Apprenticeship training here refers to individual, personal training which may involve assisting in teaching. For teacher training in classes see Teacher Training.
Apprenticeship
Before the first teacher training course Alexander trained a number of people in his technique (year indicates first known year of assisting Alexander):
A. R. Alexander (1898?[1]), Lilian Twycross (1897[2] or 1898[3]), Amy Alexander (1902 or 1903[4]), Ethel Webb (1912?[5]), Irene Tasker (1917[6]).
(Miss Lilian Twycross advertised herself in 1904 as being ‘a certified pupil of Mr F. M. Alexander’ and may therefore also have taught his technique.[7])
There are no known descriptions of how this training was carried out. When Alexander started his first teacher training course in 1931, the apprenticeship model was discontinued by Alexander. However, other teachers adopted it.
Apprenticeship training is often small and private, meaning that publicity material is absent, and reports and memoirs are not known to exist.
Irene Tasker
There is some suggestion that Irene Tasker trained Joyce Roberts in South Africa on an apprenticeship basis, but little is known.
Lulie Westfeldt
Judith Leibowitz trained with Lulie Westfeldt as a teacher, [8] and began teaching in 1952.[9] There are no known details of the structure or duration of this training.
See also Marjorie Barstow, Application Approach.
References
[1] Frederick Matthias Alexander – A Family History by Jackie Evans (Phillimore & Co., 2001), p. 113.
[2] Frederick Matthias Alexander – A Family History by Jackie Evans (Phillimore & Co., 2001), p. 129.
[3] Up From Down Under by Rosslyn McLeod (Mouritz, 2017), p. 97.
[4] Frederick Matthias Alexander – A Family History by Jackie Evans (Phillimore & Co., 2001), p. 128.
[5] Frederick Matthias Alexander – A Family History by Jackie Evans (Phillimore & Co., 2001), p. 154.
[6] ‘Connecting Links’ (1967) by Irene Tasker (The Sheildrake Press, 1978), p. 13.
[7] Up From Down Under by Rosslyn McLeod (Mouritz, 2017), pp. 113-14.
[8] The Alexander Technique by Judith Leibowitz, Bill Connington (HarperCollins, 1990), p. 3, 5.
[9] ‘Judith Leibowitz: Her legacy’ by Eleanor Rosenthal in The Congress Papers: A Spirit of Learning Together, edited by in Jeremy Chance (Direction, 1992), p. 25.
