Training 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.

The hand should be free, open, and perceiving and giving. To have a free hand one must have a free body. Work over the next 10 weeks will be a building process. This work, lessons and Judy are not a one to one thing. Watch the teachers and the students. Ask questions. Train your ears. One is training all of the senses. It is an increased awareness of which the hand is one part.

Judy demonstrated on Idelle. Reinforcement of directions in sitting position. Free the neck, etc. and then move the arm. Keep everything else free. The movement of the arm is in the joint but begins in the hand. It is supported by the lengthening and widening of the back. Head, neck, torso. Add on the hand. An Alexander teacher needs a loose arm. It is something that builds. The stronger one's back is, the longer one will be able to teach. The hands are not isolated, but part of the total being.

We tend to think too much in planes. Think of a three dimensional arm. The strength in the arm is a different kind of strength. It is not a physical holding, but one of balance.

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.