Author: Penny O’Connor

Alexander lessons are brilliant to help us cope with change, stretch our wings in the stiffness of winter  and face the unknown. What will this year bring for us on a personal level and a global one?  Space is not empty but full of potential. Think of the space above you behind you, on either side and with a wide vision of that which is in front, sensing the earth beneath us supporting us. Think of something that makes you smile irrisistably, a cheeky grin as you think of something absurd perhaps  and allow that to be a gateway to let the jaw open and the air to fall out on a whispered ahhhhh, closing the mouth to let the air rush in through your nose…..

Way to start your year by joining me for a semi-supine zoom on 1st January at 10.30 am

Here’s a lovely drawing of semi-supine  from my collague and friend Judith Kleinman.

Dogs are always invited to my lie-ins.

Here’s the log-in

Penny O’Connor is inviting you to a scheduled Zoom meeting.
Join Zoom Meeting
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/82988529136?pwd=b24xckRGK2x5R3lmYWJ1cXNhSTVJQT09

Meeting ID: 829 8852 9136
Passcode: 474895

See you there! and a happy new year to you all

Penny

Great quote from Joseph Campbell

Explore Alexander Technique with me on-line every Friday lunchtime with Healthy Generations.

Here’s the link to join https://healthygenerations.org.uk/alexander/

what they said about it:

https://alexandertechnique.co.uk/alexander-technique/published-research

There have been a number of research studies in the last two decades on the efficacy of Alexander – research on back pain, neck pain, balance, Parkinsons, osteoarthritis, care for the elderly, postural tone, movement, performance skills, general wellbeing. … Click on the link above to get the full list to read up on them.

He is an excellent motivational speaker, completely rooted in Alexander principles. Enjoy!

PRE-PUBLICATION OFFER ON ALEXANDER TECHNIQUE FOR ACTORS:

Save 30% and get your copy of Alexander Technique for Actors: A Practical Course by Penny O’Connor for just £10.49 (RRP £14.99) when you pre-order direct from publishers Nick Hern Books – head to https://www.nickhernbooks.co.uk/alexander-technique-for-actors-a-practical-course and enter discount code ALEXANDERNHB30 at checkout. This pre-publication offer is valid until 14 July only.

Nearly there! It was due out last April and of course lockdown happened. It’s been quite a journey and based  on my work with  drama students at ArtsEd, and other London theatre schools over the years. Even if you’re not in the drama biz you will love it – it gives a very good idea of the  work, fun games to play and deeper experiments to carry out – oh and there’s a few illustrations by the brilliant Jenny Quick:

Glad to say that under latest government guidelines I have re-opened my teaching space in Old Street. So if you are fed up with Zoom, come back into touch with a kinaesthetic experience of human contact. It is so essential for our well being.

Touching the heart with our hands.

I am hosting a half hour meeting on zoom on Saturday 3^rd April at 6.30 pm UK time, called Coming To Quiet.

An experiment in doing nothing. There will be silence for the half hour. I suggest gallery view, muting yourself and keeping your camera on so we have the visual experience of witnessing each other sitting or standing there not doing anything. As Alexanders we may think of it as coming to a unified field of attention, finding our ‘up’, directing ourselves, a half hour of inhibiting reactions,  a state of rest, being present, sensing the Earth holding us up through our feet and our sitting bones, sensing the space surrounding us, the space we take up, the still point of the turning world…..coming to quiet.

There is no attendance fee. Email me for the zoom login. pennyoconnor1@gmail.com

Hi

Every 1st of the month I invite you to lie down in semi supine on Zoom, as I give some guiding thoughts.

It’s free but a donation to Alzheimers Research UK on my ‘justgiving’ site would be much appreciated in memory of my sister and mother who both died suffering this terrible disease. https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/penny-o-connor6

Next one: Thursday April 1st 6.30 pm

Please email me for the zoom link

pennyoconnor1@gmail.com

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‘Loving your classes on Friday. I look forward to them every week and it has really set me off thinking about all sorts of things.’

‘Many thanks for a lovely class, to come back into the body, connect with the breath and the space around is very needed right now.’

Every Friday 6- 7 pm, drop-in group workshop £10 email me pennyoconnor1@gmail.com  to introduce yourself and I will email you  the zoom details.

‘Thank you for a lovely session, thoroughly enlightening and beneficial. You have a particularly easy manner and flow about you. ‘

‘Thanks so much Penny, really enjoyed the session, the fact that I even attempted to dance is quite miraculous!’

It is a real pleasure to have the leisure to be able to properly think about and sustain the AT work. I have always loved your practical yet imaginative teaching…..

I loved that session thank you so much. This all makes such wonderful sense – I think due to your beautiful  teaching gift….

This class is one of the most beautiful appointment of the week. Thank you!

‘Thank you so much for the session last night. It was wonderful! Exactly what I needed and beyond what I hoped for. To find we were focusing on arms and shoulders was a dream come true.’

‘This lesson has been fabulous. You are a treasure and a very precious one. It answered so many questions I have been asking myself and around throughout the year! Thank you! ‘

Thanks for the precis of what we covered and for the link up and for a lovely class. The reach of the arm literal and metaphorical is quite mind blowing – and I thought I knew a bit of anatomy – so that’s opened up a way of thinking about that shoulder arm relationship.