Performance

I still huff and puff after some unicycling, it feels like getting less though. I like Vivien's gentle ways while I had a turn with her, and felt significantly more up afterwards. We spend the remaining time with Vivien and performance work, an interesting thing to participate.

David asked Alysha to start, so she did some arabian drumming. Rossi improvised a story, vivid and funny. Will's guitar playing got enlivened by walking around, which gave him less chance to poke his hips forward. Tony recited a sonett, and looked like too exposed when he aborted the stage. Maria tried her introduction speech again, which led to some critiscism from my side. I don't know whether I went too far, yet Vivien confirmed my observations, and Maria went trhough an emotional roller coaster.

Finally, I dared to give the Galaxy Song a first go, much to the amusement of my fellow student, especially once I tried (yep) to do heaps of things at the same time.

Swimming

I can't really say that the course so far fosters building of new habits in regards to a school day. Although everything we did relates to the work, each day held new surprises, which helps to keep the mind flexible and open.

We went to Penny McDonald's place to do some swimming. Or rather not doing swimming. Penny worked with me while I floated in the pool, which allowed very precise sensation of the hip joint. My neck felt a bit stiff during the turn, however, being in the water allows a different form of information gathering.

Bo displayed an amazing mobility in the water, his head moved with ease while his body followed snake like the directions of Will and Penny.

I really enjoyed gliding effortless through the water, and my relation to water and swimming relaxed a lot. Experimenting with new and familiar activities turns into pleasurable data collection sessions, so I'm looking forward to the pilates session next week.

Anatomy

I still struggle with some of the names, but it seems to get better any day. (Thats easy to say after two days). I spend about half an hour in semi supine, which more and more appears to be an amazing tool to regain awareness of the body.

Jeremy took the turn on me today, and showed me an astonishing way to get out of a slump without doing anything about it. Releasing the neck and rocking slightly back and forth did the trick, with no attention to the shoulders at all. Maria had 5 minutes to put her hands on me before that, and Kaz tried to get me on the tips of my feet.

The activity session with Libby was about sleeping, a very important activity. It surprised me how different bodies look like while basically doing the same, ie lying on the side ready to sleep. However, using pillows for the support of the upper arm, the belly and between the legs improves the length of the spine and produces easily the sensation of more comfort.

The anatomy session with Jeremy constituted the most formal part, and like the reading part requires us to do homework. I still need another book to do my homework, yet I might check the Uni library and make some copies, in case the book won't arrive soon in the school. The body has only a finite number of components like bones, tendons, ligaments, organs and muscles, yet I don't know too much about the interactions and the locations that apply.

I really enjoy being the object of hand work of the second years - Will, Kaz and Maria had a go so far. I realise more and more the pervasiveness of Alexander's approach. However, I noticed the similarity to Gurdjieff's, Feldenkrais and Crowley's constant reminder to introspection. The things I learn feed my desire for something new and useful, yet it grows with everything new.