Alexander Teachers of the Mountain Region
The Alexander Technique is a practical method for bringing awareness and choice to unconscious postural habits that interfere with our natural coordination and vitality.
About the Alexander Technique
“Change involves carrying out an activity against the habit of life.”
— F. M. Alexander
What is the Alexander Technique?
The Alexander Technique teaches us how to recover our integrity and stature by
We replace our reactions with constructive thought. This process improves mobility, alertness and performance while bringing relief from stiffness and stress. Alexander Technique is an educational method that has been used worldwide for over 100 years. Rather than addressing body, mind or spirit separately, it engages each person as a whole, subtracting needless effort from daily activity and redirecting action toward ease. The results can be profound: a freedom of movement and a natural grace that can transform our lives.
Why Study the Alexander Technique?
People study the Technique for a variety of reasons. The most common is to relieve pain by learning smoother and more skilled coordination. Another common reason is to enhance performance. Athletes, singers, dancers, and musicians use the Technique to improve breathing, vocal production, and speed and accuracy of movement.
The Alexander Technique can also benefit students of awareness practices such as t’ai chi, yoga, and meditation by increasing ease and presence. The most basic reason people study the Technique is to achieve greater conscious control of their reactions.
How is it Taught?
Alexander Technique is typically taught in a series of private lessons. It is also taught in group classes in performing arts schools, continuing education programs, and other venues. Lessons help you become aware of habits you may have overlooked that interfere with your natural coordination. You learn how to let these patterns unwind and release their grip on you. In this way you can consciously redirect your whole self into an expanding state of being and functioning. Direct experience under a teacher’s guidance helps you learn to go about your daily activities with more and more ease.
The Alexander Technique is taught at the Juilliard and Eastman Schools of Music, American Physical Therapy Association, American Dance Festival, Bryn Mawr Rehabilitation Hospital, and other institutions.
Students of the Alexander Technique have included: Julie Andrews, David Ben Gurion, Raymond Dart, John Dewey, Aldous Huxley, Jeremy Irons, James Earl Jones, Paul McCartney, Paul Newman, Lynn Redgrave, George Bernard Shaw, Sting, Robin Williams, and many others.
