My Alexander Journey - part 2

I continued to travel to London to have my lessons, but even after the first lesson I was already aware that this was what I wanted to do... I just had no idea how. But I guess over the two to three months I must have found out about the Alexander teacher training courses in the UK (all in London back then) because I remember receiving letters that said either they were full, or I had not had enough lessons yet, but then there was the letter from Paul and Betty Collins (as were then), principals at the school in Highgate, North London. They invited me to come and visit to spend a day on the course. I must have applied very late into the summer as I remember I visited on the first day of the autumn term. I remember having some work from Paul, being vey timidly part of the ‘banter’ in the kitchen at coffee time, awed at the conversations going on around me; they all seemed to be so knowledgable about the sensations going on in their bodies. I clearly remember watching a second year student being taken through the, what we call, ‘taking of a shoulder‘ of another student lying on the table. (Some Alexander work is done whilst the student in lying in ‘semi-supine‘ (feet on the table with knees bent). I have never forgotten what was said about that that day!

And then it was the end of the day and time to meet with Paul, Betty, Margaret Farrar, and Vivien Mackie, the senior teachers on the course. I still remember sitting there while they looked at my what I thought was a pretty feeble application form; I didn’t boast much in the way of academic qualifications, and I was only 22. Then Paul looked up and said, “We think you will make a very good teacher. When can you start?” I write this only to explain my reaction. I nearly fell off the chair; I had never, ever been told I was good enough for anything, let alone that I could one day be good at the thing I already loved so much. And ‘when could I start’?... My mind was a whirl. I said I would go home and do what I could with a view to their suggested start date in two weeks time. If I could start then all would be well, otherwise it would have to be in the spring term, qualifying on my own in the spring term three years later.

I remember driving the 90 minutes home - in my little old Morris 1000 Traveller (boy, did this training put some miles on that!) - and going to choir practice that night and feeling as if I was floating on air. This was something I really, really wanted to do, and they thought I was good enough, and they wanted me. Yes, I know, no pressure on myself then....! And yes, the years have had to deal with that one, but that’s in more blogs to come.

The next thing I had to do was to call my uncle who was executor of my late grand-mother’s will. I had been left a small amount of money in trust for when I was 25. I would have to ask him not only if he would release it for my training, but obviously explain to him what the Alexander Technique was. Now, as a lot of us know, that is no easy thing; it so depends on a great many things, added to the fact that my uncle was more ‘old school’ than almost anyone alive at the time! We met in a pub in Windsor, and I still remember it. I cannot for the life of me remember what I said, but I must have ‘done good’ because he said yes. Well, he said a (very usual for my family) half-yes. He would contact the school and speak to Paul and come back to me. I felt about ten! When he did he said he would release half of the trust (same old half-stuff!) and that he had had to persuade Paul to go unpaid for two terms in the middle of the three years until the other half was released. I felt very uncomfortable with this, but Paul and Betty reassured me, and the two weeks later, I joined the course.

Tomorrow I will share more about how the days went, and how much my neck and back improved over the ensuing weeks.