Elisabeth Walker ~ December 1914 – 17 September 2013

It is with great sadness that I heard of the death of Elisabeth Walker, an inspiring teacher and the last of the first generation of AT teachers who trained with F M Alexander himself.

Elisabeth ran an AT Teacher Training course in Oxford for many years with her husband Dick Walker and she was a guest teacher and speaker at many international Alexander Conferences and events. Her fascinating memoir ‘Forward and Away’ shows us just how important her family and her life as an Alexander Teacher were to her. Thankfully we can still watch a valuable record of her teaching on various videos on YouTube.

In 2004 an extremely youthful Elisabeth Walker attended the 7th Alexander Technique Conference in Oxford and was seen cycling to and from the Conference each day – at the age of 90!

Elisabeth will be missed by many people and I would like to offer my condolences to her family, particularly to Lucia Walker and Julia Cowper, who are both Alexander teachers. There will be a memorial and celebration of her life, some time next year.

Elisabeth
will be buried at Westmill Woodland Burial Ground on Friday 5th October.

YouTube as an AT Resource

I have just been watching ‘A Conversation With Marjorie Barlow’ on YouTube and it was good for me to be reminded of the wonderful AT lessons I had with this ‘first generation’ teacher. I also realized yet again just what a valuable resource YouTube can be for people interested in the Alexander Technique. There are videos suitable for complete beginners, right through to videos that are a useful resource for teacher trainees and experienced AT teachers.

Marjorie Barlow was F M Alexander’s niece and she trained as an AT teacher with FM himself. Later, she was one of the first people to start training AT teachers and she ran a training course for many years with her husband Dr Wilfred Barlow.

In the video, Marjorie Barlow maintains her quiet poise throughout and her face frequently lights up with smiles and laughter as she shares some of her extensive knowledge of the Technique. She stresses how important it is for each of us to ‘think in activity’ and that using the Technique is an attentive process. Whilst she encourages people to apply the Technique to many activities and acknowledges that each teacher will bring their own personality and experiences to the work, Marjorie Barlow encourages us to maintain the Technique in a ‘pure’ form and not to mistakenly ‘throw the baby out with the bath water’ by diluting it too much – something I very much aim to do in my own teaching.

This YouTube video is particularly valuable for teachers or anyone thinking of becoming a trainee.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bYH_xpoDkBM

Monthly Archives: September 2013

Elisabeth Walker

Alexander Technique Videos