Robyn Avalon works with Tara Andrea Swierkosz during Fiber Arts week.The Alexander Alliance Southwest teaches a varied and active program each year, with opportunities for apprentice teaching at every level of training. While the emphasis is on Alexander's core principles, AASW believes in applying those principles to real life, contemporary activities, and consequently has developed The Living Arts Curriculum.
The Living Arts curriculum is a study of Alexander’s principles through the “arts” of our daily life. It involves us working with visual, musical, textile, tactile, culinary, and movement arts on a regular basis as a central part of teacher training. This concept originates from the Native American understanding that everything is art and everyone is an artist. Within the languages of American Indians there is no word for “art”; exploration and creation, through every medium, is a fundamental part of being alive, of knowing oneself and one’s world. Alexander’s study is likewise an exploration of life, through the choices we make, and the quality of our experience.
Felipe Ortega, Micacaeous Clay potter & Apache Medicine man leads a workshop with the Alexander Alliance SW
Through out the year, Alexander Alliance Southwest offers opportunities for Teacher Trainees to participate in events in which they can explore Alexander’s principles as they themselves take part in an activity such as cooking, doing Pilates, ice skating, cross country skiing, singing, dancing, knitting, sketching, painting, pottery, etc. Trainees take part as both direct participants and as apprentice Alexander Teachers, blending with other non-trainee participants. This allows Trainees a full and varied experience that is readily applicable to their own future professional practice.
Some of our most memorable experiences have been:
- exploring the unique landscape of Carlsbad Caverns, 800 feet below ground
learning to make traditional tamales
cross country skiing through the mountains
creating traditional Apache micaceous clay pots
canoeing at a nearby lake
tai chi in the mountains, by the lake, at the ocean….
studying belly dancing
making a traditional Japanese dinner
singing as a group
swing dancing with the local crowd
learning to knit, spin, weave, and make baskets
exploring Gyrotonics movement
riding horses through the forest
Of special note are our Fiber Arts week, Tuscan cooking week & our pottery workshop.