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Cover PhotoMarc Bowman of Atlanta, Georgia, illustrates anartistic interpretation of American Sign Language,showing an "old, gnarled tree". photograph byMarcia Freeman.

A Classical Use of the Front HandMervyn Waldman on a well-known "McDonald" Technique

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VOLUME 2 NUMBER 8

CONTENTS

In All DirectionsNews & Views from around the world

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

ViewPointMichael Holt dismisses Alexander's racism

Thanks to Robin Gilmore. who has skilfullycommissioned a well-informed and diverse range ofarticles which are a pleasure to read, and, like allour issue editors, has waited patiently to see theresults of her work.As always, Lawrence Bruce has been beavering awayin Melbourne, reading prodigiously and coming upwith many ideas which contribute to the quality ofIn All Directions. Hella Linkmeyer has worked hard toget us her article on the Bushmen of the Kalahari,which fits into the Multicultural issue brief butunfortunately was one too many of the articles on thetheme for her to be properly credited on page three.Tommy Thompson has agreed to be our photo-journalist, and has gone about this task with gusto,finding the photos we need which are not suppliedby the writers of articles. And we have an additionto the proofreading team. Usa Hochgraff, a studentof AT with a masters in journalism and a freelancewriting/ editing business, emailed to offer her help,and has become one of the wonderful volunteerswho make production of the journal possible.ISSN 1039-3145, DIRECTION is published byFyncot Pty Ltd, a privately owned company. Theviews expressed in this Journal are not necessarilythose of the publisher. Copyright 2000 by Fyncot PtyLtd. All rights reserved. Please contact the publisherif we have failed to acknowledge or reimburse theholder of copyright on any photograph used.

Living in the PresentHella Linkmeyer talks about African Bushmen

HandsNicola Hanefeld's photo essay from 6.99 Congress

The Garlick ReportDr David Garlick writes on new research

EditorialJeremy Chance on cars with attitude

Issue EditorialRobin Gilmore places this issue in context

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PublisherFyncot Pty LtdEditorJeremy ChanceManaging EditorDarri AdamsonIssue EditorRobin GilmoreDesign and ArtGriff - a Man and His MacsOriginal Art DirectionAnnette HallPhoto JournalistTommy ThompsonBook Reviews EditorLawrence BruceBook ReviewsJohn CoffinRegular ContributorsWaIter CarringtonDavid GarlickLouise GauldKay S. HooperMargaret LongEileen TrobermanWeb ReviewsDavid BillinghamProofReadingJan BatyLisa HochgrafAndrew WoodwardEditorial AssistantSusan RutterIllustratorVicki RobinsonMarketing and WebmasterNick ChancePrinterDobson's Printing ServiceEuropean SubscriptionsShirley CrawfordAmerican SubscriptionsRichard CarbaughSUBSCRlPTIONS__u _

Web Sitewww.directionjournal.comUSA/Canada -$US39All correspondence to Australia.USA Freecall: 1-800-344.4224E-Mail: rick@directionjournal.comUnited Kingdom/Europe-£22Old School House, Ide Hill,Sevenoaks, Kent TN14 6JTTel/Fax: +44-173-275.0662Email: shirley@directionjournal.comJapan-¥3,900520-0016, Shiga Pre£., Otsu-shiHieidaira 3-chome 38-20Tel/Fax: +81-(0)3-3951.4199Japan FreeDial: 0120-844 882Elsewhere (incl. Israel)-$US39Australia-$A39PO Box 770, Spit Junction NSW 2088Tel: +61-2-9960.7728 Fax: +61-2-9960.7729Email: office@directionjournal.comEDITORlAL SUBMISSIONSAll articles can be posted on disc oremailed in plain text (ASCII) to theAustralian office--details above.

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MULTICULTURALISM

VOLUME 2 NUMBER 8

5Black and Whiteby Riki AlexanderMany of us havethe luxury of decidingwhether to discuss race.For people of colour, raceis not an optional topicof conversation; it issomething they live.

19Crossing Hemispheresby Robin GilmoreIn Japan: linguisticidiosyncrasies; glimpsesof the unknown; the practiceof not bowing as an exercisein Inhibition: KAPPAwas always a workin progress.

25An Alexander Way ofLifeby Tommy ThompsonIs there such away of life? And,if so, how would welive it and bring it intothe teaching context,in a multiculturalworld?

8Sticking to Principleby Glenna BatsonA somatic oasis;a source of salvation?Or could the AT,imported into Ecuadorianculture, end upfunctioning as a form ofconditioning,of homogenisation?

22Moving Beyond Wordsby Marcia FreemanWorking with peoplewho "listen" by watching,the teacher of AT needs away of communicatingAlexander conceptsthrough signlanguage.

28Zweimal Friihstuck Bitteby Rossi & MaddenAs a non-English-speaking teacher of theTechnique, is it a mustto bring oneself to ahigher ability inthe Englishlanguage?

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EDITORIALby Jeremy Chance

by Robin Gilmore

ISSUE EDITORIAL

How would you feel if your car told you youweren't fit to drive, disabled its engine and promptlyreported you to your partner, parents and the police,while refusing to discuss the matter, even though it hadviolated your instructions. What's more, thegovernment backs the car, so you don't have a wheel toride on.

Our world is threatened by many forces, yet thisis an unusual multicultural issue that only Hollywoodtakes seriously. Hollywood, that is, the Americanmilitary, and an eccentric Australian scientist, Hugo deGaris, who heads "Starbrain", in Brussels. He states thathis aim is: "Building an artificial brain with up to abillion neurons by 2001". <foobar.starlab.net/

What de Garis hopes to create is a machine thatdisobeys him. "It'll have a high degree of autonomy", hecommented in a recent New York Times interview. Whenthat happens he will have succeeded in creating agenuine form of artificial intelligence. This is a machinethat learns. It rewrites its own code, depending on thecircumstances it faces. It teaches itself. It directs itself. Itdeletes your code. It is evolutionary in the full sense ofthe word. Still not convinced? How about these words

In January of 1999, an appointed official in theWashington, DC mayor's office was forced to resign dueto his use of a word. That word is not a racial slur, but itsounds like another word which is a well-known racialepithet. The man hadn't actually spokeninappropriately, but in this case people's perceptionswon out over actual fact. Fortunately, the mayorreversed his decision and offered to reinstate the official.He also prefaced a later speech with the admonition to"make sure you all have your dictionaries handy".

Jumping to conclusions or making assumptionsbased on personal experience often leads tomisunderstanding or worse; yet, as humans, wenaturally operate out of habit unless there is a consciousattempt at inhibition. In bringing EM. Alexander's so-called "universal constant" to a variety of cultures, whatare the assumptions which must be put aside in orderfor the work to have relevance for a particularpopulation? As the Technique offers individuals avehicle for change, how do these changes fit into anexisting set of cultural beliefs and expectations?

The articles herein represent only a partialspectrum of multicultural possibilities. For the mostpart, the pieces are written by Alexander teachers whoteach regularly in countries or cultures other than theirown. Language differences play a major part in

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from Professor Stephen Hawking: "It seems to me that ifvery complicated chemical molecules can operate inhumans to make them intelligent, then equallycomplicated electronic circuits can also make computersact in an intelligent way. And if they are intelligent, theycan presumably design computers that have evengreater intelligence and complexity." If it comes to that,we can always pull the plug out-can't we?

But the Y2K farce illustrated how problematic thatwould be. In the next two years, de Garis hopes tocomplete "Robokoneko", a robotic kitten: "It'll play withwool. If you pull its tail, it'll reach around to scratch. It'llrun around and do hundreds of behaviours. We'rehoping it'll jump in the air." Until I read about deGaris's research, I thought such things were the stuff ofTerminator 2. Maybe you still do.

Then I remembered a wonderful story I heardfrom Frances Wheelhouse. During a lecture in the 1920s,a man asked what Dart thought was the limit of humancreation. Dart answered that he thought humans coulddo anything they imagined. The man laughed, sayingthat was ridiculous. "Why", he added, "I can imaginemen on the moon!" •

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determining approaches to teaching. Someunderstanding of cultural aspects such as gender roles,geography and time has led these teachers to modifytheir work so as to facilitate change while honouringstudents' sociocultural foundation.

Not every aspect of cross-cultural teaching paintsa harmonious rainbow. The issue of race continues topresent unresolved and often uncomfortable situationswithin Alexander circles. I had hoped to include anarticle by one of the few African-Americans to completean Alexander training program. Perhaps in myeagerness to have my own questions answered (forinstance: why are Alexander gatherings so lily-white?) Iscared off this potential author.

Beyond race and culture, an obvious factor whichaffects the portability of Alexander work is economy.The majority of people in many areas of the world livehand-to-mouth. Having Alexander lessons would beseen not as a luxury but as an absurdity. Within theAlexander community, as we debate and discuss Ourown "cultural" differences of teaching style, pedagogy,etc., let us not lose sight of the world at large. As weindividually strive for a unified field of awareness, wemay deepen our appreciation for diversity both close tohome and farther afield. •

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ZWEIMAL FRUHSTUCK BITTETwO BREAKFASTS PLEASE

Rosa Luisa Rossi and Cathy Madden,working in Japan, Europe and the US, comparenotes on multicultural teaching as they travel

through the Swiss landscape.

Rosa Luisa Rossi (former President of SVLAT,Switzerland): Monday morning in Switzerland, on theway from Rheinfelden to Zurich, Cathy Madden and Ihave decided to spoil ourselves with a breakfast on thetrain before going to teach-Cathy at a training school inZurich and myself, as usual, for private lessons in mystudio. While having a good time with milk coffee andSwiss bread, our journey going through soft hills, half inthe mist and half in the sunshine, we share someexperiences on "multicultural teaching".

Cathy Madden (University of Washington,Seattle, USA): We are, "of course", speaking English,

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with my occasional "Brot bitte"+ and "Danke viel mal"#being the best that I can do in German. I groan inwardlyas Rosa talks about her poor English. Her "poor English"is fluent enough for an adult conversation-in simpleEnglish certainly, yet she is able to be clear. In a highlyinvolved Alexander conversation among Englishspeakers, she would probably have to ask a lot ofquestions or ask for simpler language. I find myselfwondering: "If the language of the Alexander worldwere German, how would I manage?"

As President of SVLAT, as someone sponsoringworkshops for me, Rosa Luisa is constantly moving

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ZWEIMAL FROsTOcK BITTE

between two languages. After watching her "political"commitment on Society level for a week I can see thatthis isn't easy, particularly when more complicatedconcepts in English are involved.

ROSA: Is it a big difference for you when you areteaching in Switzerland?

CATHY: I'm always tempted to say no to thatquestion because I am a bit of a chameleon when I teachgroups-by that I mean that I alter the way I teach tomatch whatever group I teach-so, e.g., if I am teachingphysical therapists I choose language, stories, manner ofpresentation etc. to match their needs and interests. Andthat would be very different from how I might workwith a group of musicians. So when I teach in anothercountry, I am not doing anything much different thanwhat I would do to match different groups in the UnitedStates. But the truth is that it makes a big differencewhen people are listening to you in their secondlanguage.

ROSA: I have to open up myself for English and Ilike to do this shift. But I know that there are othercolleagues for whom the change into English is a realeffort and with this they build already a barrier incommunication.

CATHY: I am aware I need to talk more slowly andchoose my language carefully. I actually really enjoy thisopportunity to re-examine how I use language inteaching in general. I also notice that I use more gesturesthat illustrate what I am saying.

ROSA: I remember my first teaching experience inJapan, in 1992. I was invited to teach there and Iaccepted with joy and pleasure, even in knowing that Ihad to teach in English, which at that time was verysimple English. So I had to face not only the culturalunknown but also the challenge of teaching in alanguage which was not even my mother tongue. Iaccepted this step into the unknown only because Iknew that I could, under all circumstances, watch myuse, go back to the "principles", and apply theTechnique in every moment.

CATHY: My first teaching experience inSwitzerland was different. The year after the BrightonCongress I was invited to assist as one of MarjorieBarstow's assistant teachers. Most of the workshopparticipants knew English and the organisers knew whoneeded help with English. In each group I taught, therewere one or more people who acted as translators whenneeded. One of my experiences in Switzerland is thatteachers here have language flexibility-they are moreused to switching back and forth between languages.

ROSA: In Japan, of course, I was very muchdependent on translators. Some of them knew theAlexander Technique from many lessons they had hadwith different teachers-others knew less or almostnothing about it. So I didn't know how or which of mywords were translated. I could just check by watchingthe change of use and by paying attention to thequestions which were asked. What EM. Alexanderpoints out-that pupils learn with their wholebackground and that we don't know how they interpret

VOLUME 2 NUMBER 8

the received information-shows up even stronger inmulticultural teaching.

CATHY: I realise that I have always been luckywhen I've had a translator-usually my translators areAlexander teachers who have studied with me, so I havea lot of confidence in their translations. I've also foundthat knowing a few words or short phrases in the hostcountry's language can help. I had a student in one ofthe workshops you and I did together a few years agowho didn't understand much English at all. And myGerman was even less than it is now. But her daughterwas studying French in school, and I thought of saying"vacances ici" and then pointing to whatever part of herI was talking to. It worked really well, so I even use it inEnglish now-"a vacation for your neck"-or, inGerman, "Ferien".

"I thought ofsaying'vacances ici' and then pointing

to whatever part ofher Iwas talking to. "

ROSA: In Kyoto I designed a chart with the help ofa Japanese friend, in which we traced her full body andlabelled each body part in Japanese and English. Shetaught me how to say one sentence in Japanese, "I allowmy ..... to be free". So I could play with it in my teaching,change the needed word into the sentence so that thepupils could direct their thinking themselves. That forsure was fun and bridged the communication gap.

My experience in Japan showed me that thepupils are very sensitive and they are open to theinformation coming to them through my hands. It was agreat pleasure for me to teach them and an enormouslearning process started in my own teaching.

CATHY: I am always impressed by the desire andeagerness of the Swiss to make communication possible,to listen to new ideas-even in another language-andby their thirst for more. One of the things I receive fromteaching here is more depth in my teaching, fromresponding to the questions, the quests, of the studentsand teachers here.

ROSA: What is your experience-is it importantfor people who study the Alexander Technique to knowthe English language?

CATHY: I am very resistant to saying that peoplehave to know English in order to learn the AlexanderTechnique. Certainly, people learning the Technique fortheir own use can learn it without knowing English. Ialso find it unreasonable to think that teachers of theTechnique have to know English, although I realise fromtalking to you and other Swiss teachers that you havefound it essential to your growth as teachers.

ROSA: Yes, I have realised that it is of utmostimportance to have a certain ability of understanding,speaking and reading English. I know that even peoplewhose mother tongue is English avoid reading FM's

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ZWElMAL FROSTOCK BITTE

Im Theodorshof13, Ch-431O RheinfeldenTel: +41-61-831.5119

Email: rlrossi@datacomm.ch

books. But those books are the primary source ofinformation. And as a teacher everyone should be able togo back and re-read and study from that first information.We have to be aware that all other information is asecond, third or even fourth-hand interpretation.

CATHY: What makes more sense to me is to makea priority of getting good translations of Alexander'swritings-perhaps an "essential selection" of them-intoall the languages of the countries where there aretraining schools. Hopefully, there will eventually bepeople in each country fluent enough in English forinternational communication to be easier. Certainly, asteachers and teacher trainees learn more they maychoose to study more English-but I wouldn't like tosee training schools require fluency in English.

I keep thinking about the bits and pieces ofGerman and Swiss German I am studying and how longit is taking, in my admittedly hectic schedule, for me tomanage even the simplest conversations. If I had toknow German to teach the Alexander Technique, I'd bein trouble.

ROSA: Can you imagine, Cathy, I started to like toread the English version of FM's books. And today Iprefer the English version to the German translation1,because the English speaks to me on different levels. Idon't just understand it with my intellect, I get a feelingfor the message.

Now, for all those whose mother tongue is notEnglish, we have to face the reality that the commonlanguage in our profession is English. So if, as teachers,we would like to participate in a larger scale ofcommunication, it is an absolute must to bring ourselvesto a higher ability in the English language. All importantbooks, articles, newsletters of the societies, meetings,workshops and last, but not least, the Congresses, arewritten or held in this language.

I hope that those who do not need to make theeffort to express themselves in a foreign language have agrowing understanding and respect for others who do.

CATTHY: That's what I've understood more andmore during this trip to Switzerland. It is vitallyimportant that we English speakers respect those of youwho are making the extra effort to communicate withus. And I think it would be great if there were somenon-English articles in our publications, non-Englishworkshops at our Congresses-a little jolt to remind usof our diversity. •

GLOSSARY-----------

t Brot bitte - bread, please.# Danke vielmal- thank you very much.ENDNOTE..

1. German translation of The Use of the Self. FM. Alexander,Der Gebrauch des Selbst, Die Grundlagen der Alexander-Technik; aus dem Englischen ubertragen von Sabina Manassiund Thomas Fehr, Goldman Verlag (FM. Alexander, The Useof the Self the basics of the Alexander Technique; transferredfrom the English by Sabina Manassi and Thomas Fehr.) (Dateand place of publication unavailable.)LEAD PHOTO-----------Cathy Madden works with Tamoka-san in Tokyo.

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AVAILABLE IN GERMAN---_.---,- ..--- --- - .._-

Barker, Sarah, Haltung Zeigen: Das Praxisbuch zurAlexandertechnik, Knaur Ratgeber (place and dateunavailable).Barlow, Marjorie, "The Alexander Memorial Lecture: DieLehre des F Matthias Alexander, 1965", Edition Kavanah:Eberbach (1991).Barlow, Wilfred, Die Alexander-Technik, WilhelmGoldmann Verlag: Miinchen (1993).Brennan, Richard, Alexander-Technik, Aurum Verlag:Braunschweig (1993).Drake, Jonathan, Alexander-Technik im Alltag, Kosel-Verlag:Miinchen (1993).Gelb, Michael, Korperdynamik, Ullstein TaschenbuchVerlag: Berlin (1999).Gray, John, Die Alexander-Technik, Bastei-Liibbe Verlag:Bergisch-Gladbach (1992).Hodgkinson, Liz, Die Alexander-Technik, Wilhelm HeyneVerlag: Miinchen (no year available).Leibowitz, Judith and Connington, Bill, Die Alexander-Technik, Rowohlt-Taschenbuch Verlag (no place or yearavailable).Stevens, Chris, Aiexander-Technik, Sphinx Medien Verlag:Basel (1993).

ABOUT THE WRITERSRosa Luisa Rossi studied theAlexander Technique from 1983 to1986 at the training school ofJacqueline Webster in Zurich. Sincethen she has taught privately andin groups. She enjoys organisingworkshops all over Europe,combining the study of AlexanderTechnique with different activities,and co-teaching with otherqualified teachers. She is also a guest teacher for KAPPA,a teacher training course in Kyoto, Japan.For seven years she was a member of the SVLAT Council,the Swiss Society of Teachers of the Alexander Technique,and she served as their chair for three years. She iscommitted to the development of the AlexanderTechnique worldwide, encouraging constructivecommunication between all different approaches to thiswork.

Catherine Madden teaches for theUniversity of Washington Schoolof Drama, and does workshopsand classes in her private studio.She has been a guest at teachertraining schools, and has doneteacher refresher courses inEngland, Germany, Japan, andSwitzerland. She was a CongressTeacher at the International Congress held in Sydney in1994 and a featured speaker at the 1999 InternationalCongress in Freiburg, Germany. Cathy studied withMarjorie Barstow for over 15 years and served as herassistant in workshops for over ten years.

Email: Cathmadden@aol.com11042 27th Avenue NE Seattle, WA 98125 Tel: (206) 368 8544

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