Alexander Technique, an Introduction
Alexander Technique
~Is for Anyone
~With Any Occupation
~At any Age
The Problem
Alexander Technique is the study of how we use ourselves, our whole selves. F. M. Alexander, the founder of Alexander Technique, discovered that we use too much muscular effort in even the most basic daily activities. We grip pencils as we write, silverware as we eat, and toothbrushes as we brush our teeth. We talk on the phone with our shoulder lifted to our ear. Our head and neck stick out in front of our bodies as we work at the computer, drive, watch TV, or talk. Our bodies tighten or collapse as we wait in line at the bank or grocery store, or as we sit in a chair.
Listening, receiving, awakening |
He also discovered that we use this same muscular effort, if not more, in specialized activities. Singers and actors hold onto their bodies while practicing and performing, which can cause not only vocal trouble, but loss of voice. Instrumentalists, dancers and athletes develop repetitive strain injuries. Backs hurt. Necks are stiff. Potentials are not reached.
All of this extra effort, this gripping, tightening, and collapsing, is a misuse of our selves, which causes muscles to shorten and narrow, moving our skeletal system out of its natural state. Why don't we realize this is happening? Because it happens over time, outside our awareness, and, before we know it, our bodies are exhausted. We feel tired, stressed, tense, and overwhelmed. Our necks and shoulders are stiff and painful. Whether we are performers, athletes, or office workers, this misuse leaves us wondering why we feel so bad, and what we can do to recapture the energy of our childhood.
A Solution
F.M. Alexander discovered that our "use" affects how our bodies function. Through the gentle guidance of a teacher's hands and encouraging verbal instructions, Alexander Technique teaches a better use of yourself by helping you discover and release the excessive tension you hold in your body. Through disciplined and consistent study of the Alexander Technique, you can improve the use of your body, giving it length and width instead of shortness and narrowness, thereby improving how your body functions and how your body feels.
Who was F.M. Alexander?
F.M. Alexander, the Australian gentleman who discovered the Alexander Technique, was an actor who began to have severe vocal problems when he performed. As he tenaciously explored his loss of voice he discovered that he was misusing his body, and a Technique for overcoming this misuse. When F.M. realized the significance of his discovery he began to give lessons in the Technique, eventually starting a teacher's training program in London in 1930. In 1947, at the age of seventy-eight, he suffered a stroke which caused paralysis of the side of his face and cost him the use of his left hand and leg. By March of 1948, F.M. had recovered and was back to teaching. He continued teaching until five days before his death, at the age of eight-seven, in 1955.
July 7, 2005; Sweet Briar, VA AT Summer Workshop |
Patrick Macdonald, who trained to become an Alexander Technique teacher with F.M. Alexander's first training course in 1931, states in his book The Alexander Technique as I See It, "Good health is priceless and this technique lays the best possible foundation for good health." The significance of this statement should not be underestimated. Mr. Macdonald lived to be eighty-one and his colleagues, other first-generation teachers who knew and trained with F. M. Alexander, lived long lives and continued to teach well into their seventies, eighties, and even nineties: Marjorie Barstow (1899-1995), Peggy Williams (1916-2003), Anthony Spawforth (1919-2003), Erika Whittaker (1911-2004), and Walter Carrington (1915-2005). Marjory Barlow (b. 1915), Richard Gummere, Jr. (1912), and Elisabeth Walker (b. 1914) are still living. Elisabeth, at ninety-one, is the only one of the three teaching today, but what is even more amazing, is that Elisabeth, with her husband Dick (1911-1992), opened their Alexander Technique training school in 1984, when Elisabeth was seventy and Dick was seventy-three.
Alexander Technique
Live, work and play more freely, more easily and more comfortably!
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