February 2024

29 Feb

To Do or Not To Do

by Jeremy Chance

To make sense of this Scene do one of three things:

1. Ignore it – wait for my blog tomorrow on Recruitment;
2. Read yesterday’s email (not available online as blog yet);
3. You’re an Alexander teacher/student – you understand it.

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28 Feb

Alexander DoubleSpeak

by Jeremy Chance

DoubleSpeak
Doing = activity driven by your Voluntary Movement System (VMS)
Non-doing = activity driven by your automatic Postural Support System (PSS)

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Many Alexander teachers – not me – love talking about ‘doing’ and ‘non-doing’.

27 Feb

Alexander Atama Yoga

by Jeremy Chance

How often do you talk about the head in your lessons?

Although Alexander teachers could quite possibly bore their students to death with the topic, other educators may talk of breathing, tummies, spines, ribs, pelvis, legs, arms, elbows, knees, etc., but the head?

Very little.

26 Feb

Early Days

by Jeremy Chance

“All I can say is by way of discourse, and nothing by the way of advice. I should not speak so boldly if it were my due to be believed.” Michel de Montaigne

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23 Feb

The Power of the Turnaround – Part II

by Jeremy Chance

Your biggest challenge in taking an Alexander lesson is explaining it to someone else…

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CURIOUS PERSON: What do you do in your Alexander lessons?

22 Feb

The Power of the Turnaround – Part I

by Jeremy Chance

I’ve never been good at forgiving people.

To forgive someone, I felt I had to force myself to swallow a big, fact rock and look happy while it was travelling down my oesophagus. It hurts - I can’t pretend nothing happened. But then being forever upset isn’t healthy either - what to do?

21 Feb

Based on A True Story

by Jeremy Chance

Imagine this.

You are an Alexander teacher and registered nurse working in a large New York hospital's Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU).

NICU is full of pre-mature babies cradled in cocoons of modern science.

20 Feb

An Embarrassing Confession

by Jeremy Chance

At times, people tell me I am really annoying – because I come off as too knowing and arrogant. That kind of feedback always surprises me, as I certainly don’t feel so ‘knowing’ inside myself.

19 Feb

Awareness is Not a Motor Activity

by Jeremy Chance

If you want to be aware, what do you do?

Nothing.

Why?

Because awareness is not something you do - it is something that happens.

16 Feb

A Terrible, Horrible, Nasty No Good Day

by Jeremy Chance

Do you ever have terrible days?

Well, I had one yesterday. I couldn’t find ZOOM on the class computer.

15 Feb

Alexander’s Magic Trick

by Jeremy Chance

Did Alexander really find a magic movement key?

By the 1890s - as FM Alexander started giving his first lessons in Melbourne, Australia – he was feeling very frustrated. After nearly a decade of observing himself in a mirror, FM had a clear idea of how he wanted his student to coordinate their movement.

But his students didn’t.

14 Feb

Miracles of Movement

by Jeremy Chance

This cheerful group of mostly 20-somethings joined me yesterday in a workshop at the Tamagawa Twins　Studio to explain Alexander’s discoveries - which I am writing about every weekday for the next month.

They are all Pilates Educators – masters of Voluntary Movement.

13 Feb

Everything is Forward Moving

by Jeremy Chance

Take a look at your hand.

Now try to bend the fingers back. They don’t go very far do they?

Now bend them forward – wow! There’s a lot of forward motion.

12 Feb

Discoveries & Techniques

by Jeremy Chance

I’ve been involved in studying Alexander’s work for over half a century.

You’d imagine – after all that time – that the subject would get a little stale, a little repetitive and empty. And that has certainly happened at various points along my journey.