Jeremy's Blog

04 Mar

The Mystery of Alexander Touch

by Jeremy Chance

“You can’t tell a person what to do because the thing you have to do is a sensation.”

F. Mattias Alexander

***

Alexander didn’t start by using his hands to communicate his discovery.

Initially, he tried to explain. Apparently - according to a scholarly bit of research by Ed Maisel - those early days had FM shouting at his students when they failed to follow his verbal instructions.

Finally – in total frustration – he took hold of a person’s head with his hands:

“I mean THIS!!!”

03 Mar

Arriving in London in 1976

by Jeremy Chance

My dad was born in England, so getting through Customs at Heathrow was a breeze – I proudly flashed my newly acquired British passport, and I was in.

Finally - almost two years after my first flash of enlightenment - I had arrived to continue my long path of championing Alexander’s Discovery for the rest of my life.

26 Feb

Money Magic

by Jeremy Chance

Having suffered defeat after defeat in trying to reach London, I arrived back in Sydney penniless, and no still closer to my goal of training to be a teacher of Alexander's Discovery.

25 Feb

Life After Enligtenment

by Jeremy Chance

There’s an old Zen saying:

Before enlightenment – chopping wood.
After enlightenment – chopping wood.

In this case, my “enlightenment” was that my 18-year-old-Self had decided that my path as a creative artist was about to take a hard right towards training as a communicator of Alexander’s Discovery.

This was no easy task.

24 Feb

Fear & Loathing in Kings Cross

by Jeremy Chance

Kings Cross is the red light district of Sydney.

Drugs, prostitution and all kinds of violent criminal behaviour are part of a typical day in the Cross. And there I was standing one evening - having locked myself out of my car - trying to escape an overwhelming force of insight that had been frightening the bejesus out of me.

However, I was feeling normal again, and beginning to think I was overestimating my experience. I slowly began to walk home to get my spare keys…

And that is when it happened.

19 Feb

A Nice Boy Suddenly Goes Bonkers

by Jeremy Chance

It has haunted me most of my life.

Why did I give up my childhood dream to be an actor? Why did I never perform, direct theatre and films or create works of art?

Instead, I became an Alexscovery teacher (aka Alexander Technique teacher).

18 Feb

The Disappearance of An Australian Auteur

by Jeremy Chance

To train as a teacher of Alexander’s Discovery, I first needed to end my dream of being an Australian film director.

I was 19 at the time and my timing was perfect.

13 Feb

Getting Out from Under My Shower of Lonliness

by Jeremy Chance

Every morning I when I got into the shower, it was then I remembered…

“Oh, my daughters are in Australia… I am here in Japan, without them.”

And a wave of loneliness and despair would fan out from my heart, crippling my enthusiasm for doing anything that day.

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