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AT Congress® Berlin 2022

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Event Details

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Portrait Penelope Easten

Penelope Easten
Clare, Ireland

What is Core Strength? And how does it bring profound calm?

The psoas is the deepest muscle in the body, and it is so dense that it is the only muscle to show up on X-rays! It is a key part of standing upright on two legs, but its healthy functioning is impeded by too much sitting and slouching on chairs.

In the first half of this workshop we will work initially in semi supine, to explore the core muscles of the belly, psoas and iliacus through breathing.  We will discover their relationship to the legs and the upper body, tracing connections along the deepest myofascial line of the body from the toes to the temples. This work is deeply calming and is especially of benefit when working with people with trauma.

In the seond half we will then explore the function and direction of the core muscles in walking, bending and in sit-to-stand. For us as teachers, understanding these connections and mechanisms allows us to work more effectively with pupils in hands-on chair-work, or to direct them to find their own coordination in sit to stand, whether in the same room or online. It also allows us to re-educate pupils from their “erroneous beliefs” (FM Alexander MSI) about what and where core strength really is and how to improve it.

About Penelope Easten

Penelope was born in Wales, and studied Zoology at Cambridge University, England. She left a PhD there to train at the North London Alexander School, qualifying in 1989. She then worked with Miss Goldie for four years, who, it felt, stripped away everything she had learnt, and rebuilt it as she saw the technique should be –a scary process!

Since then, she has worked extensively with other teachers who had known her, including Erika Whittaker, to understand the essence of the difference of her understanding. During two separate years, Penelope was unable to walk with chronic fatigue syndrome. These years of illness became times of quiet retreat, deepening her work.

With the illness now gone completely, she has regained resilience, strength, and fitness, particularly through using the Initial Alexander technique, which she studied with Jeando Masoero, along with The Embodied Present Process with Philip Shepherd. The Miss Goldie workshops started as a 90-min workshop at the International Congress in 2004 (Oxford), and was then followed with workshops in the UK, Ireland, Germany, and New York, including the Limerick International Congress in 2015.

Her book: The Alexander Technique: the Twelve Fundamentals of Integrated Movement, based around Miss Goldie’s work, was published in March 2021.

Since COVID-19, she has run trainings for AT teachers on teaching online, based on the material from her book. She now lives and works in the beautiful West of Ireland, teaching locally and online. Her work facilitates the pupil to discover the technique for themselves, to find natural breathing, poise, quiet awareness, integration, true fitness and strength. 
In her free time, she enjoys making discoveries about the technique through singing and reciting, piano playing, yoga and fitness work, gardening, running, dancing, and walking her dog. 

penelope.easten@gmail.com
https://alexandertechniqueinfo.org/

See also: Penelope Easten – Presenter Detail Page

How-to
Saturday, 27 August 2022
09:00 h - 11:00 h (9.00am-11.00am)
Math Building
Floor: 1.OG (1st floor)
Room: MA 141

CATEGORIES
AT Principles and Procedures||Everyday Activities||Practical Teaching Skills||Communication/Verbal Skills||Anatomy||Science

2

WORKSHOP STYLE

Fully Practical

Lecture

OPEN FOR
Teachers||Trainees||Everyone