Results tagged “lessons” from Hilary King's Blog

Holiday Dates

Please note I will not be teaching the Alexander Technique in Stoke Newington from

Monday 30th August - Tuesday 14th September

If you would like to enquire about individual Alexander Technique lessons with me, please contact me here and I will get back to you as soon as I am able to do so.              

I went to this year's Conference for STAT Recognised Alexander Technique Teachers, held at Sussex University. It was a lively and informative event, with a good range of workshops, lectures and discussion about teaching the Alexander Technique. Issues to do with the structure and running of the Society of Teachers of the Alexander Technique, STAT, were also debated in depth at the AGM.

The Annual Memorial Lecture this year was given by Vivien Mackie and was titled 'Doing Only What is Necessary, and Taking the Time it Takes'. This was a fascinating and amusing account of Mackie's experience of learning the cello with Pablo Casals, which eventually led her into training to be an Alexander Technique teacher and how she applied this learning over forty or so years of playing music and teaching the AT, mainly but not exclusively, to musicians.

The conference also offered us a time to mix and exchange work and ideas with other AT teachers. It was good to see the Technique being used quite naturally in a range of different ways - sitting through lectures, having a drink at the bar or, as in the photo,  to see a young teacher using the lying down procedure to look after his tired back during a walk through the parkland.


When the Alexander Technique becomes a way of life and is used like this, outside lessons as well as in them, then it really becomes a valuable and effective tool that we can use to look after ourselves.

If you would like to find out more about Alexander Technique lessons in Stoke Newington, North London, you may contact me here.

STAT Conference ~ Brighton University 9 - 11 July 2010

I shall be going to this year's STAT Conference and AGM in Brighton, so please note that I will be unavailable to teach in Stoke Newington at this time.

As well as the AGM, there will be a number of interesting Workshops to attend. I also look forward to hearing the Annual Lecture, which will be given by Vivien Mackie, Alexander Teacher and author of 'Just Play Naturally: An Account of her studies with Pablo Casals'  in which she links Casals' cello teaching with the Principles of the Alexander Technique.

The Annual F M  Alexander Memorial Lecture on Saturday 10th July is open to anyone interested in the Alexander Technique.

Have you found that Alexander Technique lessons have helped you and would you like to give someone the chance to try the Technique? Well, now you can do so very easily.

Gift Certificates are now available for Alexander Technique lessons or Introductory Workshops with Hilary King in Stoke Newington, London N16.

The Gift Vouchers come in various denominations and can be custom made to suit you, with the name of your friend added onto the Certificate. For instance, you could buy a Voucher for one Introductory Lesson or Workshop, or you could buy a Voucher for a group of 4 or more lessons.




















Please contact Hilary for full details or phone:

020 7254 9206
 

Hilary King is on the CNHC Register. 

The Complementary & Natural Healthcare Council, CNHC has been set up with the help of the Prince's Foundation, to develop a structure of self-regulation for professional disciplines such as the Alexander Technique.

CNHC will work with the Society of Teachers of the Alexander Technique, STAT, to maintain and monitor high standards of Alexander Technique teaching and of professional Codes of Conduct. The CNHC is developing and expanding the number of disciplines that are eligible to join the register.

Further information:

http://www.cnhc.org.uk/pages/index.cfm?page_id=3

If you are already having Alexander Technique lessons, you might like to join AT Friends and go to some of their talks and Workshops, which take place at various venues around the country. These talks are an excellent way for you to extend your understanding of AT work and to meet other people who have some experience of the Alexander Technique.

Joining costs very little and the talks cost even less.

The next talk for London AT Friends is:

Thinking in Activity - How Space Shapes Attention ~ by Glenna Batson

Date: Tuesday 20 April

Time: 6.30 - 8.30

Fee:   £5 (£3 Concession)

For further info visit:

AT Friends 

Switch Off to show you care about Climate Change
27 March 8.30pm

Challenge your habits and turn off all electrics that are not essential for one hour. No lights, no TV, no music, no computer.... Have fun and create a different sort of evening for yourself, along with hundreds of people around the world that are joining this WWF campaign. Draw attention to the issues involved with adapting to climate change and think about what life may be like without our familiar appliances available to us if there are power shortages in the future.

So why am I mentioning this here on my Alexander Technique Blog?

I aim to run my Alexander Technique teaching practise in an environmentally aware way and work towards being as energy efficient as I can, so this falls naturally into my field of awareness.

Also, in Alexander lessons, we are always learning how to let go of habits that don't serve us and in many ways we all need to do exactly this - let go of many of our habits - in order to reduce our carbon footprints and energy consumption. How often do we leave the tap running, the lights on, or the the TV constantly on, just by habit, even though we are not even using them? What a waste of these valuable resources!

We can inhibit, stop these habits and make simple but important changes in our lives that will help conserve  our fragile environment.

As the WWF says - Be Bright, Turn Off the Light!

Further info about WWF Earth Hour:

http://earthhour.wwf.org.uk/about_earth_hour/

Alexander Technique Workshop 20 March

I am pleased to say the fees and donations from this Workshop totalled  £150, all of which was donated  to the UNICEF Haiti Earthquake Children's Emergency Appeal

The workshop fees were added to by Gift Aid.

Haiti was decimated by the recent earthquake and it is the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere, so every pound donated for the Workshop, went towards UNICEF's ongoing recovery programme in Haiti.

Saturday 20th March ~10.00am - 12.30pm

A Half Price follow-up lesson was available to participants

Poise and Posture

When we are children, most people have a beautiful easy poise, as is illustrated in this photo of a little girl sitting on a giant snow seat. Despite the obvious cold, the child is sitting easily and in a relaxed manner, whilst many adults would be bent over and tensed up against the chill!

There are many influences in our lives that get us interfering with our natural poise. Our attitudes and emotional experiences are reflected in the way we use our bodies and our minds gradually tend to become rather set so that our view of the world - and our physical responses to it - become rather fixed and habitual. Stress, peer group pressures, accidents and illnesses all play their part in moulding our habitual body use and many of us end up crumpling our bodies down into ourselves - whilst others over-extend and arch their backs in an attempt to 'stand up straight' - both of which pull us off our balance and poise.

Fortunately, F M Alexander realised that we are able to reduce some of these effects if we are willing to let go of habits of thought and behaviour that interfere with our natural use. During Alexander Technique lessons, we can learn how to do this and in so doing, regain much of the fluid, free and poised way of being and moving that we had as children and feeling more comfortable in ourselves.

You may read more about Alexander Technique classes here.

Introductory Alexander Technique Course starts Monday 11 January - 1.0pm - 2.30pm.

Please note that the upcoming Introductory Alexander Technique Course will now be running for 4 sessions on Monday lunchtimes, rather than 5.

The fee for the course is now £65.

This course is for a small group of beginners. Please contact Hilary to see if it is still possible to book a place on the course. You may also phone her re the course or to book an individual lesson.
 
Tel: 020 7254 9206