We also did some really fascinating chairwork; my teacher told me "I'm gonna take you out of the chair" and then didn't. I've done this before; when I just started AT, I was out of the chair before he even finished his statement. But as lessons proceded, I gradually learnt how to stop this reaction and stay with my directions.
This time, I thought I didn't move; at least, I didn't perceive any physical movement, and I certainly didn't get out of the chair. However, when my teacher repeated his statement to get me out of the chair, he gave me a little tap on the chest. And this tap, even though it was quite gentle, and even though I really did not intend to react at all, startled me enormously. Apparently, some part of myself still managed to get up. Very puzzling stuff indeed, and a real challenge to start inhibiting this kind of mini-mini-reaction.
The more I think of it, the more AT seems about zooming in all the time. Perhaps in a few years' time, I'll look back on this mini-mini-reaction and think "Pff, how could I not have noticed that enormous movement", just like I look back now on my first lessons and think "Pff, how could I not have stayed in that chair back then?" :-)
Micro-movement
August 18, 2005The importance of stopping
August 17, 2005
Yesterday, we did quite a lot of talking about stopping. Not the kind of stopping as in inhibiting your reaction, but the kind of stopping in directing. Lengthening and widening are not things that can physically go on without end; the goal of lengthening and widening is not to 'keep on growing'. After all, there are physical limits to the body, and pushing directions beyond that point causes the opposite of what we want, ie narrowing, tensing our muscles etc.
That's why it helps to put in a little stop with my directions. Not stopping the directions itself, but stop extending the lengthening and widening. So I still keep the awareness at the same level, but do not do anything. Now that I write this down, it becomes even more clear, because the words lengthening and widening may set the trap of doing, while what I should be looking for is not so much the doing of the lengthening/widening, but the undoing of the shortening/narrowing. Doing is something that you can go on with for ever, un-doing has a certain zero-point, at which all habitual bad stuff has been undone (it's a good idea, because it keeps me from asking whether I've done enough).
It's funny; I've heard all this before, but each time I hear it again, it gets a completely new meaning.
That's why it helps to put in a little stop with my directions. Not stopping the directions itself, but stop extending the lengthening and widening. So I still keep the awareness at the same level, but do not do anything. Now that I write this down, it becomes even more clear, because the words lengthening and widening may set the trap of doing, while what I should be looking for is not so much the doing of the lengthening/widening, but the undoing of the shortening/narrowing. Doing is something that you can go on with for ever, un-doing has a certain zero-point, at which all habitual bad stuff has been undone (it's a good idea, because it keeps me from asking whether I've done enough).
It's funny; I've heard all this before, but each time I hear it again, it gets a completely new meaning.
Obituary in the Times
August 12, 2005
Received via the Alextech-list:
August 10, 2005
Walter Carrington
May 4, 1915 - August 7, 2005
Exponent of the Alexander technique who inspired generations of teachers
WALTER CARRINGTON was a leading figure in the teaching and development in Britain of the Alexander technique, the system evolved by the Australian actor Frederick Matthias Alexander (1869-1955) to promote wellbeing through awareness of balance, posture and physical co-ordination.
Alexander reasoned that this awareness allowed individuals to adjust unconscious bodily habits into new patterns which offered a number of physical and mental benefits. For more than 60 years Carrington made an immense contribution to the preservation and development of the teaching of the technique.
Walter Hadrian Marshall Carrington was born in Selby, Yorkshire, in 1915, the only child of the Rev Walter Marshall Carrington. In 1917 the family moved to London where he spent the rest of his life. He attended St Paul’s School.
He had intended to join the Society of Jesus but he was so impressed by the lessons which his mother had taken in the Alexander technique that he started taking lessons himself. In 1936, he joined Alexander’s teacher training course and he qualified in 1939.
He married Dilys Jones in 1940 and, the following year, qualified as an RAF pilot, serving in the Pathfinders. He and his crew survived being shot down over Hungary in 1944, but were taken prisoner. Carrington had broken several bones, including his pelvis, and was sent to a military hospital from which, however, he eventually escaped.
On demobilisation with the rank of flight lieutenant in 1946 he rejoined Alexander’s practice in London where he gave lessons and taught on Alexander’s teacher training course. Fifty years later he published A Time to Remember: A Personal Diary of Teaching the F. M. Alexander Technique in 1946, which provides insights into Alexander’s methods and personality as well as conveying the atmosphere of the time.
In those early days Carrington also taught regularly in Cardiff, Guernsey, Oxford and Nottingham. After Alexander’s death in 1955 Carrington and three other teachers carried on the training course according to Alexander’s methods.
In 1960 the course moved to Holland Park, London, where it remains, and was renamed the Constructive Teaching Centre,with Carrington and his wife as its directors. The training course grew with the upsurge of interest in the technique in the 1970s and it became the largest operation of its kind in the world, with up to 45 students each year from the 1980s onwards. Around 300 Alexander teachers have qualified from the centre.
The problem facing teachers who carried on courses or started new ones after Alexander’s death was how to provide training in the absence of the founder of the technique. Carrington refused to become a “master” whose words would be taken as absolute; instead, he developed a training programme which respected the autonomy of each student and which encouraged questions and explorations.
The process of teaching was adapted to the needs of individual students who were treated as equals. Instead of adopting a pre-existing teaching approach (as in, for example, the traditional classroom model), the Carringtons evolved a way of teaching and training in accord with the principles of the Alexander technique itself. Their methods have been taken up by training courses throughout the world.
Carrington was an inspirational teacher because he embodied the principles of the technique in his own life. His dedication to the technique helped him to overcome many difficulties. Because of his war injuries he suffered periods of severe pain during the 1970s. Despite this he retained an optimistic outlook, and the pain eventually disappeared after three operations.
Carrington taught from 9am to 6pm, five days a week, until he was 80, at which age he reduced his hours. Horsemanship, including dressage, was among his lifelong interests. He continued to ride until the age of 87 and was still teaching until shortly before his death.
Though without a formal scientific training, Carrington took a keen interest in scientific developments of relevance to the Alexander technique: he kept his students informed about papers on posture, balance, human and animal movement, and related subjects, whenever he thought they made a valuable contribution to the practice and theory of the technique.
In keeping himself up to date with Alexander technique literature, Carrington amassed what is thought to be the largest collection of books, papers and articles on the technique in the world today. His phenomenal memory of the history of the technique, and his readiness to grant others access to his library, were tremendously important for researchers — two recent biographies of Alexander owe much to him.
Carrington published two collections of lectures, Thinking Aloud (1994) and The Act of Living (1999), in which he discusses such matters as breathing, the balance of the head, the effects on the body of gravity, habitual behaviour, ethics and many other topics related to the development of physical wellbeing and the consciousness of self. These transcribed impromptu talks, erudite but always accessible and jargon-free, capture the flavour of what one observer described as Carrington’s “gentle, almost hypnotic, quiet rhetoric”. For his students and others, Carrington was also their living link to Alexander himself.
In 1992 he had published Explaining the Alexander Technique: The Writings of F. Matthias Alexander — In Conversation with Walter Carrington and Sean Carey, which elucidated the practical significance of Alexander’s own four books as an aid for students.
Carrington was a stalwart, though a low-profile one, of the Society of Teachers of the Alexander Technique (Stat), participating in all events which brought teachers together to share work and experiences. The Holland Park centre’s large teaching room was provided free of charge for many workshops, lectures and meetings over the years.
In the last year of his life Carrington participated in the debate in Stat as to how far the society should regulate its members. He spoke firmly against adopting criteria which would involve some teachers judging other teachers, arguing that the art and expertise of the technique could not be reduced to the level of a conventional examination.
Patient, modest and non-judgemental, Carrington always radiated a powerful benevolence. He declined honorary membership of Stat, observing that it is inappropriate to make distinctions between individuals who are equal members of the same body. Carrington is survived by his wife Dilys and their three sons.
Walter Carrington, teacher of the Alexander technique, was born on May 4, 1915. He died on August 7, 2005, aged 90.
August 10, 2005
Walter Carrington
May 4, 1915 - August 7, 2005
Exponent of the Alexander technique who inspired generations of teachers
WALTER CARRINGTON was a leading figure in the teaching and development in Britain of the Alexander technique, the system evolved by the Australian actor Frederick Matthias Alexander (1869-1955) to promote wellbeing through awareness of balance, posture and physical co-ordination.
Alexander reasoned that this awareness allowed individuals to adjust unconscious bodily habits into new patterns which offered a number of physical and mental benefits. For more than 60 years Carrington made an immense contribution to the preservation and development of the teaching of the technique.
Walter Hadrian Marshall Carrington was born in Selby, Yorkshire, in 1915, the only child of the Rev Walter Marshall Carrington. In 1917 the family moved to London where he spent the rest of his life. He attended St Paul’s School.
He had intended to join the Society of Jesus but he was so impressed by the lessons which his mother had taken in the Alexander technique that he started taking lessons himself. In 1936, he joined Alexander’s teacher training course and he qualified in 1939.
He married Dilys Jones in 1940 and, the following year, qualified as an RAF pilot, serving in the Pathfinders. He and his crew survived being shot down over Hungary in 1944, but were taken prisoner. Carrington had broken several bones, including his pelvis, and was sent to a military hospital from which, however, he eventually escaped.
On demobilisation with the rank of flight lieutenant in 1946 he rejoined Alexander’s practice in London where he gave lessons and taught on Alexander’s teacher training course. Fifty years later he published A Time to Remember: A Personal Diary of Teaching the F. M. Alexander Technique in 1946, which provides insights into Alexander’s methods and personality as well as conveying the atmosphere of the time.
In those early days Carrington also taught regularly in Cardiff, Guernsey, Oxford and Nottingham. After Alexander’s death in 1955 Carrington and three other teachers carried on the training course according to Alexander’s methods.
In 1960 the course moved to Holland Park, London, where it remains, and was renamed the Constructive Teaching Centre,with Carrington and his wife as its directors. The training course grew with the upsurge of interest in the technique in the 1970s and it became the largest operation of its kind in the world, with up to 45 students each year from the 1980s onwards. Around 300 Alexander teachers have qualified from the centre.
The problem facing teachers who carried on courses or started new ones after Alexander’s death was how to provide training in the absence of the founder of the technique. Carrington refused to become a “master” whose words would be taken as absolute; instead, he developed a training programme which respected the autonomy of each student and which encouraged questions and explorations.
The process of teaching was adapted to the needs of individual students who were treated as equals. Instead of adopting a pre-existing teaching approach (as in, for example, the traditional classroom model), the Carringtons evolved a way of teaching and training in accord with the principles of the Alexander technique itself. Their methods have been taken up by training courses throughout the world.
Carrington was an inspirational teacher because he embodied the principles of the technique in his own life. His dedication to the technique helped him to overcome many difficulties. Because of his war injuries he suffered periods of severe pain during the 1970s. Despite this he retained an optimistic outlook, and the pain eventually disappeared after three operations.
Carrington taught from 9am to 6pm, five days a week, until he was 80, at which age he reduced his hours. Horsemanship, including dressage, was among his lifelong interests. He continued to ride until the age of 87 and was still teaching until shortly before his death.
Though without a formal scientific training, Carrington took a keen interest in scientific developments of relevance to the Alexander technique: he kept his students informed about papers on posture, balance, human and animal movement, and related subjects, whenever he thought they made a valuable contribution to the practice and theory of the technique.
In keeping himself up to date with Alexander technique literature, Carrington amassed what is thought to be the largest collection of books, papers and articles on the technique in the world today. His phenomenal memory of the history of the technique, and his readiness to grant others access to his library, were tremendously important for researchers — two recent biographies of Alexander owe much to him.
Carrington published two collections of lectures, Thinking Aloud (1994) and The Act of Living (1999), in which he discusses such matters as breathing, the balance of the head, the effects on the body of gravity, habitual behaviour, ethics and many other topics related to the development of physical wellbeing and the consciousness of self. These transcribed impromptu talks, erudite but always accessible and jargon-free, capture the flavour of what one observer described as Carrington’s “gentle, almost hypnotic, quiet rhetoric”. For his students and others, Carrington was also their living link to Alexander himself.
In 1992 he had published Explaining the Alexander Technique: The Writings of F. Matthias Alexander — In Conversation with Walter Carrington and Sean Carey, which elucidated the practical significance of Alexander’s own four books as an aid for students.
Carrington was a stalwart, though a low-profile one, of the Society of Teachers of the Alexander Technique (Stat), participating in all events which brought teachers together to share work and experiences. The Holland Park centre’s large teaching room was provided free of charge for many workshops, lectures and meetings over the years.
In the last year of his life Carrington participated in the debate in Stat as to how far the society should regulate its members. He spoke firmly against adopting criteria which would involve some teachers judging other teachers, arguing that the art and expertise of the technique could not be reduced to the level of a conventional examination.
Patient, modest and non-judgemental, Carrington always radiated a powerful benevolence. He declined honorary membership of Stat, observing that it is inappropriate to make distinctions between individuals who are equal members of the same body. Carrington is survived by his wife Dilys and their three sons.
Walter Carrington, teacher of the Alexander technique, was born on May 4, 1915. He died on August 7, 2005, aged 90.
Sad
August 07, 2005
Sad news on the AT list this morning:
Dear All,
Walter Carrington died last night. He had a serious fall two weeks ago, falling and hitting his head, and did not recover. I have a deep respect for Walter's work and life and feel grateful that I could know him.
sadly
Jeremy
Dear All,
Walter Carrington died last night. He had a serious fall two weeks ago, falling and hitting his head, and did not recover. I have a deep respect for Walter's work and life and feel grateful that I could know him.
sadly
Jeremy