(Listed in alphabetical order according to name)

For a workshop preference form please see attached form at bottom of page

Saturday

Double workshops:

(2.5 hours + a break)

Direction as Energy                                     Pedro de Alcantara

In The Use of the Self, Alexander described direction as 'the process involved in projecting messages from the brain to the mechanisms and in conducting the energy necessary to the use of these mechanisms.' Direction, then, appears to have two sides: 'messages from the brain' (which we often associate with words such as 'let the neck be free') plus 'energy.' In this workshop we’ll explore the energetic aspects of direction.

Pedro de Alcantara trained with Patrick Macdonald and Shoshana Kaminitz from 1983 to 1986. He's the author of Indirect Procedures: A Musician's Guide to the Alexander Technique, The Alexander Technique: A Skill for Life, and the forthcoming Integrated Practice: Coordination, Rhythm & Sound, as well as the novels Befiddled and Backtracked.

Alexander Technique & Clowning                   Richard Dunkerley

In this energetic introductory workshop, you will discover your inner clown in a way that is organic, freeing and fun. You will explore physical and emotional expression, inspire your natural humour, and learn again the value of play in your life.

Richard Dunkerley is an AT teacher who has been leading clowning workshops for 10 years. He found clowning to be a natural progression from his original accounting career. It was during his clowning training that he first appreciated the huge effect that small changes to his posture made. He went on to train with Walter Carrington at Lansdowne Road.

www.foolsense.co.uk

Single workshops & talks

(1.25 hours)

Anatomy Trains          Joanne Avison

Working with the myofascial relationships allows us to consider the role of the fascia as an expression of both structural integrity and inner vitality. In this seminar we’ll consider different areas of the body and explore the physical, energetic and sensory anatomy that intimately relates the body doing to the body being of each individual.

Joanne trained with Tom Myers, author of Anatomy Trains. Jo taught Structural Integration with Tom, in both the USA and the UK and sought to extend Myofascial Anatomy training to include movement teachers. She also studied with Caroline Myss (Anatomy of the Spirit) to graduate from the CMED Institute. She is Principal of the Art of Contemporary Yoga School in London. Jo remains passionate about how movement and manual practice work together and how they are applied uniquely to each individual.

Teaching pupils who are runners      Elizabeth Dodgson

At this workshop Liz proposes to share with you the `games` she has found most useful when working with runners. These are nothing new. They are taken from Walter Carrington’s games at CTC and borrowed from other teachers who have inspired her running, John Woodwood and Malcolm Balk in particular- both of whom have vast experience in applying AT to running.

Liz says “I have found workshops given by musicians enormously useful in helping me to relate AT to my musical students and I can’t play a note! I hope that my workshop will help participants to relate the AT work we all do to a keen runner, with no need to get remotely out of breath themselves.

Elizabeth Dodgson is an Alexander Technique teacher in Chiswick. Initially she came to AT to help her with her own running. She got `hooked` and in 1999 went to train with the Carringtons at CTC. Elizabeth has always had an active interest in sport and movement and is a 2^nd Dan Black Belt at Shotokan Karate. In the past she has taught ballet, tap and trampolining. She is currently a volunteer Kayak coach. About 25per cent of her pupils have come to AT because of their sport, either to prevent injury or to improve performance. The majority of those are runners or triathletes

Standing High - Squatting Low          Dorothea Magonet

As we get older we become more accustomed to standing upright and often find getting close to the floor challenging. In this practical workshop we will explore some of the obstacles that get in the way and how we can work with our selves, and our pupils, to become more familiar again using the squat. With inhibition, ordering and directing we will move from standing on tiptoes through monkey into a squat and back. We will explore some dart procedures, which may help us on this journey up and down in space. This involves working on the floor, so please bring suitable clothing with you.

Since her qualification in1983 from the North London School of the Alexander Technique Dorothea has worked full-time in private practice and with music students at the Royal Academy of Music, London. There she organised the first two conferences entitle: Teaching the Alexander Technique in Music Colleges.She has assisted on the North London School of the Alexander Technique for one year and has regularly taught as a visiting teacher on training courses in London, Manchester, Kendal and Amsterdam. 2007 she became the moderator for the Cumbria Alexander Training Course, and in 2009 Main Assistant on the Westminster Alexander Training Course. From 1994 until 2004 she served on STAT Council, including as Honorary Secretary and Chair of the Society. She also chaired the Training Course Committee and was involved in the process of Voluntary Self-regulation of the Alexander Technique profession. She is a member of Friends of the Alexander Technique.

Don't Apologise            Anna McCallion

Working with States of Shock          Delia Rosenboom

As teachers we talk about states of ‘good or improved Use’, however when a pupil is in some state of shock following a trauma, fright, bereavement, accident, surgery.... it may be more beneficial to think about  ‘appropriate Use’.  In the presence of shock, what may be perceived as ‘bad use’ may actually be ‘Use appropriate to the situation’, and working to release and direct may lead to increased tightening!

Using the Alexander Technique with pupils experiencing shock, however archaic, involves working with great sensitivity, and patiently giving space to the inevitable protective holdings to be present for as long as they are needed, whilst simultaneously supporting the pupil with ‘listening hands’ to gradually open and release as they become ready to.  For us as teachers this requires a surrendering of what we think we know, of what we may think the pupil needs, of what to ‘do’ next, and a simple allowing to work from a state of presence and prolonged inhibition.

Delia Rosenboom has been teaching the AT to groups and individuals since 1989. She has a passionate interest in this area of applying the Technique, this having grown out of her own experiences both personally and with pupils over many years. Delia teaches anatomy at the Constructive Teaching Centre and has a practice in Forest Row.

Talk on Consciousness          Anil Seth

Understanding Psychological changes         Naomi Shragai

In this workshop we will be exploring the emotional and mental changes people experience in the course of having Alexander lessons. As teachers, we have our own experiences, but often are lost for a language in helping our students understand the changes in their emotional, and sometimes relational life.

Students are now becoming more interested in how the technique can help them with mental health problems, such as depression and anxiety. As teachers, it is helpful to understand the links between our moods, mental states, and our use.

I will be discussing current themes in attachment theory and neuroscience in psychotherapy and the implications for the Alexander Technique, as well as how the technique can alter psychological defenses and unconsciousness material in the body so that they may be thought about in psychotherapy.

We will discuss ways in which the body expresses our emotional lives, is used as a container for our feelings, and is metaphor for our internal world.

More specific techniques for how teachers might talk to their students about emotional and mental changes brought about with the technique will be explored. There will be opportunities for participants to discuss their own experiences, as well as their observations of their students.

Naomi has over 30 years experience working with individuals, couples, families and groups. She completed her Bachelor of Science in Occupational Therapy at the University of Southern California, and later gained a Master of Arts in Systemic Psychotherapy at the Tavistock Clinic in London.  She trained to teach the Alexander Technique at the Constructive Teaching Centre in London. She’s a member of the United Kingdom Council of Psychotherapy (UKCP), the Association of Family Therapy (AFT) and STAT.

 Four Feet and a Tail                          Stephanie Smith

The aim of this workshop is to show how the reflexes of support are arranged as though we are four-legged animals and how this is established in the human animal. Once this is used as a basis for Alexander Technique teaching, it can then be used as a foundation to stop (inhibit) the interference to support from muscles that are intended for movement.

In most four legged animals the spine is more or less horizontal and therefore does not support the body in the same way as our spine supports us. In four-legged animals we can see how the spine and ribs support the internal organs.

This will be an essentially practical workshop to examine how the spine as a long flexible column is more or less vertical but still largely suspends our internal organs from it. To do this, the spine conducts the force of support from the pelvis towards the head. This vertical arrangement needs very little muscular activity: the same also applies for our (nearly) straight legs.

The pelvic floor muscles form an elastic floor to support the organs of the abdomen. They help stabilise the sacroiliac joint and thereby play a vital role in the ability of the whole spine to support the upper body.

Stephanie Smith qualified in 1994. After qualifying she undertook an extensive 10-year, post-graduate study with Chris Stevens (Dr of Biomechanics and Alexander Technique teacher). Since 1995, Stephanie has co-ordinated STAT’s Continuing Professional Development Programme

 A First Lesson                 Miriam Wohl

In the workshop, she will demonstrate the way she usually conducts the interview+first lesson on a “guinea pig” new pupil and will respond to questions and constructive criticism from trainees/teachers at the end.

Dr Miriam Wohl worked in hospital medicine, and as a GP until qualifying as an AT teacher in 1990, since when she has lived in rural Leicestershire and worked as an AT teacher and a GP expert witness. She is STAT Council’s Medical Advisor.

Sunday

(Workshops are all 2 hours plus a break)

 Exploring some basic movements pioneered by Professor Raymond Dart 

Jean Clark

In his 1970 F.M.Alexander Memorial lecture, Dart outlined “how any intelligent individual can study his or her own self”.  We will be exploring some of his suggestions, starting from a place we know well- semi-supine, and passing on to places less familiar, such as prone and mid-line, with, along the way, a study of upper limb movements. Using F.M’s means whereby, we have a chance to discover more about our use - and misuse patterns. These movements should not be regarded as exercises; with inhibition and direction, and with the contact of the floor as a silent teacher, they can be as useful and informative as hands on the back of a chair.

 Jean Clark trained with Walter Carrington from 1966 to 1969. Professor Dart’s early developmental movements were part of her training. At that time, Joan Murray (then a teacher) and her husband Alex (a fellow student) were making visits to Professor Dart who was living in the States. They shared with the training school Dart’s personal explorations, which had been shown to them by his personal demonstration when he was in his 50’s. Jean has continued in a leisurely, explorative fashion ever since, gaining insights into Alexander’s directions whilst working both on herself and others. Jean gave the AmSAT Conference in 2008 and the AUSTAT lecture in Tasmania in 2009 on “40 years with the Alexander Technique” and the Stat memorial lecture in Leeds on “5 decades teaching the Alexander technique – by your pupils you’ll be taught”.

 The Subtle Use of the Hands: exploring how our hands inform our use and our use informs our hands.                                                                         Ron Colyer and Carolyn Nicholls

In this workshop we will explore directions to the fingers and thumb, hand and wrist and how we can use these directions to strongly connect us back to our own use as well as giving us a more elastic and sensitive contact with our pupils. This is a practical workshop.

Ron Colyer and Carolyn Nicholls are direct contemporaries who trained with Walter and Dilys Carrington at The Constructive Teaching Centre longer ago than they care to remember. The have both run teacher training courses for a number of years. Ron is also a performing musician, and works regularly with young violinists.  Ron led the orchestra at the 7th International Congress  in Oxford in 2004 in a performance of Carolyn' s musical work Gravity and Light ,  (composer Leon Coates) which was written as part of her masters study in Alexander Teacher training. Carolyn was named as one of the 'second generation' teachers at the 8th International Congress in Lugano (2008). Her book Body. Breath and Being has just been translated into Dutch and she is working on another book for musicians and is fully intending to pick Rons brains.

Ron and Carolyn have run an annual summer refresher course for some years, the theme is always around the issues of use and hands and how we can explore and deepen our understanding of these practical considerations. This workshop is one of their favourite ways of teaching and also exploring with each other current thinking and practice. It is always a fruitful and happy exchange. They aim to bring something of the flavour of these workshops to the AGM in their latest exploration of delightful digit directions, and idea started by Carolyn and explored and enlarged by Ron.

 From Soul to Sole  -  Walking and The Alexander Technique

Chris Element and Susie Sanderson

When you walk just walk – Zen saying

An uplifting exploration of consciousness in walking, what moves first, is it the foot the hip the head or the mind?

We will experiment with a variety of ideas for you to learn for your own benefit or to use in your own teaching practice. Our theme will be the relationship of the Technique to walking .

We will explore how to take a step and the lunge and how to teach walking to your own students. Teachers will learn how to develop your student’s awareness in motion. All these ideas are great for runners too. We will look at what it means to inhibit and direct in the act of walking.

Pupils find walking a very rewarding time to work on themselves, it helps them to improve their balance and experience a sense of connection with the ground under their feet.

We will explore how to develop your students awareness of their own use in motion.

‘A journey of ten thousand miles begins with a single step.’

Lao Tzu. We invite you to explore what it is to take that step.

FM said that walking was the best time to work on yourself.

Chris Element and Suzie Sanderson are currently Co-Heads of The Brighton School for Alexander Technique.  According to them since 1989 have run one of the most successful Alexander teaching practices in the world having taught over 40,000 lessons. They were pioneers of group work teaching in a number of areas with the NHS, business, education and holiday companies and  have run an extensive group program which includes over 100 residential courses, in the UK and abroad.

Think of something funny to smile. A singing session         Alan Mars

Starting with humming, sliding into whispered and vocalised ahs, freeing the jaw and... singing songs and rounds in the group. Questions and answers. Everyone welcome.

Alan qualified in 1982. He has taught Alexander and voice at the Arts Educational Drama School, the Guildhall Drama School and at many top British and international businesses.

Magic and end-gaining                 Lee Warren

Applying the principle of the Technique to various skills allows us to deepen our understanding and practice of those principles, and helps us to understand where we need to explore further.

When learning sleight-of-hand magic, the 'means-whereby' is paramount and we confront many of our habits in a way almost unique, since not only are we performing, we are trying to hide half of what we are doing! 

Rather like telling a joke, performing magic well depends entirely on the build-up, on taking care over every step in the process so that the end result takes care of itself. 

In this workshop, we will look at learning some simple, but effective, magic through paying particular attention to ourselves and the means-whereby. The workshop is dynamic and a great deal of fun, and participants leave having applied the Technique to something quite new. They also have some magic tricks up their sleeve to perform to friends! 

No previous experience in magic or performing in general is required. The workshop is open to all interested in the Alexander work, whether pupils, trainees or teachers.

Please bring two coins of  identical denomination (50 or 10 pence pieces are ideal).

Lee Warren has been teaching the Alexander Technique for ten years. He is the resident Alexander teacher at The Actors Centre in Covent Garden and has taught at several London drama schools. He teaches one day a week at The Alexander Technique Studio in South West London. As well as teaching, he is one of the most popular magicians in London, frequently performing at venues such as Claridges, The Lanesborough and Dorchester Hotels. He is particularly interested in combining the Technique with performing skills and an understanding of how the mind works.