We met at a Catholic Convention Centre, just north of Dublin, and within easy reach of God and Guinness. This Convention (not quite a Conference, and much smaller than a Congress) of Alexander teachers from around the world met to discuss a range of topics centred around how we might proceed as a profession in a future where conditions have changed are are changing so rapidly, particularly given the range of new media available to us, and to our (perceived) competition in the business of helping humans help themselves. Predictably, no-one found a magic bullet, but we did get to share lots of good stories, and there was plenty to learn. We even had a Limerick competition, since we were in Ireland.
The great advantage in being there was the chance to learn from 6 senior teachers who ran workshops everyday for six days, and as there was only about 90 of us attending , there was opportunity for good, close contact and learning in groups which were rarely bigger than 12. Also, I managed to get a private lesson with Giora Pinkas without having to travel from Australia to San Francisco, and given how good the lesson was, I might decide to do that later anyway. The list of teachers presenting were
- Giora Pinkas
- Vivien Mackie
- Glenna Batson
- Bob Britton
- Lyn Charlsen Klein
- John Baron
- Richard Brennan, several of whom are favourites of mine, and some whose work I was getting for the first time. Lyn Charlsen Klein was a particularly happy new discovery, and she had me sailing up flights of stairs like I was floating on air. It’s always nice to be reminded how simple this work can be.
