Day in the Life of an Alexander Teacher 1

I was teaching this morning at ArtsEd on the MA course, after a tussle with several photocopiers that decided to jam the paper. Sigh. Inhibited my desire to sob, thrash the machines with a branch from a tree (cf. Johm Cleese attack of car in Fawlty Towers) or lay down on my back and kick my heels in the air........and I managed to sort it out and stroll over to MA building (aka Catholic Centre) via the park, imagining the trees coming towards me, thinking of the space above my head, the space behind me, and noticing how heavy my bag was. In my bag were: several model vertebrae, a model sacrum and coccyx, my lesson plans, a book of photographs of close-ups of the body, a spare thermal teeshirt in case it got cold, Stratis Myrivilis' The Mermaid Madonna needed for a good read on the tube, hairbrush, cough sweets, blah-di-blah ( a woman's bag should always hold some secret items) and a stack of photocopies. It really is time I found a way of travelling light.
My lessons needed a lot of props today - I videoed the 2 groups doing a 5 minute 'Happening' that I re-wrote last night called The Moon Like A Bone in the Sky', during which 15 of them all have different instructions to move about the room, possibly something to say, and relating to each other now and then, whilst remembering their 'directions'. So they are working in the moment, not end-gaining, and the proirity being their Alexander Thinking, rather than the subtext, action, emotional zone of a play or character. It was very thrilling to watch - something like a 60's Happening, and I left the video with them so they could watch themselves during the week. It becomes so clear when they are in the moment and in a non-doing state, and when they feel they have to DO something to be entertaining. Then I gave them a participatory lecture on the spine. Hence the vertebrae in my bag and on site already was a model spine and little Fred, my 18 inch Johns Hopkins skeleton which is irreplaceable now they've stopped making him. Then after handing out the photocopies and they had wriggled their backs against each other, we played at running towards each other and embracing in an inhibitory and non end-gaining manner.....all my students seem to like that exercise very much indeed. The morning sped by. I videoed two of the students' manner of use as they sat, stood, spoke and sang in the break, so no time for a cup of decaff. My two assistants - Paul and Grace, AT teachers who are helping out voluntarily to learn the ways of Pen - were very helpful in packing things away and lugging all the props back upstairs. Then there was my appraisal meeting over lunch with Keith, head of the movement department in the School of Acting who is my line manager. So useful to discuss things and ensure my teaching is continuing to facilitate the students well and an opportunity to put things forward I might like to change in the timetabling for example....Apparently I do more professional development that most. Part of the job of being an Alexander Teacher I guess.
Later at the post office I got my passport photos done. Very slick machine, with the ability to choose out of three different poses. I chose the first one of course - despite the parting not being straight. I actually can't percieve with any accuracy the centre or straightness of my head anymore. My head is tipped to one side ever so slightly, and one eye is much stronger than the other, albeit with a distortion in the macula, so I literally can't tell whether my parting is at the centre or not. I instantly see it's not in a photograph. I have been working with this in my lessons with Sue Laurie and with my own experiments in front of the mirror. My habitual pulldown is to the right, so when I direct myself up there is still that slight sensation of my going up and leaning to the left....Anyway I accustomed myself to the thought of having this photo leering at me for the next ten years everytime I go through passport control, and set off back to Old Street in time for two private lessons, and a brief discussion with my brilliant web designer Kim on ideas for my Greek Island Alexander Holiday website. www.alexanderingreece.com
STATNEWS, our society's quarterly magazine had arrived today, so time to scan through this before checking my emails, communicating with friends, my sister, having supper, winding down, and writing this up. Plan to read a little of 'The Girl who kicked a Hornet's Nest' before nodding off. I have not lain down in semi supine today. o well.