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The LearningMethods Library
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Experience and Experiments
in the Alexander World
by David Gorman
The following was originally published in The Congress Papers by Direction
Journal, July 1992 and is a record of a masterclass given by David at the 3rd International Congress
of the Alexander Technique in Engleberg, Switzerland in August 1991
Copyright © 1992, David Gorman (all rights reserved)
As everyone who was at the recent Congress in Engleberg could see for themselves,
we are starting to grow up as a profession. Not only in terms of numbers, but also in the confidence
and willingness to look around us at our colleagues and to marvel at the range of talents and interpretations
of this work we do. Except for a few sourpusses who held themselves aloof in the mistaken idea
that their technique was the real thing and needed protecting from those who were either charlatans
or fools, we all got stretched and inspired, appreciated for what we can do and able to see what
we might do.
This seems to me, having attending all three congresses, the first one which
really included and was representative of the entire community—by the entire community I mean all
those who are sincerely exploring the Alexander work and teaching others (and of course, therefore
have something to offer us all of their knowledge and their discoveries). It is precisely those
who are farthest from us in their background and their way of approach from whom we stand to learn
the most. I was very pleased to see so many people so excited by so many different understandings
of the work. We still have a long way to go, both in opening ourselves up to the people around
us in our own profession and in developing the potential of the work, but we're off to a good and
promising start that feels more solid than ever before.
It is a particularly good time for us all to be coming to this consolidation
of the meaning of the work through sharing and openness because the profession has reached the
'age' when those who worked directly with Alexander are retiring or passing away and the mantle
is passing to another generation of teachers who do not have that direct remembrance of where the
work originated. We have only each other now and what we have learned from our teachers and discovered
for ourselves, so it behooves us to begin to make the best of each other so that we don't find
ourselves slipping down the path to discord and dissipation of the force of the work through conflict
in a way that has afflicted so many other nascent professions. Anyway, that's enough of a plug
for tolerance and openness...
The congress was such a fullness of possibilities that few of us were able to
attend more than a fraction of the groups and workshops we would have liked. Perhaps as we read
through these Congress papers we'll be able to glimpse at least something of what we missed and
whet our appetites for Australia in '94. I had initially decided against accepting the invitation
to give one of the second generation classes because I've become less satisfied with the value
of workshops where I show how I teach by working with others and demonstrating how I do it. It
has become much more interesting for me to help others find their own way of teaching and/or what
is stopping them from developing their unique and individual expression. I couldn't quite imagine
how to approach this in the time and format available.
Then I remembered what one of the students on my training course had said about
a lesson she'd had with Peggy Williams. The student had asked Peggy what she did to get ready to
teach as she was about to work with a pupil. She said that Peggy had replied something to the effect
that "why should I do anything to teach, I am a teacher!" It made me realize, of course!
Why should we do things to get ready to teach if we've already integrated the work into our daily
lives. We're as ready as we're ever going to be. If we haven't integrated the work into our daily
lives then we're not suddenly going to get any better by preparing for a few seconds—we're only
going to get a little more prepared and less our normal selves. If we feel we have to get ready
before coming into contact with a pupil maybe we should work a little more on integrating our 'good
use' into our daily lives so that we actually are living what we suggest to our pupils.
So I decided to use the second generation class as a way to experiment with
this issue with the various teachers and trainees who attended. We kept it simple—just splitting
up into small groups, each person taking turns to come up to work on another as they 'normally'
did, the others observing to see if they stopped and got ready, or 'directed', or 'released' or
anything special that happened just before coming to contact and proceeding with the lesson. It
was surprising for a lot of people how much they put in between them and the pupil in terms of
preparation.
The second part of the experiment was then to leave out all that intermediate
'Alexander stuff' just to see what would happen. Here it was interesting how difficult people found
it not to do their usual 'teaching' stuff. They felt as if they were no longer doing the Technique,
or that they couldn't possibly teach, or that they would be no good without their extra 'Alexander
armour'. It revealed a lot.
But the most fascinating (and powerful) thing was what actually happened when
the 'teachers' didn't do all their 'teacherness'. The 'pupil' being worked with and the observing
group all could see and feel the change. In their own way each person felt that the teacher was
'more with them' as opposed to behind their teacherness. They felt more 'allowed', more 'space
and warmth'. It was as if the teacher by being more themselves allowed the pupil to be more themselves,
which felt good and was appreciated. The pupils found themselves less concerned with what was supposed
to happen and less anxious of what was expected of them. They were more present with the rest of
the group and less drawn in to some inner physical feeling process. For most participants this
was all quite unexpected and interesting. Once the teachers got over their difficulty in letting
go of the perceived necessity to 'direct', etc. they also felt more at ease and had more enjoyment
in what they were doing. They didn't have to do the teaching, they could be the teaching.
In other words, they could be teachers.
I think for many it was a surprise to realize that, indeed, they already were
highly-trained, sensitive beings embodying a lot more of the work than they had thought. That their
preparation and doing actually kept them from their own integration. It distanced them from the
pupil and from the human responsiveness between the two of them. I'm only sorry the time was so
short (and that I had to miss the other classes to do my own).
I think I'll go as a 'civilian' another time...
~~~~~~
There is a small biography of personal details about
the author below.
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About the Author
 David Gorman developed the
LearningMethods work out of over
30 years of research and teaching
experiences. His background is in
art and science and a fascination
with exploring human structure
and function. In the mid-1970s he
spent many nights dissecting in
the lab and drawing furiously.
In 1980 he published a heavily
illustrated 600-page work on our
human musculo-skeletal system called The Body Moveable (now in its 5th edition) and in 1966, a collection of articles, Looking at Ourselves.
He happened upon the Alexander Technique in 1972 and was immediately intrigued by its power for change; and has been teaching that work since 1980, becoming well-known worldwide for his innovations to the work and notorious for challenging the orthodoxy of the profession. He has been invited to teach all over the world in universities, conservatories and training colleges, at conferences and symposia, and with performance groups and health professionals.
In 1982, his teaching was revolutionised by his discovery of a new model of human organisation
— Anatomy of Wholeness — with its profound implications about our in-built natural tendency toward balance, ease and wholeness. He extended these insights into a new way of training teachers of the Alexander Technique and from 1988 to 1997 in London,
England he trained 45 teachers.
His experiences with his own students and in other training groups made it clear that a huge part of our chronic problems lay not in the 'body' but in our consciousness and habitual way of seeing things and how we misinterpret our daily experiences and then become caught in reaction to these misunderstandings.
At this point it also became apparent that his discoveries revealed new premises which in turn implied new teaching methods, so David developed the LearningMethods work to teach people how to apply their in-built intelligence and clarity of perception to their daily experience in order to understand their problems, solve them and successfully navigate their lives.
Since the beginning of this new work in 1997, David has trained a growing number of LearningMethods Teachers, many of whom are now teaching the LM work in universities and conservatories, and he is now planning a new Toronto-based
modular training program for LearningMethods, Anatomy of Wholeness and the Alexander Technique. He continues to
write more about the work, and give workshops to performers, teachers and the public in
North America, Europe, and Asia (see his teaching schedule), as well as raising another young son.
DAVID GORMAN
Send an e-mail
Tel: +1 416-519-5470, Fax: +1 416-519-7470
19 Stephen Drive, Etobicoke, Ontario, Canada M8Y 3M7
LEARNINGMETHODS
Tel: +1 416-519-5470, Fax: +1 416-519-7470
19 Stephen Drive, Etobicoke, Ontario, Canada M8Y 3M7
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