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Event Details

This Workshop-XL has already taken place.

Jeremy Chance
Tokyo, Japan

Hearing Neuroscience While Getting Turns

Practical BodyThinking with Jeremy

Benefit: Experiencing a lesson with Jeremy as he explains how neuroscience informs his teaching and touching methods.

Back in 2010, I created two courses of study – BodyThinking and ThinkingBody – for my teacher training school. I deliberately chose confusing names to emphasise that trainees study two sides of the same thing: using Alexander’s discoveries in your daily life.

In this workshop, I will emphasise BodyThinking. BodyThinking explores the relationship between postural support (coordinating movement) and movement (activity movement) and how body image & body schema interact with these two distinct neuromuscular systems.

Exclusively through giving lessons, I will demonstrate how to optimise both systems:

Coordinating Movements
This is what neuroscientists call the (primarily involuntary) postural support system. Alexander’s fundamental discovery impacts this system: FM maintained that the relativity of head/spinal movement calibrates all other systems; more popularly known as Use affects Function.

I will initially demonstrate the efficacy of coordinating movements by guiding each participant through individual touch into creating a “one-second-plan” that recalibrates their postural support system to walk. More popularly known as “getting a turn.”

Activity Movements
This is what scientists call the voluntary movement system. Coordinating movements (postural support) impact this system. Body image/schema – systems studied and debated by neuroscientists – have a prominent role in learning and perfecting skilled actions, which I will demonstrate through individual lessons within the group. More popularly known as “BodyMapping”.

Please come ready to explore a skilled activity – asking someone for a date, martial arts, dancing, playing music, performing, singing a song etc.

And more walking is fine too.

BTW: Please don’t ask me to “get you out of a chair” – I will refuse. Too many Alexander habits to deal with; it’s another kind of workshop!

BACKGROUND

To read more about what I mean by Coordinating Movements and Activity movements, check out these blogs:

Detailed Description of a Lesson with a Musician showing how an Activity Plan can impact your Coordination Plan:
https://atsuccess.com/blog/2019/03/technical-sidebar-getting-comfortable-posture.html

Blog on Coordination Plans
https://atsuccess.com/blog/2013/06/m0213-co-ordination-plans.html

Blog on Activity Plans
https://atsuccess.com/blog/2013/06/m0214-activity-plans.html

Another Blog Explaining Coordination and Activity Plans (but the graphics are missing, sorry)
https://atsuccess.com/blog/2013/06/m0216-activity-and-co-ordination-plans-help.html

For the truly dedicated who still want more…
https://atsuccess.com/blog/2013/11/day-nineteen-how-teach-people-see-invisible-things.html

About Jeremy Chance

Jeremy Chance, STAT cert.

Jeremy Chance has been studying Alexander’s discoveries since 1969. His book Principles of the Alexander Technique has been published and translated into 7 languages. Jeremy originally trained in London during the 1970s and continued his studies with Marjorie Barstow in the 1980s. From 1985 to 2002 he was the Publisher & Editor of DIRECTION, a Journal on the Alexander Technique. He was a founding member of AUSTAT in Australia and is currently a member of no Alexander organisations or societies. In 1999 Jeremy married and moved to Japan where he founded an Alexander Training School. Today he continues as Managing Director of BodyChance – still the world’s largest College of Alexander Technique Teacher Education, and now one of the oldest too.

*** LONGER VERSION ***

Jeremy began his three-year Alexander training in England in 1976 with Paul and Betty at the School of Alexander Studies in Highgate. After qualifying, he taught at the E15 and Rose Bruford Performing Arts schools in London before returning to Australia in 1982.

In Sydney, he taught regularly at the National Institute of Dramatic Art (NIDA), The Actors Centre and The Actors College, while also regularly visiting the Victorian College of the Arts (VCA), The Conservatorium of Music and many other leading art institutions around Australia.

During this time he founded two Alexander Technique teacher training schools in Sydney and Melbourne – Directed by other teachers. The Department of Immigration told Jeremy it had a 6-inch file full of applications for Alexander teachers to immigrate to Australia.

Next, at a residential conference where Erika Whittaker debuted her return to teaching – Jeremy established the Australian Society of Teachers of the Alexander Technique (AUSTAT). What a mistake that was. From 1988 to 1993 he travelled throughout Europe and America, leading seminars and giving presentations to performing artists, business leaders, peer groups and the general public.

From 1986 to 2003, Jeremy was the Editor and Publisher of DIRECTION, an international Journal on the Alexander Technique (http://www.directionjournal.com) which is now being managed by Jean Fischer at Mouritz Press.

In 1998 Jeremy met Jaldhara, the mother of their children Grace and Angelica, and decided to settle in Kyoto and start an Alexander Teacher Training school. He initially named it ATA in honour of Don Burton’s trendsetting school of the 1980s in London. ATA eventually evolved into BodyChance and before COVID-19 hit, had 120+ trainees in the school – making it by far the largest school in the world.

BodyChance grew to this size as a result of Jeremy making a conscious decision to save his family by building his business. At 43 he embarked on a long-term project to become a master of business technology and over the next 20 years spent a lot of money and time studying his personally designed MBA. At first, Jeremy taught his own trainees how to gather students. Alexander\\\’s Discovery flourishes in Tokyo today as a result of his trainees using business skills learnt while training at BodyChance.

Out of this experience, Jeremy formed ATSuccess and began coaching Alexander teachers and trainees the world over. During this time Jeremy conceived and developed his 12-Point Plan for becoming a successful teacher. Today, the world’s largest online Alexander Training Organisation – Peter Jacobson’s Total Vocal Freedom – grew out of Peter’s association with ATSuccess. Many of today’s most commercially successful teachers have had some kind of contact with ATSuccess.

In 2018 Jeremy embarked on an expensive and ambitious program to introduce Alexander’s Discovery to corporations in Japan. He was about to sign an annual contract with a large corporation when COVID happened and the project fell into ruin. BodyChance also diminished from a peak of 140+ trainees to 68 trainees today. However, BodyChance survived COVID.

Jeremy still lives in Japan but spends as much time as he can in Australia to be with his daughters and family. He runs the world’s largest Alexander training school – BodyChance – and is about to embark on a major new project. If successful, this will constitute an unprecedented development for Alexander’s discovery, and a gamechanger for Alexscovery Teachers (AT) in Japan. Stay tuned…

You can keep in touch with my ideas by reading my (almost never) Daily email. Read what teachers say about it and sign up by clicking on the website link below…

bodychance@me.com
https://atsuccess.com/what-teachers-are-saying-about-jeremys-daily-email.html

See also: Jeremy Chance – Presenter Detail Page

Workshop-XL
Tuesday, 23 August 2022
14:45 h - 17:15 h (2.45pm-5.15pm)
Math Building
Floor: OG
Room: MA144

CATEGORIES
AT Principles and Procedures||Performance/Music/Acting/Voice||Everyday Activities||Sports||Practical Teaching Skills||AT Games||Communication/Verbal Skills||Anatomy||Connections to other Modalities/Techniques||Business / Marketing||Science

1

WORKSHOP STYLE

Fully Practical

Lecture

OPEN FOR
Teachers||Trainees||Everyone