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Train Journal: Classes with Judith Leibowitz #19
February 15th, 1978
Wait for [the] person to respond to your direction. Release the hand into direction. Don't put hand on with intention. Wait for impulse from a student. Anytime you feel like your direction stops, take hands off for a moment.
To correct one sidedness, though we are all one sided, direct into whatever side more clearly is your weak side. Look at your kinesthetic judgment and verify that both sides can support you.
Read moreTraining Journal: Classes with Judith Leibowitz #14
January 19, 1978
We worked on the use of the self as a totality in movement, being attentive to the tendency to get fixed in the small of the back.
As a group, we looked at our mirror image face on…. Judy wants us to have a clearer image of our objectives, as we are in movement. The image of our spine hanging between our ears, pelvis suspended from the sacrum (lower spine; loose bones, loose muscles; all of the spine is hanging as we walk. Nothing is fixed. Length is making room for bones, front and back.
Read moreTraining Journal: Classes with Judith Leibowitz #13
January 17, 1978
“Don't get bored. You are on a spiral of change. “
“When working on hands, start by dealing with the totality, out of which you move the hand.”
Think of the hand as being open and free. It is one of your most precious tools. Be nice to them.
Stretching often uses tension. Allow it to release. Direct it to release. She [Judy] used the example of reaching an octave on the keyboard. First stretch to reach it. Then allow your hand to release to reach. Think of the hand as material that has no bones. Your hand can be full of energy. When placing it on something, allow the energy to “flow” to that.
Read moreTraining Journal: Classes with Judith Leibowitz #12
January 12, 1978
Topic: Use of the arm in gesture. Begin with primary control. Use of the whole torso involved in direction. The arm gesture comes out of this. Think of air under the scapula. Think of air under the sternum. Release out of the neck. Support of the arms comes from the back of the torso which begins low in the deep area below the muscles of the [buttocks].
Read moreTraining Journal
Wednesday, January 11, 1978
We will begin working on ”the uncommitted hand”. As an Alexander teacher, the biggest asset is “the uncommitted hand”. Let them be free. No unnecessary tension in them. Touching another person is communication. The hand is listening to the other person. It is a double communication. Tension interferes in this communication.
Read moreTraining Journal: Classes with Judith Leibowitz #10
Friday, December 16, 1977
We had a discussion about directing as a non-endgaining activity. It was suggested that the work is about giving yourself more space. Direction is not a movement. Direction is a thought. Movement is a result of direction. Direction precedes movement, and integrates and releases through movement.
Read moreTraining Journal: Classes with Judith Leibowitz #9
Friday, December 2, 1977
There is no right way to direct, only direction.
On the street, I may see what I want to happen to me in the person ahead or me, or direct the person in the mirror.
Judy: “Like the Macy’s parade balloons, only expanded with energy rather than air.”
Must be willing to give up what you think is true.
Not to be rigid.
Read moreTraining Journal: Classes with Judith Leibowitz #8
More involved with what your hand must tell the other person, and what your hand is picking up in that person.
Remember, asking questions won’t always get the answers. Some answers come from just plain working.
Again, head direction. Keeping from bearing down. A lot of this work will be experimental. Being willing to work without results.
Read moreNovember 29, 1977 : On teaching
You cannot do something to someone, unless you have it in yourself. You will become more and more able to help someone when you help yourself.. You cannot give someone direction unless you give direction to yourself.
When you do something new, you don’t have to worry about feeling it. This also helps people become less self involved.
You can use something above the head to look up and bring the head to move forward (student is sitting) on the hip joint is a good exercise in inhibition. Looking in the mirror you are not going forward as much as you are seeing your head go up. The torso will go up if the head goes up.
Read moreNovember 8, 1977: "Direction is a form of meditation.”
It is a simple repetition of words. Just being without trying. No need for results or defining: words can be used anywhere, anytime in any position.
Stance appropriately wide to height of person
Releasing into monkey with no goal in mind
Maintaining shoulder width against gravity's tendency to pull shoulders in as torso bends, releasing shoulders out without contracting in the back
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In this series, we will share excerpts from Idelle Packer's (ACAT, 1979) Training Journal, October 14, 1977 - Wednesday, December 13, 1978. The classes were taught by Judy Leibowitz, a founding member and the first Director of Training of ACAT from 1967 to 1981. Judy was the original Alexander Teacher in Juilliard's Acting Division, joining the program at its inception in 1968 by invitation from John Houseman. Judy taught in the Juilliard Acting Division until her death in 1991.
October 25, 1977: If you look at a drawing of a skeleton in profile, you can see the arm is hanging from the shoulder joint. The joint does not connect with the clavicle... The arms hang a little father out and lower than we usually think.
Many of the tensions we have are not purely physical, but emotional. [A trainee] felt immense emotional release by letting the tensions in the shoulders go. Alexander talks only about length and width. Judy uses the word "torso" since the body is three dimensional. Widening and lengthening together is an expanding into the whole body. [A trainee] said that he felt he can't change physically unless he changes emotionally. The process of giving up something we are familiar with, causes a feeling of mourning for what is being left behind. Directions can be given sequentially but what happens, happens all at once.
As an Alexander teacher, one would energize one's own arms. Relaxation is not a productive experience for anyone who uses the body. There is a difference between "release" and "relax".
IDELLE PACKER, MS, PT, mAmSAT, certified teacher of the Alexander Technique, has been creatively exploring its broad application for over 35 years. In her private practice, Body Sense, in Asheville, NC, she teaches the Alexander Technique in context of physical therapy assessment and rehabilitation. She authored the chapter on the Alexander Technique in Springer Publishers’ Encyclopedia of Complementary Health Practices (1999). Her current passion is Contact Improvisation, a somatic and athletic improvisation form, to which she has been joyfully integrating the principles of the Technique over the past fifteen years.