I've always wanted to reach as many people as possible with my Alexander Technique. I put flyers out, ran newspaper adverts, put a notice on my website, emailed everyone I knew, sent letters to local practitioners who might send their clients...but still only a handful of people attended.

For Meade, 50-70 people to an introductory workshop is normal... and not just now that she has a reputation, but from the very start. Wow! How quickly could we touch people in our community if we regularly filled rooms like this.

But what do we DO with them when they're all sitting in rows waiting for their own cauliflower to open?

Meade has been doing this for 23+ years and now brings her knowledge to AT teachers who want to be more effective in communicating with groups. I'm looking forward to our chat and delving into the insights that Meade will be generously sharing with us.

To register your attendance at this conference, please click here.

More about Meade Andrews...

Meade has taught and performed as an actor, dancer, choreographer, director, and movement coach for dance and theatre throughout her career. She trained at the Alexander Alliance (1983-86), and most recently completed a teacher refresher course with John Nicholls in New York City, where she also attended Jesssica Wolf's course in the Art of Breathing. Meade has taught throughout the US, Canada, Europe, and Japan. Meade currently maintains a private practice in Boca Raton, and teaches in the graduate acting program at Florida Atlantic University. She also travels to teach in NY and DC, where she directed the dance program at American University, and continues to present workshops at the Studio Theatre, her professional base for 20 years. Meade presented her work "The Art of Group Teaching" at the Lugano Congress, 2008.

Late in 2008 a new “membership” section was created at the website.

Whilst we've been busy beavering away creating content like Walter Carrington audios, Live Interviews, articles, journals, congress papers etc, the whole concept of "membership" might have been lost on many.

So, we’ve simplified the whole “membership / subscription” thing. (hopefully!)

Now there are just two types of subscription available at Direction Journal, NOT “membership”. I won’t be mentioning “membership” ever again, ok? Well, maybe once.

Subscriptions Free and Subscriptions Paid.

A Free Subscription is a taste of our resource base. All of the Walter Carrington audios are available, with 2 new recordings loaded each month, a selection of Congress papers from 1988, 1991, 1994 plus a few bonus live interviews added every now and then from the paid subscription vault. Also a Directory listing is included, valued at $20 per year.

A Paid Subscription is the full deal. You’ll receive all benefits of the free subscription, plus every new issue to your door, all back issues online, the complete Congress Papers from 1988, 1991, 1994, recordings and transcripts of live interviews, plus more products and services to come. PLUS a pdf of every new issue for printing replacement copies from your desktop!

For more information on each type of subscription (see, it rolls off the tongue better than membership) click on the blue links above, or here.

If you were one of the first to join us back in November by paying $1 for a 2 month trial…we hope you’ve made the most of the 6 months of “trial”!

For Direction Journal to stay alive this time, we are looking for an ongoing commitment from you and the Alexander community. A brand new issue is in the pipeline for delivery before Christmas and the plan is to produce a print version quarterly. 

But wait there's more...

We're working on a community concept that just might be a revolution for publicizing Alexander Technique internationally and at the same time give AT teachers a place to develop their own businesses online. But more on that soon.

If you value the independent voice and creativity that is Direction Journal, subscribe now.

PC

Over the first 18 years of Direction Journal, Dr David Garlick was a pillar of its success. His passion, dry wit and unique talent at bringing the scientifically complicated to the Alexander Technique community was renowned.

Thanks to technology, Croatia, India, UK and USA...plus a tireless Editor in Melbourne...just relocated to the Gold Coast (!) we are able to now bring together all 20 of Dr Garlick's reports into one handy issue of Direction Journal...albeit squeezed into 40 pages.

If you've ever referred back to your Direction Journals...wondering "where did I see that reference to red and white muscle fibres that Dr Garlick explained so well...?" Soon it will all be at your finger tips. PLUS, you will also have an opportunity to print replacement copies from your desktop (as part of a subscription package)

We will only be printing exactly enough copies for orders. Gone are the days of carrying stock.

The new magazine will cost $22 + postage and handling...OR included as part of a subscription package.

Stay tuned for details on our new subscription plans.

PC 

I first met Catherine via email when I took over Direction Journal in late 2001. She was the incumbent issue editor of our “The Future” issue (Volume 2 No. 10) which had been put on hold due to financial problems. Catherine had interviewed 6 master teachers of the Alexander Technique; Marjorie Barlow, Walter Carrington, Richard Gummere, Elisabeth Walker, Erika Whittaker and Peggy Williams and also brought together all of the writers for that issue…a commendable job.

When I attended the Oxford Congress in 2004, with a mountain of Direction magazines to sell, Catherine’s workshop was one of only two I signed up to experience. “Teaching Without Touch” was for me, a novel concept, having graduated from a more "traditional” training course. If we didn’t have physical contact with our student, there probably wasn’t much we were teaching them!

When Catherine and her training school co-director, David Mills suggested we grab somebody off the street to introduce to Alexander Technique I had to inhibit my skepticism. Why would a complete stranger to our work even want to experience it, let alone obtain benefit from such a quick experience?

I don’t think the volunteer I helped to bring in from the street really knew how their perspective on life could change so easily, so quickly. The process Catherine uses to introduce new thinking to people was revolutionary to my idea of how to help people change using AT.

Join me on this call for an insight into how Alexander Technique can be introduced and taught to groups, large or small.

Click here to register and post any questions you'd like discussed as we only have 60 minutes to fill.

More about Catherine…

Began studying the Alexander Technique in 1973 with Marjorie Barstow and qualified as a teacher in 1976. Has worked in United States and Europe.

• Presented at the 1991 Engleberg Congress, Switzerland
• Guest Teacher 1994 Sydney Congress, Australia
• Presented "Teaching Without Touching" at 2004 Oxford Congress, UK
• Helped found Alexander Technique International
• Co-founded The Performance School in 1986, an Alexander Teacher Training course based in Seattle, USA

Catherine is also an American Sign Language/English interpreter with a Ph.D. from the University of Washington. She came across Formal Consensus via her involvement with ATI which has led to an exploration of conflict resolution, dialogue and decision making processes. She enjoys horseback riding, Aikido, tap dancing, bike riding and learning languages.

I read Body Learning first, then I read Use of the Self. I wonder how many others around the world have found their way to Alexander Technique via this route over the past 28 years since it was first published. His writing is prolific, his calendar booked solid internationally and yet he speaks from his easy chair as if time is only a commodity that the unenlightened must labour with. (see clip below)

Juggling  was something that I had naively put into the same basket as learning a second language, perfecting the violin and ice skating. Either you learn it when you're young or spend half your life trying. But Michael gently rearranged my limiting beliefs by teaching me to juggle in under an hour...by reading his book !

Michael Gelb has worked with the top corporations in the world and takes time from his busy schedule to speak with me about life, his passions and the future for Alexander Technique.

Visit his website here for a biography that reads like several (of my) lifetimes.

My good friend and guest on our next call will be Jeremy Chance. Founder of Direction Journal in the mid 80's and now a successful Director of a training school, with campuses in Tokyo and Kyoto in Japan, Jeremy needs no introduction in the Alexander Technique world.

Jeremy trained in England in the late 70's and then went on to train again with Marjorie Barstow.

His love affair with Japan began with meeting his wife Jaldhara in 1987, and continued after marriage in 1999 with the opening of his training school in Tokyo. After many reinventions and years of perseverance in a vastly different culture to where AT originated, Jeremy has now cracked the formula with his BodyChance training model.

Our talk will focus on the keys to success in reaching people who know nothing about your profession, don't understand the language and don't have the social structure to support such a self-empowering learning dimension as the AT work.

Perhaps these skills are needed in any culture?

Body Chance website.

About Our Call

Our conversation is going to focus on Josephine's work with the IT division of Chevron/Texaco which was brought to my attention via her Lugano Congress Presentation. 

If you're wondering how to attract the attention of corporations and perhaps reach a wider audience with your work, Jo will be open for questions at the end of our call. There are very few AT teachers successfully working in the business sector...seize the opportunity to learn from Jo's mistakes and pick her brain on the secrets to securing higher paying work.

More about Josephine...

Josephine started studying the Technique in 1983 in San Francisco to rescue her career as a professional violinist from a debilitating repetitive strain injury. She has studied the Technique in London and Rome and has a Bachelor's degree in Music Performance. Josephine has taught the Technique for 5 years to actors at the American Conservatory Theater Summer Congress and to singers at Opera and the Arts for Young Girls. 

Visit her website here.

Simply give us a testimony at "Book of the Month" on the left of this page and you'll go into the draw to win a copy of Ted Dimon's Elements of Skill.

Only two people gave reviews last month...so your odds are pretty good! And, we'll pay the postage.

This is for the month of May, 2009.

Yours in Alexander,

PC

A recent message posted via the Alex-tech list (to join click on the subscriptions link above) alerted me to this wonderful news. Maybe I'm just behind the times here in oz land...but hearing this has given my ticker a little kick.

Sure, they have the budget and corporate mentality to invest wisely in their employees...but this only stands as a shining example of what the bright companies are doing to keep their creative people beaming. 

When Google decides to employ an Alexander Technique teacher...there is nothing surer than "our day is coming". I might try to get John Baron on an interview so we can learn the secret to securing such an amazing client.

Here's the link to the video, it's 48 minutes long and I haven't watched it yet. Enjoy!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bzwDRW7-vuc

PC

Firstly, here's some of the new benefits our membership have access to as of today:

- 2 new Walter Carrington recordings

- New Live interview with veteran AT teacher, Jessica Wolf. Members click here.

- 6 new Engleberg Congress articles (these are taking longer to upload than I originally planned)

- 2 more Direction Journals uploaded into the archive

For non-members, please click here for a bonus Walter Carrington recording, as promised some weeks ago.

But the big news is that the membership is growing...and it's still only $1. Yep, technical hitches have prevented us from charging the membership dues but it's getting closer now.

We're going to introduce this recurring billing with a very huge announcement. You might already have an idea on what the announcement is...you just won't have any idea of the content of it.

As always...delays and a vertical learning curve have meant that I'm way behind schedule on a number of promises. Thanks for remaining patient and for your ongoing support. Direction has been around for many years...and the diehards are what keep us going. 

Check out the home page for a slight face lift...we've rearranged some of the links for a simpler interface and also introduced an explanatory page on "Subscriptions"...due to a constant stream of questions about all the new free things available via the website. 

As always, email me if you have any questions. I'm working on that FAQ page...which will save ME a lot of time. PC