Connection…

I have been having a difficult time lately with some hands-on work in Alexander Technique teacher training…namely with the concept of hands seemingly to connect directly to the back and feet…of using hands without gripping in the arms…when lifting. In other words, accomplishing lifting with the minimum muscular tension. I felt stymied. I was feeling that I couldn’t quite get the quality of the touch…that my hands were in fact totally disconnected from my back and feet. Then, during one class when I was working alone and intensely with my trainer, I had a breakthrough. It became clear to me that my hand had to meet the body part in question (in this case my hand under his shoulder or armpit) or object in question (in this case a board or book I was lifting) with the same kind of connection/pressure/intensity that I was receiving from the body part or object. I had to match the connection. I had to meet the same intensity. And when I accomplished this I did manage to lift with my hands using minimum muscular tension, especially in my arms. While I was putting hands-on over and over again, all of a sudden I remembered the sensations of dancing tango in Paris with a friend when we were just practicing walking around the room matching connection hand to hand, and chest to chest, giving back the same intensity of pressure as receiving. In a flash I intuited that these two connection situations were one and the same…

If practicing tango can help me with my Alexander Technique teaching hands-on, well, I am all for that!

my practice shoes