with Jean — she taught each month in Clifford Lewis’ house, and a few years later still she was a regular and very welcome visitor to the training course in Totnes. My experiences of watching her teach were too numerous to recount here, but she never failed to amaze.

Her charisma, and the way in which she would have any audience in the palm of her hand, never deviating from the principles of the Technique, but finding new ideas and ways of putting them across with quiet authority. Her teaching was backed up by gentle, well-directed and sensitive hands, with many chuckles and sometimes highly imaginative visualizations to help get the point across. She often had brilliant insights into whatever skills participants turned up with, and for me was always an inspiration.

Back in 2009 Jean travelled to Melbourne in Australia to spend a week teaching on the training course there, and then on to Tasmania. She did not want to travel alone, and knowing I had both a brother and a son there, asked me if I would like to be her ‘travelling companion’. On the long flight we both

Once again, her ability to capture the full attention of all participants was to the fore, and although I should not have been surprised by this, was once again drawn in, fascinated, and finding renewed inspiration.

found sleeping difficult and at one point Jean showed me a discovery she was pleased with which was a row of empty seats at the back of the plane with an unblinded window where she had been watching the stars. On our stop-over in Singapore we were looked after by Wha Boon, the only AT teacher there, who generously gave us his time, showing us the sights, and introducing us to varieties of tropical fruit not usually found in the UK, including the durion, which gave rise to a good deal of lively discussion. In Melbourne we stayed with David Moore and his family and the following week Jean began her teaching. Once again her ability to capture the full attention of all participants was to the fore, and although I should not have been surprised by this, was once again drawn in, fascinated, and finding renewed inspiration.

Jean’s own account of her life - “Forty years with the Alexander Technique” - can be found in the Lugano Congress Papers 2008 Vol. 1, And thanks to the production skills of the late David Read a good deal of her teaching is preserved for posterity. I have been steadily working my way through some of these DVDs and during one, her visit to Elizabeth Walker, in a tiny morsel of wisdom, Jean remarks: “I always have to remind myself that my arms belong to my back.” Yes, we all know that, but how nicely put, I thought - that’s very Jean!

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Obituaries

An appreciation John Richard Laher

By Mary Holland and Kate Kelly

J

ohn Laher, who died, aged 74 on 30th December 2020 was a great nephew of F.M.Alexander, and the family resemblance is clear to see. His maternal grandmother was Amy, Alexander’s sister who joined him in London.

Her daughter married José Laher from France - who had fought in the French Resistance in WW2. Born on 8th October 1946, in West London, John enjoyed many visits to his paternal grandmother in France, who was actually Irish!

He is survived by his sister Michele Smith and her daughter Natalie. John trained to be a teacher at the Constructive Teaching Centre, with Walter and Dilys Carrington and taught from his home in Covent Garden for the rest of his life.

He always endeavoured, as he put it, to teach the Technique in the way that his great uncle, whom he held in high esteem, would have wanted it to be taught.

John loved the theatre and especially enjoyed working with actors so was delighted to have the opportunity to teach the Alexander Technique at RADA for several years. He brought many valuable qualities to his work, including his warmth, his dedication to principle, and his humour. He was wonderful company and a loyal friend. He and his partner Robert Palmer generously shared with several friends - and I was lucky enough to be one of them - the opportunity to have some hilarious holidays in a borrowed Villa on Image credit: Rosamund Hodson the Greek Island of Zakynthos.

John was a regular church goer and had a strong Catholic faith, which must have supported him through difficult times, especially after Robert’s death in 2002. More recently John shared his life with a succession of delightful Yorkshire terriers, and enjoyed meeting his dog-owning friends for walks in Lincolns Inn Fields. Saturday lunches in a nearby pub were a regular occasion for John and some of his many loyal friends.

Thank you John, for everything, love from Maria Hollandaise. (This was his special name for me.)

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Standing by the door to the main teaching room at Landsdown Road: John, Marjory Barlow’s sister Joan Evans, and Joan’s daughter Jackie Evans

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John brought many valuable qualities to his work, including his warmth, his dedication to principle, and his humour.

Katrin McLean 16th May 1965 - 31st March 2021

W

e are sorry to announce the passing of Katrin MacLean. Katrin died on the 31st of March after a few months of illness. She was an incredible Alexander Teacher and an inspiration to many, she will be greatly missed.

Please email Gunda Fielden if you would like to contact the family to express your condolences at gundafielden33@gmail.com

Announcements

Courses & CPD CONSTRUCTIVE TEACHING CENTRE: Teachers’ Refresher Course 2021. Mon 26-Thurs 29 July, 9.30 to 1.00pm. CTC is happy to announce the return of its Teacher Refresher Course. Our theme this year will be to look at various procedures (games) as taught by Walter and Dilys Carrington at Lansdowne Road. Included in this will be a day devoted to breath and breathing; especially relevant, as we have been living through this period of Covid. Alan Philps, our Director of Training, will lead the course. The teacher-student ratio will be 1:3. All funds received will be donated to the Ruth Murray Bursary Fund.

DART-ONLINE DROP-IN class every Friday at 11.00 CET. Anyone can join at any time. Participants come from

all round the world. Here is one of a number of unsolicited testimonials (this is from Australia): “I absolutely loved your class last week and was raving to my husband about it for days. So, look forward to participating again tonight and future Fridays.” Kindly ask for details from Robin John Simmons rjsimmons@dart-online.org (www. dart-online.org).

For Sale/Rent MOURITZ HAS PUBLISHED “Thinking Aloud” and “The Act of Living” in paperback, a second edition of “Teaching by Hand, Learning by Heart”, and is re-publishing “Taking Time” at the end of April. mouritz.org/ shop/.

Other DOCTORAL RESEARCH - I am

looking for pupils of the Alexander Technique for a short interview as part of my doctoral research into the possible psychological impact of the technique. Participants need to have had at least 12 lessons and cannot be a teacher: if you are interested or have pupils past or present who might be interested in taking part, please do get in touch with me, Nikki Schreiber, at NS1213@live.mdx.ac.

WHY WE SIT and Stand So Poorly A Film By Michael Protzel. Explores our oldest, deepest motor habit and its lifelong impact. www.uprighting.com.

I HAVE VARIOUS DVDs from Jean [Clark] which I will happily pass on if members contact me at joved45@ yahoo.co.uk. (John Edwards).

Member’s Update

Image credit; LinkedIn Sales Solutions

Online AGM and subscription renewals

Council has decided to organise an online AGM for this year. In order for us to be able to organise it in the best way possible, it was decided to change the date of the AGM from the 17th July to Saturday the 9th of October. Relevant information will follow in due course.

Subscription renewals for UK members only by Direct Debit Please note that from January 2022 all UK membership payments will only be processed via direct debit. We would like to thank all of you who have already sent us your mandate forms. If you have yet to send yours, please contact us at info@stat.org.uk to request a form.