Balls In the Air

If you can imagine Martha Graham marrying Noam Chomsky - Lucia Walker is the child of that family! She has her own style as a teacher - created mainly by herself, as she does not seem to "follow" any particular lineage of teaching.

At BodyChance Alexander Technique ProCourse Education in Sydney, Australia over the three days of May 7/8/9 2010, Lucia throws balls in the air and then asks you to collect information about all wonder of things…

- do you startle or not? do you think that is a bad thing? really? isn't it part of being human?

- are you annoyed when your ball does not fall into the hand of the person waiting to receive it? are you joyful when it does? isn't this also something natural? isn't it a deep part of your self that when your co-ordination requests are fulfilled, you experience a natural joy? Alternatively, when you fail, you feel some frustration - isn't this only natural?

- when the ball drops, why say sorry every time? isn't dropping the ball as natural as catching it?

- what happens if two balls or more are thrown to you at the same time? the story of the juggler who received 12 of them - inspirations in possibilities...

- as the ball arrives, how is your focus? do you see the ball, the thrower and the others standing in the circle? what would happen if you just focused only on the ball? or only on the people surrounding the ball?

Of course our weekend together was not all about throwing balls - there was Bozo Looking for a Corner too! All about exploring your focused vision and your peripheral vision; your ability to connect with someone, while still holding the group; noticing your excitement in response to the game, but having the ability to guide that excitement appropriately towards the people and circumstances of the game.

Lucia's work is multilayered. Often you start with one simple idea, conjoined with an activity, then build on that - creating the complexity of living within the jurisprudence of a game: non-confronting, non-personal, but "You" am still there, "You" are still behaving in ways that mirror back into your real life, and in so doing engender discoveries and insights that eluded you previously.

Lucia has crafted her own "hands off" teaching technology: that binds a group in happy explorations of human behaviour leading to discoveries that then reflect back into everyday living. The researchers of the Art of Group Teaching need to take attention and learn from this gentle, inquisitive, fun-loving student of human potentiality and intelligent living.

A deeper current that also flows through Lucia's work is that you are OK - that behaviours you condemn yourself for are no more than exaggerated tendencies that are naturally at the core of every human being. The obsessive desire to be right - destructive as it may become - is still part of a natural movement. The regret at mistakes is the source of the vitality that creates success - everything weaves together in a embroidered cloth of living that is deliciously colourful moment to moment, that provides experiences containing everything we need to know about everything we want to know, including the discoveries of the Alexander Technique.

Balls in the Air - wondering at your reactions to the everyday moments that all living consists of, that is Lucia.

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