We are delighted to announce that Pedro de Alcantara will be giving a two day workshop for teachers at Welcat on
Saturday 11th and Sunday 12th December 2010
and private lessons on Monday 13th and Tuesday 14th December 2010
for booking details see information at the end of this notice
The Workshop
Six Variations on the Theme of Hands-On
A Workshop for Alexander Teachers with Pedro de Alcantara
In this workshop we’ll explore the way we use our hands in communicating with students and working on our own use. Each day we’ll study two different subjects, or variations on the theme of hands-on.
- “Pressure, resistance, connection, release.”
- Why do you put your hands on a student?
- How many different things can your hands do?
- How many directions can you create with your hands, at the same time?
- Layers: clothing, skin, flesh, bones.
- Direction as Energy.
1. “Pressure, resistance, connection, release.”
Imagine that I put a little pressure somewhere on your body: for example, I stand behind you, place my hands on your shoulders, and squeeze your shoulders gently. If you resist my pressure and create an opposition of forces—in versus out, up versus down, forward versus backward—then the shoulders connect to the back, the back to the pelvis, the pelvis to the legs, and so on. Thanks to this circuit of connections, the neck releases, the back lengthens and widens, the breath flows easily… Release, then, is the result of a process, not the process itself. In this session we’ll explore the process of “pressure, resistance, connection, release.”
2. Why do you put your hands on a student?
We use our hands to “read” the student, to help him or her feel things more clearly, to prevent certain things from happening and encouraging others to happen instead, to “give the student directions.” It’s all true. But I think the most important reason we use our hands lies elsewhere. The operative word is “connection,” as in the previous work session. And whose connections, exactly? That’s the really pertinent question! In this session we’ll explore “constructive selfishness.”
3. How many things can your hands do?
Alert and proactive hands can perform many different actions: hold, point, poke, caress, twist, snap, throw, squeeze… Your hands will be more intelligent and sensitive if they have multiple capabilities in reserve, whether or not you choose to use these capabilities during a lesson. In this session we’ll explore the hands’ innate talents.
4. How many directions can you create with your hands, at the same time?
Suppose you stand behind a student and put one hand on his shoulder, another on the opposite hip. Your hands can push the student forward, sideways, downward, and in various dynamic permutations; you can twist your hands clockwise or counterclockwise, both on the same direction, each in a different direction; your hands can attempt to gently move in toward each other, through the gentle resistance of the student’s body… The possibilities are huge. In this session we’ll explore “multiplicity of directions, multiplicity of connections.”
5. Layers: clothing, skin, flesh, bones
Suppose you take hold of your student’s forearm with one hand, wrapping your fingers and palm all around the forearm. If you pay attention, you’ll discern many layers to your student: a sweater and a shirt; beneath it, skin and perhaps hair; beneath it, flesh and muscles; beneath it, bone. Moreover, your own hand has many layers: its own skin, its flesh, its bones. So you might feel as many as nine or ten layers, each with a certain texture, each responding differently to your touch and perhaps even “requesting” a particular touch. In this session we’ll explore layers of sensation and response.
6. Direction as Energy.
In The Use of the Self, Alexander descfribed direction as “the process involved in projecting messages from the brain to the mechanisms and in conducting the energy necessary to the use of these mechanisms.” Direction, then, appears to have two sides: “messages from the brain” plus “energy.” In this session we’ll explore the energetic aspects of direction.
About Pedro de Alcantara
After growing up in São Paulo, Brazil, I studied at the State University of New York’s Purchase College (BFA in Music, 1981) and the Yale School of Music (MM in Music Performance, 1983). My main cello teachers were Barney Lehrer, Robert Gardner, Daniel Morganstern, Aldo Parisot, and William Pleeth. The teacher whom I credit with shaping up my musical mind is the pianist Robert Levin, now a professor at Harvard. With him I studied theory, analysis, ear-training, and chamber music. I’ve also studied singing with the late Roy Hickman (a professor at the Guildhall School in London) and I’ve soaked up the teachings of Cornelius L. Reid, from whom I’ve learned as much about the voice as I have about the sensing and thinking processes and the art of pedagogy.
I trained as an Alexander teacher in London, with Patrick Macdonald (who himself was trained by Alexander in the 1930′s) and Shoshana Kaminitz. After obtaining my certification in 1986 I taught for three years at the Alexander Institute (directed by Dr. Wilfred Barlow, who was also trained by Alexander) before moving to Paris in 1990, where I still live.
My first book, Indirect Procedures: A Musician’s Guide to the Alexander Technique, with a foreword by Sir Colin Davis, was published by the Oxford University Press in 1997. Its French version came out in 2000, and the German one in 2002. Also in 1997, the French publisher Editions Dangles published my second book, La Technique Alexander: Principes et Pratique, which I wrote in French (my third language, Portuguese being my mother tongue). Afterwards I re-wrote the book in English; titled The Alexander Technique: A Skill for Life, it was published by the Crowood Press in England in 1999. In 2008 I was named the editor of a new book series at the OUP. Titled THE INTEGRATED MUSICIAN, the series is based on the musical philosophy I have developed over the past twenty-five years and will include volumes for string players, singers, pianists, and other musicians. Besides editing the series, I’m slated to write several volumes for it. In the fall of 2008 AlumniVentures, a new initiative at the Yale School of Music, awarded me a grant to support the series’ dedicated website.
The publication of Indirect Procedures led to engagements to teach all over the world. I’ve given seminars in presentations in the US, France, Great Britain, Portugal, Switzerland, Germany, Holland, Belgium, Australia, and New Zealand. I’ve often received return invitations from institutions such as the Royal College of Music in London, New York University, and the Conservatoire Populaire de Genève.
My music students include the members of first-rate orchestras like the Orchestre National de Lille, the Orchestre Révolutionnaire et Romantique, the Berlin Radio Orchestra, and many others. I’ve also coached concert pianists and singers, guitarists, accordionists, even players of the tin whistle and the didgeridoo. Teaching the cello – my first love – has been a constant in my practice for nearly twenty years now. My fellow Alexander teachers have been very supportive of my writings and of the developments in my style of teaching the Technique, and I delight in giving lessons and seminars for Alexander teachers both in my home base of Paris and in my travels.
In the process of preparing Indirect Procedures I discovered a passion for writing itself. From this passion poured a number of works, including poems, short stories, and novels for young readers. My first novel, Befiddled, was published in 2005 by Delacorte Press, an imprint of Random House. It tells the story of 13-year-old violinist Becky Cohen and her struggles against a mean teacher, an overburdened mother, and really bad hair. My second novel,Backtracked, is a time-travel epic of New York City, in which the vessel of time travel is the city’s subway system. I’m currently working on The Divine Computer, a new novel for young readers, as well as a manual for writers titled Rhythm & Flow in a Writer’s Career.
Booking details
The two day workshop will cost £65 per day, and it is expected that participants will attend both days. The workshop will run from 10am to 4pm on both days, with an hour for lunch.
Private lessons are normally an hour long and cost £80. Other lesson periods can be arranged and the cost will be pro-rated. Longer lessons of 1.5 hours can be arranged for two or three people.
To book a lesson or workshop place, please email your request to sarasolnick@gmail.com. Your place will be confirmed on receipt of full payment to Sara Solnick, and sent to 9 Chiswick High Road, London W4 2N D.
If you need to cancel a booking after payment has been made, then a refund will be made providing a replacement is found.
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