For some reason, early humans came up onto two feet and stayed that way. It is one of the central puzzles of how our species evolved. To solve it, scientists have studied human ancestor fossils, the record of climate change, and available food sources our ancestors lived in relation to, and clues from the genetic record. Under the influence of the Alexander Technique, one of the main founders of human paleoanthropology, Raymond Dart, also studied himself. Most scientists are unaware of this part of his work. But we can continue it, especially in the light of all that has been discovered since his time. What can we learn about uprightness and bipedalism by observing ourselves? How does that map onto what science does and does not know about our origins?
It would help to have room to walk a little within earshot of your laptop or mobile device, and without shoes on. We might also do some exploration seated in a chair or lying down.
About Erik
Erik Bendix is an AmSAT-certified Teacher of the Alexander Technique. He trained in the 1990s with Frank Ottiwell, Joan and Alex Murray, and Walter Carrington. Erik assisted on Vivien and Neil Schapera’s Cincinnati training for five years, worked with musicians with Vivien Mackie, helped represent the Technique at the 2012-13 Embodied Mind conferences in Paris and Gargonza and taught Alexander Technique in Taiwan and at Pomona College. He is trained in both Dart Procedures© and Body-Mind CenteringSM, disciplines that explore how movement develops in infants. He trained in BMC® with Bonnie Bainbridge Cohen in the 1990s, created The Learning Curve workshops to explore scoliosis, and developed his own Ease on Skis ski teaching method based on the Technique which he has taught at many workshops. Trained as an philosopher at Oxford and Princeton, Erik is a published poet and is known worldwide as a folk dance teacher.
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