In 1976, when I started my training in London, I discovered that I had a choice of what I could do with a teacher: "What would you like to do today?" was asked often of me…

Trouble is, there were only two answers: chairwork or tablework. After three years, I got so bored with this, that during my final 6 months of training, I played cat and mouse with my teachers - hiding out in the kitchen, going for a little walks - so I could avoid having one of these precious "turns" that many others felt entitlement towards. No thanks.

I had a half-written blog prepared on the plane last night, but once I landed in Australia and checked our secret Facebook group (where 43 teachers share as part of the paid area of my blog) I was overwhelmed by the volume of comments to behold!

So instead of posting a blog, I decided to post answers and comments in Facebook. Then I worried that the members may not have caught my torrent of replies in the midst of a messy, scrolling Facebook page, so I decided to post them here. How original ideas are born.

I am standing there, looking out on an ocean of people - all wearing orange!

It was a Sydney Easter in 1981, and the crowd was gathered for another "celebration" with Bhagwan Rajneesh's band of merry followers. The Orange People, as they were called then, wanted Alexander Technique in their line up of workshops, but it was all gratis: pitch your workshop to the crowd, see who comes.

As I stood there I thought: I have a unique marketing opportunity: I better not screw up.

A feeling is a report from your past.

It is about what just happened, even if you are imagining the future. You see an image, you react to it. We dream, we imagine, we create - then we have feelings about these constructions. Our hormones are triggered; we feel multiple emotions coursing through our system.

As an Alexander Technique teacher, I used to think it was my job to supply a new feeling to my student. I was very good at it - people marvelled after my lessons how different they felt, how amazing the Alexander Technique was…

Susannah Keebler is an Alexander Technique teacher living in Mallacoota, Australia - a small town in Victoria whose population fluctuates between 972 and 8,000, depending on the time of year. Where she lives is odd enough, but the life and work she is creating makes that seem mundane. Her story has the potential to challenge your own idea of what you can do with the work. Are you interested in people who climb out of the box in order to change the world? Then you must be interested in Susannah's story…

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Alexander died on October 10th, 1955, but did he really?

He still lives in the minds and hearts of many of his followers. It's a blessing and a curse. Twirling around the air at my school in Japan, you can often catch the phrase…

"Is that really the Alexander Technique?"

After Marj visited Australia in 1986, I totally switched my teaching.

I made a decision, quite clear cut, that I would:

1.Do no more table work
2.Do no more chair work
3.Insist that my pupil choose the activity of the lesson

It was a simple plan, but for the next year I stumbled about in total confusion and disarray. Although I had been teaching for 7 years by this time, this 8th year felt like I had reverted back to my 1st: I was a novice teacher all over again.

Greg Holdaway is in Japan teaching for BodyChance, and yesterday morning we had a wonderful conversation about chairwork verses activity work. He told me about an extraordinary 10 minutes of being whisked in and out of a chair by Patrick Macdonald, just a few years before Patrick passed away.

Julie Rothschild is an Alexander Technique teacher in Boulder, Colorado. She is also a passionate dancer for whom everything that could go wrong, did go wrong. And some things went right – this is her (unfinished) story about the life of a dancer as she first encounters and learns…

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Alexander Technique… My Technique

Tomorrow, on Saturday September 28th, Cathy Madden officially launches BodyChance’s first school in the United States.

Those participating are entering into the first of 3 x 2 year modules that are prerequisites before entering the 2nd stage of education. 2nd Stage education is where you educate your Self to be a teacher, with BodyChance’s support.

2nd Stage Teaching Practice