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NEW! A Tribute to Patrick Macdonald
Giora Pinkas, will be visiting MATTS on Wednesday 30th March 2011.
Giora’s visit to Manchester is part of a wider UK tribute to Patrick Macdonald, who died 20 years ago. Giora qualified with Macdonald in 1967. He has a background in sports, physical education and dance, and an interest in music and psychology. In 1974, he co-founded in San Francisco the first 3-year, teacher training course in the United States. He is founder/director of The Alexander Educational Center in Berkeley, California.
The main event will be a series of weekend workshops at the new Studio One in North London. Five of Macdonald’s Israeli students, all of whom trained in the 1950s and ‘60s, will give one week each of lessons, group work and lectures. They are Shmuel Nelken (1959), Rika Cohen (1961), Shaike Hermelin (1966), Yehuda Kuperman (1967) and Giora Pinkas (1967). These teachers were chosen because they did not settle in London and hence their work has not been readily available to the British community of Alexander teachers and pupils. Ted McNamara will inaugurate the series.
These events will bring different aspects of Patrick Macdonald’s work to the fore. Some of the teachers will share hitherto unseen films of Macdonald at work in America, selected photographs and letters from his archive, and most of all personal reminiscences and readings from their lifetime of experiences training with and re-visiting their beloved master teacher. (For dates and details, please contact Studio One.)
MATTS plans to hold an open class to which all teachers are invited. The cost of the morning will be announced nearer the time. It is hoped that the visit will be partly funded by donations. Giora will be available for private lessons on the afternoon of the 30th March. If you are interested in attending MATTS or in having a private lesson, please let me know. Don’t miss this unique opportunity. Put Wednesday 30th March in your dairy now!
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NEW! Kathleen Ballard, gave MATTS students and teachers a stimulating and, at times, controversial 2 days of teaching and demonstrations, 23-24 June. Her liveliness and sharp, questioning mind added freshness to our class work. She is keen that we cut waffle and think and explain clearly about what we are doing – and not doing.
Kathleen focussed on her own remarkable rehabilitation over the past 18 months. She explained how an old knee injury had led to wastage of lower back and leg muscles and how she had devised ways to build up her strength again using direction and exercises suggested by her local acupuncturist. An inspiration to anyone who needs to take charge of their own recovery process.
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NEW! STAT Training Summit Malcolm, Nigel and Sue Fleming attended the second STAT Training Summit on 12 June at the church of St. James the Less, a stone's throw from Ashley Place (the site of Alexander's home and teaching room 1906 to 1955) near Victoria Station. Thirty-nine Heads of Training, Moderators and Council Members met to discuss training practice and moderation.
Malcolm is fifth from the left on the back row; Nigel far right. Moderators Sue Holladay, Anne Battye and Jean Clark can be seen on the front row.
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NEW! Dorothea Magonet is visiting MATTS 24-25 May. Dorothea became interested in the Alexander Technique in the early 1970’s whilst training as a physiotherapist. After working for six years at the Middlesex Hospital, London, she trained to become an Alexander teacher. Since her qualification she has worked with students at the Royal Academy of Music, London, and at her private practice in London. Dorothea regularly gives workshops and visits training courses including Kendal and Manchester. She has recently been teaching in Japan. If you would like to book a private lesson with Dorothea, please contact Malcolm.
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NEW! Anne Battye spent two enjoyable days working with MATTS students and teachers 27 and 28 April 2010. Anne trained with the Barlows - Marjory and Wilfred - and worked along side them for many years. She taught the Technique at RADA and is well-known for her masterclasses that encourage a search for a deeper understanding of the Alexander essentials: inhibition, direction and 'staying in the back'. Anne gave the Annual F M Alexander Memorial Lecture in 2008. This was a personal memoir of her work with the Technique and the founding of STAT in 1958. She was guest speaker at the American Society's conference in San Francisco (2009).
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NEW! Two of Malcolm's students at the Royal Northern College of Music (RNCM) are featured in the April/May edition of Muso magazine. Post-graduate pianist, Sebastian Grand, and violist and conductor, Robert Guy, discuss how Alexander lessons have helped them in their musical studies.
"Pianists can get very closed in with always looking down," Seb says. "You're concentrating so much on the music that you forget to open out. Alexander technique is about establishing balance in your attention to be able to use your natural equipment effectively. Now I feel much more open across the shoulders and the freedom to move is much better."
Rob, who combines his MMus studies with a post of assistant conductor with the Liverpool Mozart Orchestra says, "I originally approached the Alexander technique as a viola player, but I started to make the connection that it was all very useful for conducting. The more I have that experiece of standing there in lessons, relaxed and taking in my surroundings, the more in control I am in front of an orchestra and drawing everyone in. It slows down the panic of being onstage."
These remarks are typical of the feedback Malcolm has received from grateful students over the 25 years he has been teaching the Alexander technique at the RNCM.
You can read the article, "Alexander the great", by Abi Bliss in Muso (Rhinegold Publishing), April/May 2010, Issue 46: 42-3. www.musolife.com
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NEW! MATTS visiting senior teachers, summer term 2010:
All teachers are welcome - and especially encouraged - to come into the school on mornings when there are visiting teachers. It can count towards your CPD hours!
Anne Battye 27 - 28 April. Anne will be giving private lessons on Tuesday (27th) afternoon. To book, please call Malcolm 0161 224 1112.
Sue Holladay 28 - 29 June. Sue may be available for private lessons on Monday (28th) afternoon.
Dorothea Magonet 24-25 May
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NEW! Congratulations to MATTS’ most recent qualifying teachers – Julia Roberts and Marie Leenhardt! Julia and Marie celebrated completing their courses at the end of the spring term (2010). Both have had a busy few years fitting in the training with other family and work commitments. Julia teaches science subjects in a secondary school near Liverpool. Marie plays the harp in Manchester’s Hallé Orchestra. They entertained the school with a customary – though not obligatory (!) – theatrical graduation presentation which highlighted the influence of the Alexander Technique on Shakespeare’s treatment of paradox in his early plays. Probably based on the utterance “Forsooth, good fellow, to know when you are wrong is all ye shall ever know on this bus” (cf. Aphorisms, Mouritz, 2000: p33), it was more reminiscent of Stretford-in-Arndale than Stratford-upon-Avon. The Bard would gladly have attributed this unfinished dramatic vignette to Marlowe or Bacon. We wish Julia and Marie success for the future and with their Alexander teaching.
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NEW! Details of the 5th Annual MATTS Summer School in Spain are now available, see the Term Dates page for more information. Places are limited.
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NEW! On 11 March 2010, the school made its second visit (the first was in June 2007) to Elisabeth Walker in Oxford. Elisabeth trained with Alexander, beginning in 1938 and completing her training after the war years. Elisabeth and her husband, Dick, taught for eleven years in South Africa. Elisabeth tells the story of their journey overland through Europe and Africa in 1948 in her book, Forward and Away (2008). Later, they both taught the Technique in Oxford. Now in her 96th year, Elisabeth continues giving private lessons and receiving visits from long-standing students and training courses from the UK and abroad. We had a wonderful day’s outing and are most grateful to Elisabeth for making us feel so welcome in her home, and for sharing her work and memories with such lightness of touch, and humour.
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