April 2021

30 Apr

Tips for Teaching & Learning Online – Part III

by Jeremy Chance

People learn fastest through experience.

When my daughter Angelica was very little, she was an adventurous child. Trying to protect her was my job as a Dad, but that has a temporal meaning too: a little pain today might save a lot of pain tomorrow.

29 Apr

Minds Loosen Muscles the Fastest

by Jeremy Chance

Is online is the new group teaching?

28 Apr

She Was Crying in the Corner

by Jeremy Chance

She was crying in the corner when I arrived at the Studio.

A young 21yo Gen-Zenner - and a bit of an outlier as a BodyChance trainee – her first lesson with me ended up with her standing on a table in the middle of the room.

tbh – I can’t remember how we got to that situation, but this memory remains.

27 Apr

Tips for Teaching Online-Part II

by Jeremy Chance

Previously – check my blog – I gave a detailed guide to an exercise to use online - or at workshops, with an individual or even at a party – that offers an “Alexander experience” to a newbie.

It was effective until I found a better way.

And what’s that?

26 Apr

Tips for Teaching Online – Part I

by Jeremy Chance

Some of my readers have never experienced an Alexander lesson!

Other readers are teachers who have lost count of how many lessons they have had.

However, what is common to everyone is the desire to feel better.

25 Apr

What is Golden Week in Japan?

by Jeremy Chance

Golden Week is Japan’s version of Easter.

But there’s nothing holy about it – it’s more about having a good time!

24 Apr

You’re Getting too Close!

by Jeremy Chance

Have you ever had that feeling of being disturbed by someone in a ZOOM session – and not knowing why?

It happened to me recently with a translator of my session. He was appearing as a head only, even occasioning missing a neck. But his head was close, his eyes looming large at me.

23 Apr

An Academic Who Dances

by Jeremy Chance

Your academic friends all behave similarly right?

The love books. They want to debate you - they have strong opinions, write essays and hang out with their intellectual friends.

Scary almost. So what do you make of this person…

22 Apr

How to Get Out of Your ZOOM Cocoon

by Jeremy Chance

When the share market crashed in March 2020, I looked at some share prices on my iPhone. Everything was in red, except one. It stood out in green – which meant its price was going up, not down.

“What is that stock?!” I wondered.

A closer look revealed it to be ZOOM.

21 Apr

Teaching Online – Golden Week Symposium

by Jeremy Chance

I hope you are enjoying my series of emails about my experiences with Marjorie Barstow?

For the next two weeks I am going pause that, and instead write about teaching online. This can be for anyone who is teaching online. If that’s not you, you can safely ignore these emails.

***

17 Apr

Cold Dagger Eyes of Enlightenment

by Jeremy Chance

We all knew about that look.

Marj saved it for the best of us. Marjorie Barstow (1899-1995) was the first teacher to qualify and leave FM Alexander’s training school in London. All the other trainees were told to stay another year, but FM let Marj free.

And there was a reason for that.

16 Apr

Remarkable Discoveries About Frozen “50-Year Old” Shoulders

by Jeremy Chance

It happened about two hours after my unprecedented 40-minute lesson with Marj.

Marjorie Barstow (1899-1995) – my precious teacher - had never previously given me a direct touch lesson longer than 5 mins! Even so, at its immediate end, I could not say the sun was shinning out of my primary control (head/spine relationship).

15 Apr

How I Fixed My Frozen "50-Year" Shoulder

by Jeremy Chance

"I'm no arm-fixer!" Marj declared.

We were sitting in two chairs as she worked with my aching arm.

14 Apr

My Arm Dislocates My Life

by Jeremy Chance

Marjorie Barstow (1899~1995) debuted in Europe at the 1988 Alexander Congress in Brighton in the UK.

This trip to London was not long after my father died – which regular readers of the Posture Daily know threw me into an existential crisis vis-à-vis my Alexander work. I lost all urgency and direction, which was a strange form for grieving to appear.

10 Apr

Returning To London in Triumph

by Jeremy Chance

Having run away from London in 1980 with a broken heart, now I returned as part of Marjorie Barstow's teaching debut in London & Europe - a visit I engineered with my sister Rosemary, also an Alexscovery teacher. I had scuttled my experiment with tertiary education, and I was all in with Marj and her radical teaching technology.

Of course, for me, it had only been 7 years since I was in London.

09 Apr

All You Want is the Absence of What You Have

by Jeremy Chance

How can you want nothing?

Isn’t that an oxymoron?

But many of us think this way. When you are trying to study in a noisy room, all you want is the absence of noise. You want nothing, see?

08 Apr

My Twinks & Teens Nightmare

by Jeremy Chance

One of my recurring “nightmares” is being a goofy old pupil amongst twinks and bitchy teens at a High School for youngsters – just like you see on TV. Think Riverdale. A gentle wave of derision ripples towards me as I walk into the classroom to take my seat…

I keep having this nightmare even today!

Well, I did it.

07 Apr

Teaching Methodolgies Explained

by Jeremy Chance

Marjory Barstow (1899-1995) was a Alexscovery teacher of incredible originality.

I think of her as the second wave. FM Alexander was the first wave – making his important discoveries. Then Marj came along and updated his teaching methodolgy to better match people, rather than matching an idea.

03 Apr

Table Lesson RIP

by Jeremy Chance

In January, 1986 I vowed never again to teach Alexander-style chair and table work.

For the first year of my teaching after Marj visit to Sydney, my old students discovered there would be no more table work.

New students never knew the difference, but the old students didn’t like it:

02 Apr

Did You Sleep Last Night?

by Jeremy Chance

Marj was like no other teacher I had ever met.

For a start, she was 86 and full of energy desire to teach. Even though my first group with her was also with 40 other teachers, I changed more in that week than I seemed to have done over the previous 10 years!

01 Apr

Turning on a Dime Towards the Real Moon

by Jeremy Chance

My future brother-in-law accompanied Marjorie Barstow’s (1899~1996) on her first trip to Australia in 1986. I organised it with my sister, and we kicked off the visit with a teachers’ workshop in the Snowy Mountains.

The venue did not have enough space, so I hired a colossal tent to conduct the workshops. Then it rained and rained – the tent leaked – and by day two, we were in the workshop space that I had deemed too small.