Tag Archive | intention
November 10, 2025  

New Year Residential: “Orders” and “Directions”

 

A Three-Day Residential for Teachers and Students of the Alexander Technique

Surprisingly, some teachers now no longer teach their pupils how to direct — a loss that deprives them of one of the most fertile means of self-study and of applying the Technique in daily life.

In this residential we will explore, in depth, what F. M. Alexander and the first-generation teachers taught about ordering and directing: their different shades of meaning, their shared roots in conscious intention, and the ways each invites a different quality of awareness.

We’ll work practically and reflectively with how ordering can calm and clarify the mind, how direction awakens orientation and relationship in space, and how both together lead toward the integrated directive state that unites thought and movement.

See my blog post, Tips4Teachers: Some Thoughts about “Orders” and “Directions”, for an introduction to the ideas behind this course.

Dates: Friday 2 – Sunday 4 January
Cost: £420 (including accommodation in twin, single-sex rooms and all meals)
Overnight accommodation is also available on 1 and 4 January to facilitate travel.
CPD: 15 hours

To enquire about availability, please email me.

Schedule

Time Day 1 Day 2 Day 3
08:00-09:00   Breakfast Breakfast
09:30-11:00   Session 4 Session 8
11:00-11:30 Coffee Coffee Coffee
11:30-13:00 Session 1 Session 5 Session 9
13:00-15:00 Lunch & break Lunch & break Lunch & break
15:00-16:30 Session 2 Session 6 Session 10
16:30-17:00 Tea Tea Tea
17:00-18:30 Session 3 Session 7 Departure
19:30-21:30 Dinner Dinner  
October 20, 2023  

Second Weekend Masterclass

It was so interesting that the programme, and even the menus, for the second weekend were just the same as the first – and yet, with a different group of people, the event was so different.

We were so lucky to have good weather and be mostly outdoors.

With the permission of the writers, I will share some feedback from this course.

The next weekend residential masterclass will be from 5 to 7 January 2024. Contact me for details.

First of all, thank you very much for the residential weekend and your kind extra hospitality! It was really generous from you to share everything with us, your house, your wisdom, your presence, your example. As I said there, I got a very good refresher of the Alexander technique. It was powerful and inspiring, encouraging me to keep up with it. 

On the Sunday, I felt already the wonderful effects of being busy with the technique for two days. I was feeling light, pain-free, energised, easy in my body and movements… I felt happy!

The atmosphere at your home with you and the other students was super pleasant to me! I really enjoyed your comfortable house and felt super cosy sharing a room with Gabriella. The fact that the sessions were in the garden made it extra pleasant and I think that was very helpful for keeping the learning atmosphere light and so enjoyable.

It was great to learn with the other ladies. To enjoy my dear Gabriella’s presence.  To practise with and get feedback from the qualified ones. And actually to be with all of them, each one made a precious contribution to the course, sharing what they had.

I got a lot of inspiration from watching Naama playing the Beatles. Normally I feel very upset with myself in this kind of situation because I am never able to play anything without a music sheet. But this time I think I was able to stop and choose to think something different: “let’s see how she does it, let’s see what I can learn from her” and when I watched her it didn’t seem so difficult, and I got the sense I would be able to learn it too and the motivation to do it. So, when I came back, I made the resolution of playing a little bit from ear every day. 

Also, it felt really good when I played some Beethoven on Sunday. I was able to really enjoy the music and enjoy that I was able to sight read it. I didn’t know you and Naama were sitting down listening, but when I found out your words of appreciation meant also a lot to me, thank you!

I also feel very grateful for the reassurance and the encouragement you gave me to go on with the AT and teach it.

I was reminded that I have the possibility to take my time to think the means whereby for any end.

I also loved how you taught us about directions in the hands-on, as coming from a smooth movement and meeting the person.

How if we wanted the person to move we needed to be movable ourselves.

I loved to be able to walk so light and easy with the hands-on walking game.

I realized I need to realize that I have freedom to choose.

The idea of a flux state of mind instead of a fixed one.

The hands on back of a chair with extra rotation was very helpful, and especially for piano playing.

The talks in and outside the sessions where very much inspiring and appreciated.

And I really appreciate your open, truthful, gentle, quiet presence. The clarity of your teaching and the being able flow into singing and to telling us stories.

Elena
AT teacher and pianist

 

I value the time I spent at John’s masterclass weekend retreat in September. It was an enjoyable and invaluable learning experience with a group of 7 people all interested like me in deepening more into the understanding of the work.

We explored different themes and one of them was the primary postural pulls. John demonstrated “hands on a student” and then allowed us one by one to explore the same movement with him and each other. The pace was just perfect, with lots of inhibition and directions.

I felt comfortable and at ease as John created a safe learning environment. 

I also loved the time spent preparing the meals and eating together, the discussions around the tables and the singing in the evening.

Thank you, John, for sharing your knowledge and your lovely home, bringing everyone together and making the weekend a special time.

Daniela 
AT teacher MSTAT

 

The course responded brilliantly to the interests and needs of every participant. It is such a privilege to witness and receive John’s art of teaching! My main interest was to refine my teaching skills and hands on work.

On another level, it was a joy to reconnect with old Alexander friends and meet new wonderful people. We cooked and enjoyed together delicious meals. In a word: a unique mix of learning hugely and having a great time. 

Anca
AT teacher

 

Alexander Technique made me discover a profound way of transforming my whole being and helped me understand what unfavorable effects my usual way of “using myself” can have, so I came to this Masterclass with the intention of refreshing and deepening my ability to apply Alexander Technique in everyday life. The opportunity to do this under the guidance of John Hunter is a chance for which I am deeply grateful.

Several times during this Masterclass, each of us individually benefited from personalized guidance from John. On the second day (at the exercise where we apply Alexander Technique while walking), as a result of the few minutes that John checked and corrected my use, I felt a continuous flow of upward energy in the spinal area. I perceived this upward flow as an engine that fuels and even energizes me as I walk. I felt as if I was being carried on the arms. My back had awakened and was strong like a massive door that (not only supported itself, but) was also in a continuously uplifting direction. I continued to walk through the workspace, and I felt that this transformation that I felt in my body produced such profound effects on me that I became a completely different person, much more confident and more free than I used to be. Although my usual “relaxed-collapsed” attitude had disappeared, my wrists were moving freely, the inner state was one of serenity and joy.

Another exercise that left deep traces in my being is the exercise in which a colleague played the role of “student” and I was the one who had to offer her Alexander Technique guidance – of course under the careful guidance of John. On this occasion I felt in my body how much an Alexander Technique professor has to work on himself moment by moment and how non-intrusive needs to be the guidance he offers to the student through touch. Thus, practicing the “hands-on” exercise became for me an opportunity to work on my own being so intensely that the effect could be transmitted subtly, by means of touches (gentle but firm) on the exercise partner. I also received feedback from my colleague who was at that moment in the role of “student”, and I was amazed to learn that such a gentle touch on my part can have such great effects on another. I remember now how in my first meetings with Alexander Technique I was so amazed: I didn’t understand why my being suddenly transformed (like a Phoenix Bird) when the teacher only lightly touched my neck or my back…

Another discovery I remember is that during the practical exercises, when I invited my back to expand, I saw that I could intentionally and consciously connect not only with the lumbar area but also with the intercostal muscles of the floating ribs. The effect of this discovery remained even after the Masterclass, even when I did not remember to do this consciously. In the days that followed I was amazed to notice that during breathing my ribs moved freely and fluidly like an underwater plant and that the resonance of my voice had become wide and deep. Although during the workshop I did the exercise related to breathing and vocal sounds only once, I discovered with amazement that the effects of this exercise were maintained over time. My voice continues to be softer and warmer. Even my attitude became much more lenient. I noticed that when I feel like reacting impulsively, a new attitude of patience and compassion awakens inside me. Even when I express a critical opinion, I do it with much more gentleness and tolerance. When I remember the individual exercise at the end of the Masterclass it helps me to access and relax a deeper part of the muscles inside the ribcage.

The experience lived at the masterclass this September 2023 was much richer than I can describe in words. During these 3 days I also had experiences that I am only now beginning to understand little by little. Maybe I overlooked them at the time, but my body’s memory is starting to remember parts of the practical teaching that was shared and passed on to us.

I tried to reawaken in my being the intense experiences I lived there, but I did not manage to access all the inner processes that generated those effects. Therefore, I began to apply little by little what remained in my memory and in the memory of my body.

Cristina
Actress, Acting Teacher

March 15, 2023  

Lessons with Miss G: #11, Now I’m a Believer

“Now you are doing it again!” she said, with more than a little exasperation in her voice. She stepped back so that she could look at me and pronounce her verdict. “John, you are such an unbeliever!”

Well, that was not what I was expecting to hear. All sorts of reasons had been flooding through my head as to why it just wasn’t working: it was because I was doing or not doing this or that, or that she was doing or not doing this or that, but the idea that it could have anything at all to do with my beliefs – or lack of them – had never occurred to me …

And yet, she was absolutely right. Because I didn’t feel what I expected – had even been ‘trained’ – to feel when getting out of the chair, I didn’t believe it was possible. I was used to “keeping my back back”, but this was brought about with the help of a strong stimulus from the teacher who provided the opposition, thereby stimulating the “anti-gravity response”. But Goldie didn’t do that; she was not going to make it work for you, and if the usual signals and sensations were not there, then I didn’t believe something could happen.

So Alexander was right: “Belief is a matter of customary muscle tension”.1 I didn’t see this all at once: it was a gradual realisation, but one that was set in motion by that remark of Goldie’s.

Of all the “master teachers” I worked with, it was only with Goldie that I did not always feel wonderful during or after the lessons. Far from it! Sometimes it all felt very static and pointless. On more than one occasion I could not wait for the lesson to end, swearing to myself that this would definitely be the last time I would put myself through such an excruciating experience. She was, of course, picking up this “resistance” and would sometimes comment that I should not concern myself with whether or not I felt it was working, or give way to an inner criticism that she was “not up to scratch today”, but I should “just go on with the brain-work”. Then, perhaps several hours later the same day – and quite unexpectedly – some new discovery would emerge; a clarity of thought, a more vivid perception, or an unknown part of my spine would suddenly wake up. I was coming to understand that what she called “brain-work” was bringing about changes from the inside rather than through muscles or nerves. Another of Alexander’s aphorisms began to make sense:

“When the time comes that you can trust your feeling, you won’t want to use it.” 2

1 Some references to belief and muscle tension.

  • “Do you know what we have found that belief is? A certain standard of muscle tension. That is all”. (The Bedford Lecture, in Articles and Lectures, p.174, Mouritz (1995))
  • I remember one morning his coming briskly into our classroom, looking very pleased with himself, and saying, ‘Belief is a matter of customary muscle tension.’
    ‘F.M.,’ I said, ‘don’t you mean that belief about what you can do with the body is a matter of customary muscle tension?’ The discussion was on. He kept talking while he worked. Finally at the end of the morning’s work F.M. said, ‘Yes, belief about what you can do with the body is a matter of customary muscle tension.’ Lulie Westfeldt, F. Matthias Alexander, The Man and his Work, Mouritz 1998, p.68
  • Was FM’ s aphorism that belief is a matter of muscle tension simply designed to shock people, or was there a more serious element behind it? He was perfectly serious about it, because he equated belief with fixation. In his experience a rigidity of mind corresponded to a rigidity of body. (Walter Carrington on the Alexander Technique in discussion with Sean Carey, 1986, p.45f)

2 Teaching Aphorisms: The Alexander Journal No 7, 1972, published by the Society of Teachers of the Alexander Technique. Also published in Articles and Lectures by Mouritz (1995).

© John Hunter 2015

The Trustees of the Charity for the F Matthias Alexander Technique are piloting what we call a “legacy project” with the aim of recording and storing material about first-generation teachers trained by F M Alexander. The first subject of the project will be Margaret Goldie (1905-1997).Anyone who knew Miss Goldie, either in a personal capacity or as a pupil, is invited to contact the Charity with a view to participating in the project: https://www.fmatcharity.org/legacy-project.html
Email us on enquiries@atfriends.org

November 14, 2018  

Cult of the hands

My friend and colleague Terry Fitzgerald, a fine teacher of both the Alexander Technique and Ballroom Dancing, told me while attending one of his classes many years ago that “a good dance teacher can make it work for you”. It’s true! When one begins to study and practice partner dancing it soon becomes apparent that there is a communication between leader and follower which is similar in many ways to that between teacher and pupil in an Alexander lesson. Intention, typically related to familiar outcomes – be they dance steps or, in our case, the rather more prosaic movement in or out of a chair – is transmitted through movement and touch. In both cases though, all parties need a basic familiarity with both the choreography involved and the language of the leader or teacher. In finer moments of Dance the delineation of roles becomes blurred; two people move as one, moved by and moving to the music. There is neither leader nor follower – reminiscent of that moment in an Alexander lesson when “It’s just happening”.

FM is reported to have come into the training course one day and announced to everybody that “Now I can give it to them whether they want it or not!”. Like Terry’s “good dance teacher” FM could “make it work” for his pupils.

It can be beautiful to watch gifted dancers moving together to music. Watching a couple of people performing their Alexandrian “pas de deux” can look rather bizarre, though for the trained eye there are nuances of significant change taking place.

Nevertheless, the process is largely one of becoming familiar with the nature of the messages and how to respond to them. Different lineages have different languages of touch and different choreographies, which can make it more difficult for teachers or students from one school to work with those of another than for most dancers to adapt to a new partner; it’s more like learning an entirely new dance.

Patrick Macdonald once commented that it did not matter which words one used to represent the directions, one could, for example, say to oneself “Coca Cola” instead of head forward and up – as long as the words corresponded to the experience. The teacher gives the experience and by a kind of association the words come to represent it. “Up to a point, Lord Copper,” for herein lies a trap. Unless and until pupils go through the process of rediscovering Inhibition and Direction for themselves, they will continue to seek out the sensory satisfaction that comes from the teacher’s hands. A good teacher can make it work for you, but also needs to know when not to, and when and how to help you find your own insights. Learning to respond to the teachers hands must, at some point, give way to learning to make your own decisions and respond to your own intentions.

Trying to teach without hands is fraught with difficulties as the Alexander brothers discovered in the early years. The attempt to explain everything in words can all get very complicated.

Hands-on work, the great gift of the Alexander Technique, has in some ways become its limitation. The medium has become the message. Although in its present form the Technique is indeed a boon for humanity, the evolutionary secret at the heart of it still has to be found in the depths of one’s own being, in places which cannot be touched by even the most gifted hands – but only by one’s own consciousness.

© 2018 John S Hunter

August 8, 2014  

Tips4Teachers: Some Thoughts about “Orders” and “Directions”

FM Alexander seemed at certain times to favour the word “orders” to describe processes involved in his technique of re-education and at other times “directions”; he also used both words as, for example, here:

“…if we are going to do, not a mechanical exercise, but something real that matters, you have to think out beforehand the means whereby you have to do it, and give the directions or orders for these means whereby, in the form of a wish, as it were, and keep that wish going all through the activity.” [i]

He sometimes also used the term “directive orders”.

Walter Carrington often referred to “wishing” and “willing”; Margaret Goldie spoke of “brain-thought-messages”; Patrick Macdonald preferred “think up”; Marj Barstow, somewhat controversially, talked about “moving up”; and Erika Whittaker said it was really about “decisions”.

In this article I would like to consider particular emphases which are brought out by the words “orders” and “directions” in the English language in order to explore how the nuances of meaning might inform our ways of using these words in our work on ourselves and in our teaching.

The following list is doubtless not exhaustive, but gives some sense of the breadth of meaning that can be found in these words. Some of the elements listed hereunder will be very familiar to most people interested in Alexander’s work and have perhaps already been written and talked about sufficiently. Others are certainly worthy of further exploration and I will dedicate future posts to that endeavour.

  1. Order as the opposite of chaos

The above meaning of the word “order” – found, for example, in the expression “order your thoughts” – is not so apparent in “direction”. Its clearest application is in trying to calm a disordered mind. Dr Wilfred Barlow, in his thoughtful letter to Father Geoffrey Curtis, writes:

“… it is useful to tell pupils that for a short period at the start of the lesson they should, as you [Fr Curtis] put it, ’give their orders and not do anything to implement them’. I would call this ‘first stage ordering’. This period of directing at once begins to calm the mind, and such initial calming is not very different from the calming effect which might be achieved by meditation or prayer or some other repetitive mental discipline.” [ii]

All that is required is to say the words to oneself, like a mantra, without trying to link the words to parts of the body or to any kind of sensory experience. A mind that is saying the orders can less easily be thinking about to-do lists or various worries that may be circulating the mental landscape.

One of FM’s aphorisms also refers to this “first step”:

“When you get to the point of giving an order and hoping to God that it won’t be carried out, you are making the first step forward.” [iii]

  1. Order as sequence, e.g. “in a certain order”.

The sequence is important. For example, in order to carry out an activity (or not carry out an activity) most likely involving arms and/or legs, we want the movement to be supported by a lengthening and widening back; the back cannot lengthen and widen to its optimum if the head is pulling back and down onto it; therefore we want the head to go forward and up and take pressure off the cervical spine; the head can’t go forward and up if the neck is stiff; therefore we want the neck to be free. Hence the sequence, “Let the neck be free in order to allow the head to go forward and up in order to let the spine lengthen and the back widen in order to … (carry out whatever activity one has chosen). Each stage can liberate the possibility for both subsequent and preceding ones to progress. Therefore as they connect and integrate, they become one.

“The phrase ‘All together, one after the other” expresses the idea of combined activity I wish to convey.” [iv]

  1. Order as command

Both “orders” and “directions” carry the meaning of “commands”.

Many teachers use the example of a ship’s captain or a Duchess ruling her estate to make clear the distinction between giving a command and trying to carry it out. A ship’s captain who, having ordered “full steam ahead”, then runs down to the engine room and starts shovelling coal into the boiler, would be considered mad. Similarly a Duchess, having commanded that something or other be done in her household, has the expectation that her orders will be carried out. In the psychophysical realm too, trying to carry out an order when that work belongs to another function, or constantly checking out whether something is happening or not, is as counterproductive in the human organism as on the ship or country estate.

  1. Order: a request to make, supply, or deliver food or goods

This is an interesting one; to “place an order” – as, for example, in a restaurant – has a very different emphasis from “order” as “command”. There is still the distinction between the one who gives the order and the one who carries it out, and the same expectation that the request will be met. However, there is more the sense of a contract rather than of a duty. It’s worth experimenting with this nuance to see how it changes your experience.

  1. Order: a situation in which everything is arranged in its correct place

The expression “the natural order of things” comes to mind. We are not trying to impose a different system of organisation on ourselves but rather we are trying to stop interfering and uncover “the natural order”. I like this quote by Donald Curtis.

“Relaxation means releasing all concern and tension and letting the natural order of life flow through one’s being.” [v]

  1. Direction as aim or purpose

For example, “she had no direction in life”.

In this regard the word “direction” has a different sense than “order”. One can have order in one’s life (timetables, structure, etc.) but have no sense of a life-purpose. Similarly one can have a sense of one’s life leading in a certain direction, in terms of career or personal development, and yet in many aspects be very disorderly.

  1. Direction as orientation

“Modern man, when in activity, has very little awareness of such simple directions in space as backwards and forwards, and up and down, in relation to his own body…” [vi]

This meaning is not found in “ordering” but it is a vital aspect of sending directions. To lend meaning to the words ‘forward’, ‘up’, ‘back’, etc. it is important to relate these words to a direction in space. Muscle, as Hellstromists [vii] know, is very sensitive to directional thinking.

Patrick MacDonald comments in The Alexander Technique As I See It that:

“The science of physiology has not yet got round to recognizing this factor of orientation, even though it is the fundamental on which everything else depends.” [viii]

Once a state of mental calm has been achieved, or at least approached, it is time to let the ordering or directing relate more intentionally to the physical body; Dr Barlow’s “stage two ordering”, whereby:

“…the teacher…teaches the pupil the bodily meaning of the orders and how to put them together in relationship to his body.” [ix]

In my experience an essential element of this is to relate directions to orientation in space; to be aware of where “up” is (the virtual continuation of the spine); to be aware of where “forward” and “back” are.

  1. Directions as a description of expansion

The directions are specific to our human musculo-skeletal system. For a hypothetical spherical entity, for example, the directions would be something like “let every point on the surface move away from the centre”. A description of what happens when the human musculo-skeletal frame expands is that the head tends to go forward and up, the spine lengthens, the back widens and the knees go forward and away.

  1. Direction as relationship between parts

Although it is an essential aspect, it is often forgotten that the directions are about the relationship between parts of the body: for example, head forward and up in relation to the neck; head away from hips, knees away from hips. The relationship is one of opposition (Alexander used the term “antagonistic pulls”).

The late Sir George Trevelyan put it thus:

“I think ‘head forward and up – but my head can’t go forward and up because my back is going back – but my back can’t go back because my head is going forward and up – but my head can’t go forward and up because my back is going back ….etc. etc.'” [x]

  1. Direction as instructions (how to do)

We are all used to reading instruction on packaging, and the directions can also be thought of as instructions how to do something; means-whereby. For example, in order to type these words I am going to let my neck be free in order to allow my head to go forward and up in order to allow my back to lengthen and widen in order to let my shoulder widen and my arm lengthen in order to move my fingers towards the keyboard etc. etc.

  1. Direction as movement

Marj Barstow’s use of the word “move” (as, for example, in her use of the words:

“… you move your head delicately upwards”

– rather than “direct”, “order” or “think” caused a great deal of controversy. I must say though that the experience under her hands was by no means one of an ordinary muscular movement, but rather one of allowing the head to be carried upwards by a kind of inner buoyancy, so the difference for me was only semantic.

  1. Direction as a flow of energy

“It is not enough to just give the orders. You must also conduct the energy there” [xii]

In many cultures and in many epochs of history there has existed a “science of vital energy”: qi, prana, vitalism, animal magnetism, odic force and orgone – to name but a few. Did Alexander find something similar though his work with projected messages?

Patrick MacDonald refers to:

“…sending a flow of force to alter the condition of a part or parts.” [xiii]

This is an important and subtle aspect of Direction and one which I will write more about in a separate article.

  1. Ordering or directing as wishing or willing

I find it helps pupils a great deal to remind them that they should:

“… give the directions or orders for these means whereby, in the form of a wish …” [xiv]

“Wishing” and “willing” are, of course, very different inner processes and are both worthy of further exploration.

  1. Direction as “brain-thought-messages”

This was the expression favoured by Margaret Goldie. She did not speak of either “inhibition” or “direction”, but of “stopping” and “thinking” – and the thoughts were not speculative or reflective but were “brain-thought-messages” which connected with the physical body.

  1. Direction as “decision”.

Alexander, as recorded by Ethel Webb, told a pupil:

“You only do what you decide to do” [xv]

Both Erika Whittaker and Margaret Goldie stressed the importance of really making decisions. This aspect of Direction connects with Intention.

  1. A Directive State

Dr Barlow’s “third stage of ordering” is, he says, akin to:

“… a state of ‘grace’, in which the ‘words’ and the ‘flesh’ are one and the whole organism is in a ‘directive state’.” [xvii]

To conclude, I have added to the footnotes a list of synonyms for Order and Direction – which may provide further food for thought. [xviii]

Notes

[i] An Unrecognised Principle in Human Behaviour: Address given to the Child Study Association, F M Alexander, 1925. Articles and Lectures, Mouritz (1995)

[ii] More Talk of Alexander, Chapter 18, Ed. Dr W. Barlow. Victor Gollancz Ltd 1978.

[iii] Teaching Aphorisms: The Alexander Journal No 7, 1972, published by the Society of Teachers of the Alexander Technique. Also published in Articles and Lectures by Mouritz (1995).

[iv] Use of the Self, F M Alexander, Chaterson 1946

[v] Donald Curtis (1915-1997) was an American writer and speaker on New Thought (see http://cornerstone.wwwhubs.com/Donald_Curtis.html). I know nothing about him or his writings, but I stumbled across the quote and find it very apt.

[vi] The Alexander Technique As I See It, Patrick MacDonald. Chapter 3: Why We Learn the Technique. Published by Rahula Books, 1989.

[vii] “Hellstromism” or “Muscle Reading” is a technique used by mentalists to create the illusion of mind-reading by detecting involuntary movements or changes in muscle tone in response to stimuli (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muscle_reading).

[viii] The Alexander Technique As I See It, Patrick MacDonald. Chapter 3: Why We Learn the Technique. Published by Rahula Books, 1989.

[ix] More Talk of Alexander, Chapter 18, Ed. Dr W. Barlow. Victor Gollancz Ltd 1978.

[x] In his Memorial Lecture to STAT in 1992, Sir George shared with us his way of using directions with the sense of what might be described as an “oppositional, non-doing relationship” between parts of the body.

[xi] Marj Barstow used this way of explaining direction. She would pose the question: “What moves first, in what direction and what is the quality of the movement?”

[xii] This very interesting remark by FM was told to me by the late Tony Spawforth.

[xiii] The Alexander Technique As I See It, Patrick MacDonald. Chapter 4: Teaching the Technique. Published by Rahula Books, 1989.

[xiv] An Unrecognised Principle in Human Behaviour: Address given to the Child Study Association, F M Alexander, 1925. Articles and Lectures, Mouritz (1995)

[xv] Teaching Aphorisms: The Alexander Journal No 7, 1972, published by the Society of Teachers of the Alexander Technique. Also published in Articles and Lectures by Mouritz (1995).

[xvi] See Tips4Teachers – “…not to do…”

[xvii] More Talk of Alexander, Chapter 18, Ed. Dr W. Barlow. Victor Gollancz Ltd 1978.

[xviii] Lists of synonyms:

Synonyms for order: Synonyms for direction:
adjustment administration
aligning charge
arrangement command
array control
assortment government
cast guidance
categorization leadership
classification management
codification order
composition oversight
computation superintendence
disposal supervision
disposition
distribution
establishment
form
grouping
harmony
layout
line
lineup
management
method
neatness
ordering
orderliness
organization
pattern
placement
plan
procedure
procession
progression
propriety
regularity
regulation
rule
scale
scheme
sequence
series
setup
standardization
structure
succession
symmetry
system
tidiness
uniformity

© John Hunter 2014

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