Mind-Body Workshop Will Take Place during Fall Break

A two-and-a-half-day workshop focusing on the Alexander technique, a mind-body learning method, will take place on campus from Friday, October 20, to Sunday, October 22. Nine nationally and internationally known Alexander educators will lead the work-shop’s small-group sessions and conduct the application demonstrations. Sixty-five faculty, students, staff, and administrators selected last March from across the College community will take part in the workshop, along with an outreach component made up of eight local educators, businesspeople, and health care professionals. The workshop, which is supported by 15 areas across campus, is free to those participating.

Though applicants to the workshop have already been selected, there are still opportunities for members of the campus community to take part in this innovative event. "Any person still wishing to attend the workshop in its entirety is encouraged to request a place on the waiting list," says Eugenia Wacker-Hoeflin, performer in residence in the Department of Theatre Arts and a workshop coordinator.

Staff, students, and faculty wishing to participate in a more limited way have several possibilities. One is to attend the intro-ductory-remarks session by Bruce Fertman, a certified Alexander educator, on Friday, October 20, from 9:00 to 10:00 a.m. in the Emerson Suites, Phillips Hall.

Another option is to observe one of the hourlong application demonstrations that will take place October 20 and 21, starting at 1:15 p.m. in the Clark Theatre, Dillingham Center.

If there is sufficient interest, the third option is special one-hour sessions taught by Alexander educators on Friday, October 20, from 1:15 to 2:15 p.m., in selected rooms in the Center for Natural Sciences. Up to 30 people, divided into groups of 4 or 5, can be accommodated. The deadline to sign up for the third option is October 6.

For more information contact Wacker-Hoeflin at 274-3925 or ewacker@ithaca.edu.

"Though there are many pro-cesses capable of exploring the mind-body connection, the Alexander technique is one of the oldest and more established of the Western methods," Wacker-Hoeflin says. "At the heart of this workshop is the question, Does mind-body education have a place in Ithaca College’s general or core curricula?"

Support for this workshop comes from the president’s and provost’s offices, the Faculty Development Committee, the Instructional Development Committee, the Center for Faculty Research and Development, the Center for Teacher Education, the Office of Student Affairs and Campus Life, all five schools, the Division of Continuing Education and Summer Sessions, the Office of Human Resources, and the Ithaca College Staff Council.