BATTSA - Teachers

The Society of Teachers of the Alexander Technique

BATTSA Teachers

Permanent Staff | Visiting Teachers | School Alumni

Permanent Staff

Caroline Chalk - Head of Training

(Qualified A & J Haahr 1984)

Understanding that the way we think can improve our quality of life is a subject that has fascinated me since I started having Alexander lessons at the age of 11. I had problems with headaches and was painfully self-conscious. Once I started lessons my headaches disappeared and my confidence began to grow.

I continued with lessons throughout my teens and found applying the Technique to my music and sports - especially my horse riding which soon became a passion of mine - improved my performance and enjoyment enormously. The Technique was making a huge impression on my life and I was becoming more and more enthusiastic about the possibilities that it offered to everyone and so decided to train to be a teacher in order that I could pass these possibilities onto others.

I did my Alexander training with Jeanne and Aksel Haahr (Carrington trained) in Totnes, Devon and qualified in 1984. Since qualifying I have worked with a wide range of people from many walks of life and love the way the application of the Technique enables people to make the very best of whatever they are engaged in. I am also a qualified and experienced therapist and bring relevant skills in communication and personal development to my role as head of training.

I have a private teaching practice working with individuals & groups. I enjoy the mixture of teaching the general public as well as working on the training course. It is important to me that I teach people at all levels because this means I am constantly in touch with what I am training others to do! I have worked at BATTSA since 2003 and find it very rewarding being able to work at a more advanced and in-depth level with trainees.

I have two dogs and enjoy lots of walking in beautiful places. I love singing and am part of a choir which meets regularly and when I make the time I play the piano a bit, ride horses, play tennis and anything else that catches my interest!

I value the input and companionship of the core teachers at BATTSA very much. I am also grateful to all the visiting teachers that come to BATTSA with their own individual ideas, views and outlooks on applying the Alexander Technique to life which contributes hugely to my continual learning process.

Colin Tully

(Qualified A & J Haahr 1983)
Composer and musician

The AT could be described as a method which explores how the mind effects the body. At the age of ten, long before I'd ever heard of Alexander, I made my first experiments with influencing a physical outcome with a mental attitude.

During a game of golf I discovered that if I didn't try too hard or even adopted a 'couldn't care less' attitude I generally found that I would have a better chance of hitting a golf ball where I wanted it to go. This, I thought, was my own unique discovery (which sadly did not lead me to become especially good at golf, just a slightly less moody child for my father to play his game of golf with!)

When, at the age of nineteen, in my first Alexander lesson my teacher said the words 'don't try' as he took me in and out of the chair, it connected with my earlier golf experience. So, there I was in this lesson, being asked to 'try less hard', 'make less effort' and I again noticed that my mental attitude could affect the physical outcome. I noticed with a rising sense of relief that an enormous heaviness, of which I had been hitherto unaware, was no longer pressing my body down.

As I strolled home from this lesson, the physical lightness was matched by a different and more optimistic mental outlook. More things seemed possible. The future was bright. I was hooked and went back for more!

Several years of private lessons ensued, followed by a training course, 1980 - 83 at Dartington College, Totnes, Devon, which for me was a blissfully, self - indulgent journey of self-exploration. Fortunately, the reality of passing on Alexander's principles to other people, i.e. teaching, has brought me back down to earth. Occasionally, one does get difficult pupils but in a general sense, Alexander teachers can count themselves lucky to be in a 'person based' profession with possibilities of really making a difference for people.

So what was the 'enormous heaviness' that was weighing me down as a teenager? Awkwardness, perhaps, or emotional difficulties which most of us go through at that age.

Another factor was an obsession with playing various musical instruments. Piano, guitar, flute and saxophone all left their impression on my physical structure i.e. I was hunching over at the piano, twisting to play the flute etc.

Needless to say the Technique has helped me a lot in the relationship with my instruments and playing, not just in a purely physical sense but helping to keep me free and constructive within a greater range of musical environments.

Nowadays my professional life is happily split between playing saxophone, (I run my own band) exploring the 'use of myself' in music and teaching the Alexander Technique to pupils and trainee teachers.

Perhaps, however the most daunting field of exploration is in my loving relationship with my two high energy daughters of 10 and 13, who daily threaten to transform me back to the grumpy man I might have become!

Belinda May - Assistant Director

(Qualified BATTSA 1999)
Teaches anatomy at BATTSA

About 20 years ago I was given a book, the Alexander Principle by Wilfred Barlow, which I dutifully decided to read. By the end of the book I was so fascinated I decided to have some lessons and so began my association with the Alexander Technique.

At the time I suffered from headaches and "poor posture", throughout my life I had always being told to stand up straight, but had never imagined the two were connected. I found that after a lesson I had a very different sense of co-ordination, it felt good, and in time my head aches left me, my posture was improving along with my confidence. So I continued with more lessons until one day I decided to train as a teacher as soon as my youngest child started school.

I qualified from BATTSA in 1999 and set up my teaching practice at home in Blagdon, North Somerset. I have helped on various introductory courses including a weeks course for musicians in France. I have also held introductory courses for Somerset Council Adult Learning programs.

At the beginning of 2003 Ali Burrows - then head of training - asked me if I would like to come and teach at BATTSA and take the anatomy session, I naturally said yes. I feel very lucky and privileged to work there for many reasons. Working with the trainees in depth as they study the Technique and learn to apply the principles to their lives; helping them on their journey to become teachers and the wonderfully supportive atmosphere of the school. I find teaching the anatomy session fascinating, the more you learn and discover about the workings of the body the more you realise you cannot separate mind and body.

Lucia Walker - BATTSA's Moderator

(Qualified D & E Walker 1987)

Lucia Walker Lucia qualified as an AT teacher in 1987 after training with Dick and Elisabeth Walker. Since then she has taught individuals, groups and on teacher training courses in Europe, America and Japan. She also continues to work as an independent dance teacher and performer specialising in improvisation.

In teaching Lucia likes to use games, discussion, touch, stillness and activity to explore Alexander's principles in ways that are relevant and enjoyable. She loves the way Alexander work supports the ability to find greater wholeness and confidence in our lives.

For more info on the moderator's role click here.

Jacqueline Evans

(Qualified BATTSA 2006)
Violinist

I first came to the Alexander Technique 25 years into my career as a violinist and violin teacher, when I was trying to find a way of playing without pain. Little did I realise that that first lesson would be just the first step on a lifelong journey, which would affect far more than my music-making.

Before I studied the Alexander Technique, my perception of how to be a good violinist - or indeed how to do anything well - had been to grit my teeth and try to solve the problem by sheer effort. I also suffered badly with stage fright. My solution was to practise harder still, with the result that I found myself in so much pain from the tension of trying to get it right, that I thought I would have to give up playing altogether. I hadn’t yet heard of Einstein’s definition of madness: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result! I was also struck by Alexander’s words: “Be happy to be wrong!” If I didn’t mind being wrong, then I could experiment. The rediscovery of my curiosity liberated me where trying to get things right had held me back, and I found my sense of possibility and potential re-awakened.

Using the tools the Technique gave me I found that freedom and flexibility of mind and body made me far more at home with myself than tension and rigidity. I love the analogy of the wolf spider – a creature which makes its web between two blades of grass so that it can bend and flow with the wind when it blows, instead of making it between rocks where it would be blown apart by the wind.

Now I am passionate about teaching the Alexander Technique; as well as teaching at BATTSA I have a thriving private practice with pupils aged from 12 to 91 – it’s never too late to learn! I teach people from all walks of life from GPs to gliders, from tree surgeons to dancers. Unsurprisingly I specialise in teaching musicians, and have seen many overcome their stage fright and pain. Another bonus has been that my other career as a freelance violinist continues – the fear has gone, and I’m experiencing once again the joy of performance.

Gunda Fielden

(Qualified Danny McGowan A.Z.A.T. 1996)
Theatre background

I first came into contact with the Alexander Technique at the age of 19… my mother sent me! I’d had a lot of trouble with my back from a very young age; a built up shoe for my ‘shorter leg’; a variety of not particularly positive experiences with physiotherapists and a great deal of niggly ill health from the age of 17. I took 2 lessons and then forgot about it… or so I thought.

7 years later, now in Berlin, I’d found myself a boyfriend with similar ‘poor posture’ who also had asthma. He’d had enough… so I sent him! Then he began to change, and I began to feel shorter and shorter, more and more rounded. “Oh no!” I thought. “I’ve sent him to the thing I should be doing.”

I’d been working in the theatre, assistant directing, stage managing and lighting etc. and happened at the time to be touring only 10 days of the month so I had no excuse. I had the time. I went for lessons and the Technique grabbed me.

Almost immediately I knew I wanted to train to be a teacher. It was something about the ‘wrong way round’ way of thinking – the ‘doing nothing’ to solve my problems, but rather to stop creating them in the first place, which appealed to me. As Marjorie Barlow said – with a charming smile – at a Master class I went to some years later in Basel: ”The only lesson you can go to where you get praise for doing nothing is an Alexander Technique lesson… but then you find out that doing nothing isn’t quite so easy.”

I trained at A.Z.A.T. (Ausbildungszentrum fur F.M. Alexander Technik) in Berlin from 1993-96 and then became a teacher there, 2 mornings a week for 3 years. During this time I had private practices in Berlin and Dresden and ran introductory courses.

I returned to England in 1999 and have since been based in Sherborne, Dorset, where I have my teaching practice, and am ‘bringing up’ or rather ‘being brought up’ by my lovely challenging twins, Rory and Tara who were born in 2002.

Nowadays I like to think of the Technique as a kind of personal ecology. I feel inspired by the idea that if we can restore balance and well being to our own eco-system by inhibiting the habits which disturb its good functioning, then we may, just may, be able to put this knowledge to good use as we learn to look after the planet better as well as ourselves.

Linda Jordan

(Qualified J Haahr 1990)

I found my way into the Alexander Technique via a sore neck and arm – generated by learning to play a clarinet with more enthusiasm than knowledge. After a year of lessons I wanted to study the technique in greater depth but certainly didn’t want to be a teacher. I qualified in 1990 (Jeanne Haahr) and the teaching just happened anyway.

I have been teaching at BATTSA since then; as a core teacher, as Assistant Director and as a visiting teacher. I have also trained with Steven Shaw in the Art of Swimming and qualified as a Shaw Method teacher in 2001. I teach A.T. privately at my home in Devon and continue to play my clarinet – without a sore neck!

Teaching Term

Recently qualified teachers from the Training School are encouraged to do a teaching term of one day a week.

Visiting Teachers

To complement our core teachers we have regular visits from experienced Alexander teachers from around the world, some skilled not only in the Alexander Technique but also in specific areas, e.g. swimming; running; group teaching; acting and voice; music; anatomy, etc.

We welcome visitors to the workshops (see information below) where they can join in on the day's activities. Visitors are welcome to come at 9am before the workshops starts and share work with teachers and trainees for the first hour. The cost is £30 a day.

Autumn 2010 - Spring 2011 Terms

Malcolm Balk - Alexander Technique and Running

11th October 2010

The content of the morning varies from workshop to workshop, but roughly speaking the first half will be indoors and will cover balance, going into movement, and some basic running technique with an emphasis on non doing and taking risks.
In the second half we'll head outside and see what it's like to finally run a little bit. We'll look at the use of the arms, difference between walking and running, changing gears and so on depending on time and weather!

There is no expectation of any level of fitness and in 20 years everyone in every AT school with which I've worked has managed to try at least a few strides even if they weren't convinced that running the London marathon was for them!

Malcolm Balk MSTAT qualified with Patrick Macdonald in 1984. In addition to maintaining a private practice in Montreal, he also teaches at Plattsburgh State University in New York. Originally attracted to the Technique because of major tension issues while playing the cello, Malcolm has enjoyed helping musicians and other performers develop better control and more freedom for over 25 years. He is also a Level 4 running coach and still competes in his veteran category. In 1991 he developed The Art of Running workshop, which has been enjoyed by runners all over the world: www.theartofrunning.com

Glenna Batson

Sun 27th March 2011- Workshop for students and teachers 10 - 4pm
28th March 2011 - The Torso – Articulation, Connection, Coherency. An Exploratory Movement Workshop in the Alexander Technique

What vast anatomical landscape lies below the head and neck that can inform - and potentially transform - the head-neck-back relationship?

This workshop offers an experiential moving journey through the torso to discover its power, responsiveness, and linkage to the primary control.
Through simple movement sequences, we’ll explore the sensory messages emerging from bony articulations and muscular patterns of the thorax, lumbar spine, and pelvis. Within the framework of Alexander Technique principles, we’ll allow our sensory appreciation to excavate through the layers of our trunk anatomy. The journey promises a deeper understanding of embodied organisation of use – articulated, connected, and coherently organised through the whole.

Glenna Batson, mAmSAT, PT, ScD, is an internationally recognised teacher of the Alexander Technique and a teacher of somatic approaches to movement. Over the last three decades, she has designed and promoted embodied approaches to understanding the art and science of the moving, living body. A former dancer, she qualified in the Alexander Technique in 1989 from the Alexander Alliance of Philadelphia. She has researched and published on the science of the Technique, as well as investigated ways that the practice of the Alexander Technique can inform scientific theory. She believes in the power of this work as a catalyst for personal growth and professional development as a means of meeting and transforming the challenges presented in our world today.

Lucia Walker

June 2011 (TBC)

Details to be confirmed

Jean Clark - Exploring the Dart Procedures

7th & 8th June 2011

Jean Clark trained with Walter Carrington, qualifying as an AT teacher in 1969. In the last 4 decades she has done it all from running a training course, leading groups around the world, being a training school moderator to being actively involved with STAT.

Jean is offering the evening of 7th June for teachers in Bristol from 6pm - 8pm, the theme being ‘Working on Yourself’. The importance of this is no mystery to any of us but is something that is constantly useful to explore. The evening comes highly recommended for new and seasoned teachers alike!
Jean will then be at Battsa the following morning from 10am -1pm. Visitors are welcome to this session also or instead of the evening session. Cost per session is £4

For more information on any of the workshops please contact Caroline: caroline@battsa.co.uk

School Alumni

All teachers on this list are members of STAT.

UK

Bristol

Ms Anna Christy
Ms Lisa Clarke
Claire Coveney
Christine English
Bethan Evans
Jackie Evans
Ms Lesley H. Harrison
Mr David Harrowes
Petra Jones
Gordon Juckes
Julia Norman
Charlotte Ostafew
Miss Sandra Tancock

Cambridgeshire / Norfolk

Mrs Susan Reid

Devon

Nick Cann
Jane Julier

Gloucestershire

Mrs Sarah Anne Chubb
Joanna Greaves
Bridget Malcolm
Judy Schunemann

London

Rosie Hayles

Oxfordshire

Mrs Matilda Leyser

Somerset

Ms Fiona Clogstoun
Ms Vivi Hansen
Mr Stephen Linley
Mrs Belinda May
Mrs Hellie Mulvaney
Maki Quayle
Ms Jill Ray BHS(SM) BHSH
Maureen Somers
Mrs Susan Trott
Sally Kirk

Wales

Ms Sarah Tovey

Wiltshire

Susan Stewart

Worcestershire

Pam Street

Overseas

France

Ms Deborah Cranston

Germany

Anne Pommier

Ireland

Miss Anna Gordon
Bel Spencer

Singapore

Mr Hwa Boon Lee

Sweden

Mikael Aaby-Ericsson

Bristol Alexander Technique Training School Association (BATTSA)