Ninety Eight and Counting..The Alexander Technique and “Keeping Up”

When you want to get out of a chair, the Alexander Technique can make all the difference.

Freda has been involved with AT for more than 30 years. She has seen how it has evolved in the hands of many teachers and loves the variety. In fact when she first started she found the monotonous repetition of “neck to be free in order…etc etc” so  boring that she nearly stopped having lessons.

Fortunately her husband was having lessons in Cardiff with Jean Clark and was able to “teach her more over the phone than she was learning in Birmingham at the time”

I am so glad that she did not pack it in.

These days we work from the stool or from the table.

Among other things, we work on intention, balance, and deep monkey… This is a stance of poised mechanical advantage developed by Alexander… which means that she is often surprised at how little effort it is to rise from sitting.

Here are some beautiful photos taken at our most recent session

and a sample of her handwriting (from a few weeks ago, immediately before and after a table session) as testimony to the benefit she derives from her weekly commitment.

Before

After

My thanks to Freda for generously allowing these photos to be taken, and to Katie Whitehouse for her unobtrusive and sensitive photography.