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].

Think air under the arm pit and of space in all the joints. Elbow away, wrist way, hand and fingers away.

Release the elbow out and away from the shoulder. The ribs are flowing into breath.

Think of the energy and continual fountain moving up and the head as a ping pong ball balanced by the energy surge coming up. Feel all parts of the body, not just become focused on that arm (that part). Forget about what you are feeling. Lightness is a concept, an experience. If you don’t enough [focus on the feeling] enough times, you begin to recognize it.

One sided-ness: We all have it.

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.