Kathryn Miranda - Dare To Be Wrong: The Teaching of Judith Leibowitz (Alexander Technique)

As a graduate of the American Center for the Alexander Technique (ACAT), I am indebted to Judy Leibowitz. If not for her creative vision and her strong drive to make this organization effective, ACAT would not have survived and I would not have received such excellent training. Along with Deborah Caplan, Frank Ottiwell, Barbara Callen and Joyce Ringdahl Suskind, Judy founded ACAT in 1964 as a center, a place for teachers to come together to support each other, a place to train teachers and a place for the public to learn about Alexander. It was the dynamic, collegial style of ACAT that drew many to train there. I went in the fall of 1987 and over the course of three years, I studied with twelve trainers and another dozen or so assistant trainers, but Judy was the main influence in my training. I had approximately 200 hours in her training classes and all my other trainers had been influenced by her, either through training or by exchanging work with her. (All but Deborah Caplan and Sarnell Ogus were graduates of ACATs Teacher Training Program.)

When Judy died in December of 1990, little had been written about her. Her book The Alexander Technique, The world-famous method for enhancing posture, stamina, well-being, and for relieving pain and tension, which she co-wrote with Bill Connington, was released in 1989 by Harper & Row. It was written to inspire potential readers to take Alexander lessons and to help them begin a process of awareness, inhibiton and direction through movements she called the Leibowitz procedures. The Alexander Technique represents a small fraction of Judys teaching.

According to Pearl Ausubel, her twin sister, Judy wanted to write another Alexander book. She wanted a book that didnt simplify the Technique for the layman, but one that explored the complexities, the paradoxes and the wonders of the Alexander Technique for people who knew and understood it, people like teachers and teachers-in-training. After all, training had been one of her major contributions to the spread of the Alexander Technique in the U.S. Judy had trained more teachers that any other teacher in the United States. If you count all the teachers she trained and then add all the teachers that they trained, you would have a significant majority of the U.S. teachers.

Judy was brilliant in training and working with teachers. She would help people see the habits that limited their learning. She had a relentless commitment to the principles of awareness, inhibition and direction. She was a master in the skill of being in the moment and it seemed she never taught the same lesson twice.

We dont know what Judy would have said in a book for the Alexander professional, but we do have the words she said to many of those she trained. This book is a collection of her words that will give you an authentic record of how Judy taught. By compiling this material, we hope to acknowledge Judys influence on the Technique as it is taught today and give those of you who did not work directly with Judy a chance to understand her approach to the Technique.

As I was editing Judys words for this book, I would have vivid recollections of her working with me, especially the most profound moments. When Judys blue eyes looked at me through the thick lenses of her glasses, it seemed to me that she saw my consciousness in its most naked form. She saw how much my end-gaining was fueled by my need to know, to know what would happen and to know if what I did was right or not. She could see this thinking right through my eyes, as if she was looking at the origins of my thinking deep within my nervous system. I recall a seminal moment in training when I was looking at my student, trying to learn about Alexander hands and Judy was looking at my eyes. She said, You dont know, let yourself not know, - a phrase I heard her say dozens of times. But at that time, it resonated completely and I managed to respond in a way that was transforming. I reflected on this experience for months afterwards and eventually learned to catch myself in this subtle form of end-gaining. That was how valuable some of her insights could be - transformative in the moment and a catalyst to future growth and integration.