Back ground

Carole came accross the Alexander Technique whilst studying at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art. All acting students were given a course of lessons in the technique to support their acting skills.

Whilst at RADA she started a course of T’ai Chi which was the beginning of a life long interest in the positive effects of working with the body.
’T’ai Chi was my first real and exciting experience of alignment in movement.’

A few years later Carole entered the North London School of Teacher Training in the Alexander Technique, with Misha Magidov. This was a full-time three year diploma course.

For the next 20 years, alongside having a family, Carole worked in Private Practise, also in various Osteopathic Practises, and Lambton Place Health Club in Kensington - now Body Works West.

A Special Interest in Gravity

With observation, we can see alignment as our relationship with the downward pull of gravity,
where the body’s axis, centred along the spine, is correctly in line with the gravity force. The aligned body is supported with ease and even experiences a natural buoyancy.

However, if the axis is not well aligned, gravity becomes a stressful force for the body and creates many problems - in movement, in finding a comfortable vertical posture, and in giving us the support that we need to function with ease and well being.

The fact is that the powerful force of gravity affects us constantly for better or for worse, and we need to be far more aware of it’s affects.

A Practical Understanding of Alignment and the Body

There is nothing abstract about how our body alignment works once we relate it to gravity.

A practical understanding (and experience) of alignment, working well and working badly, gives a new chance of affecting all of our experience in a positive direction. We are no longer helpless and ignorant about our situation, at the mercy of old habits, unnecessary suffering, and often unhelpful surroundings.

The Future

I share the belief with Frederick Alexander that alignment could have a special place in the development of mankind. That it gives us the chance to be more whole, more aware and less reactive, and more healthy in mind and body as individuals, which is so needed in the world. I hope to see this type of learning become a normal part of education and higher education.