The Alexander Technique – Ancient Roots
“Just as you have the impulse to do something, stop.”
―Early Zen scripture (anonymous)
“Stop leaving and you will arrive. Stop searching and you will see. Stop running away and you will be found.”
― Lao Tzu
“To a mind that is still the whole universe surrenders.”
― Lao Tzu
The theme of this year’s season of events explores parallel truths within the Alexander Technique and the ancient disciplines of Zen Buddhism, the Tao De Ching and Tai Chi. FM Alexander re-discovered for the Western world truths long known in the practice of these disciplines and he articulated them in a practical and unique way.
Our series presents three distinguished teachers of the Alexander Technique who are all long-time practitioners of Eastern disciplines that have enriched their understanding and transmission of their Alexander work. They will explore Alexander’s discoveries and the evolution of his work throughout his lifetime–his paring down into simplicity, distilling ‘the way that cannot be told’.
The practice of the Alexander Technique links us to timeless truths and traditions.
Workshops for this Event
Living the Work
Bruce Fertman, USA and Japan
Saturday & Sunday, 1st & 2nd October 2016
10.00 AM to 4.00 PM
This event is limited to 15 participants.
FEE: £75 for teachers per day / £45 for teacher trainees per day. Book here
To book a private lesson with Bruce on Monday, October 3rd and Tuesday October 4th, click here.
Aldous Huxley referred to F.M. Alexander as the first Western Taoist, and for good reason. Shared values, both philosophic and pragmatic, exist between the teachings of Lao Tzu and F.M. Both understood the power of softness, the effectiveness of allowing rather than forcing, of doing less instead of more, the imperative of beginning with oneself. Both understood the value of stopping, of waiting in readiness. Both perceived the usefulness of space and the constancy of change. Both offered a way, a means whereby, for transforming conflict into confluence.
Living my life as an Alexander teacher has been my practice, my way of embodying Lao Tzu’s teachings, while at the same time studying Lao Tzu has been my way of discerning the spiritual implications of Alexander’s work. This interfacing has given me insight into helping my students free themselves on every level, physically, psychologically, and spiritually.
This workshop will not be esoteric. It will be practical and fun. We will apply Taoist principles to how we see, listen, speak, and touch our students. I hope you will join me.
Fluid as melting ice, do you have the patience to wait till your mud settles and the water is clear?
Can you remain unmoving until the right action arises by itself?
If you realize that all things change there is nothing you will try to hold onto.
Less and less will you need to force things.
Lao Tzu/Stephen Mitchell
Bruce Fertman lives in northern New Mexico and in Osaka, Japan. Drawn to Asian culture since childhood, it was in college where Bruce encountered the teachings of Lao Tzu. Lao Tzu’s philosophy would come to underlie all of Bruce’s work as a movement artist and educator, leading him to train in disciplines influenced by Lao Tzu’s principle of ‘wu-wei’, of non-doing: Tai Chi Chu’an, the Alexander Technique, Aikido, Zen Buddhism, Chanoyu, and Kyudo.
In 1982, Bruce co-founded the Alexander Alliance International, an inter-generational, multicultural community/school dedicated to training Alexander teachers.
Bruce has worked with people from all walks of life, often with artists. He has worked with members of the Berlin Philharmonic, Radio France, The National Symphony in Washington DC, the Honolulu Symphony, for the Curtis Institute of Music, and for Jeong Ga Ak Hoe, a traditional Korean music ensemble in Seoul, Korea.
Bruce taught for the Five College Dance Program in Amherst, Massachusetts for 13 years, and for the Tango community in Buenos Aires. For 6 years, Bruce taught movement for actors at Temple and Rutgers University. Bruce also enjoys working with caregivers. For ten years he taught annually for the College of Physiotherapy in Gottingen, Germany. Currently, in Japan, he works with physical, occupational, and speech therapists at Ebina General Hospital in Ebina, Japan.
Author of Where This Path Begins, Renderings of the Tao Te Ching, Bruce is currently at work on his second book entitled, Touching The Intangible, Toward A Theology Of Touch.
Aikido – The Art of Peace
Carsten Møller, Denmark
Saturday & Sunday, 4th & 5th February 2017
10.00 AM to 4.00 PM
This event is limited to 15 participants.
FEE: £75 for teachers per day / £45 for teacher trainees per day. Book here
To book a private lesson with Carsten on Monday, February 6th and Tuesday February 7th, click here.
The roots of the martial art Aikido can be traced to the history of the samurai warrior, although the art itself was shaped in the 1930’s by Morihei Ueshiba, also called O-Sensei. Aikido is known for its non-aggressive attitude towards fighting, and has always had a scent of spirituality to it: AI=Harmony, KI= Energy, DO= Way, translates into something like ‘The Way of creating Harmony with the Universe’.
In the Dojo–the training hall– the aim is to rid oneself of a fighting mind by means of repetitious practice. This means that students face their own habitual ways of either resisting or giving in to the attacker. Then, through learning by doing, the student gradually masters the art of absorbing the force of the opponent, leading the power of the attack to the earth or the sky, leaving no one harmed, and hopefully, having changed the fighting mind of the opponent.
Modern Aikido is often used as a model for the handling of conflict, taught within the company world, as well as to Danish bus drivers learning to handle daily stress and the occasional aggressivity from their customers. Thus learning to apply the basic Aikido skills– a calm mind and a natural relaxed body–makes for better decisions and more harmonious actions.
In this workshop, the participants will experience an Aikido approach to the concept of a better use of oneself, through working with different concepts such as:
- Centring, as an expression of mind and body unity
- Fudoshin– ‘immovable mind’–the relationship between the perception of space and the perception of the particular
- Leading your partner by leading yourself and working within the relational field
Carsten Møller, M.DflAT trained in Copenhagen from 1986-89. Since 2004, he is Head of Training at the Center for Alexanderteknik in Denmark.
In Aikido, he is 5. Dan and Chief Instructor of Ki no Kenkyukai A.I. Denmark. He began practising Aikido in 1983 under the direction of K. Yoshigaskai Sensei. He has taught Aikido and mind-body unification in many different setups and places– for artists, business people, unemployed people, youngsters with social problems and children.
“My work has taken me to Aikido Dojos across Germany, Poland, Sweden and Brazil. There is something basic in the art of Aikido that everybody can relate to and benefit from.
The Alexander Technique has been my main practice since the mid-nineties and I have been teaching across many fields: individual pupils, for employees in companies, at music conservatoires, dance schools, theatre schools as well as postgraduate workshops for Alexander teachers in Denmark, Germany and Finland. I find that the Alexander Technique is a very important path in understanding and appreciating that which is valuable in life.”