Podcast
Alexander Technique: Notes on a Performance
Friday February 19, 2010 • Filed in: Alexander Technique | Writing
mary beth listening to recording after the performance. iphone photo: frank m sheldon
In a post a while back, I mentioned that I had had a little insight into an important aspect of the Alexander Technique, and that I would write about it later. The moment is at hand, but first, a little background:
Anyone who has had Alexander lessons learns that our anticipation of something we are about to do, especially if it is challenging, can distort our performance and thus adversely affect the outcome. Probably everyone has had some experience of this. The importance of means, rather than only ends, is central to the Alexander Technique. If we are to become free of old habits that limit what is possible for us, we must shift our attention away from obsessing on the results we so much desire. Instead, we need to first bring our attention to what happens to us as we try to achieve those results.
One aim of the Alexander Technique is to be liberated from the tyranny of habitual reactions. Even a small shift in this direction will leave us more free to act out of response to whatever unique moment we find ourselves in, that is, the true present reality.
My insight came during a recording of a reading I was doing from my novel, The Sea We Know, while accompanied by three members of the House Circle on guitars. The specific challenge was to do it in one take and, regardless of how it went, post the result as a podcast for anyone to hear. This was done to create something like the conditions of a live performance.
The music began, and I started to speak. After a few paragraphs, I misspoke one of the characters names by somehow combining two names into one. When it registered, part of my attention stayed at the point where I had made the error. It was as if part of me had jumped off a train and was left behind. Suddenly, I was less in the present, which meant that I had less attention for what I was doing right now!
This is another wrinkle on what I wrote above. Not only will the reactive anticipation of something we are about to do distract us from performing well, but it seems that dwelling on a mistake made in performance can be just as treacherous. In the first case, our concerns cause us to trip out of the present over the door sill of the future. In the latter, having turned our back on the present, we lag at the door to dwell in the past.
What a waste it was because, of course, I could not change what had happened. Yet I did have the opportunity to redeem it. I let go of the mistake and brought everything I had back to the matter at hand. Instead of spiraling down, I felt myself slide back into “now.” It is not so much something I saw for the first time, but more something I saw anew as if for the first time. It became fresh again.
Almost any performance can be redeemed. How that redemption plays out may not always go the way we think it should, but it will almost certainly be exactly what is best for us in that most unique of all moments, the present.
Podcast of The Sea We Know
Tuesday February 02, 2010 • Filed in: Writing | Alexander Technique
the players: igor, greg, and mary beth at around midnight. iphone photo: frank m sheldon
Three guitar players from the House Circle, which is part of Seattle Circle, recently took on the challenge to record podcasts and post them publicly. Part of the reason to do this was to create a situation that would generate some of the same energy of a live performance. Really? Well, you see, the challenge comes from limiting the recording to one take and one take only. They get one chance to get it right, and after it is recorded, that take is then posted in a public place for anyone with an Internet connection to hear.
I have been working as an Alexander teacher with the House Circle lately, and since I had something to do with this challenge idea, I suppose it was only fair to give me the chance to place myself under the same conditions. To that end, late this last Sunday night, I was recorded reading a short piece from my novel, The Sea We Know with the three player providing the rest of the soundtrack. They requested something with action and danger. We settled on the scene where a news helicopter, after getting too close to some migrating gray whales, crashes amongst them. I learned much about writing during the rehearsals and much about where the Alexander Technique could apply while doing a reading, but more on that in future posts. For now, you can listen to the ten minute podcast here.
highly mobile recording studio and script. iphone photo: frank m sheldon