(a.k.a. ‘Stuyvie’) first heard of the Alexander Technique when Troup Mathews was courting her mother Ann. Troup’s first wife’s aunt was Lulie Westfeldt, who wrote the first book about F.M. Alexander, and it was that book that Troup gave Ann. In Mary Eagle’s extended family there are nine teachers of the Alexander Technique, representing 5 or 6 different training schools. Her mother and stepfather (Ann and Troup Mathews) together with her stepsister Christine ran a teacher training school in New York City for 20 years. Mary Eagle herself was introduced to the Alexander Technique by Marjorie Barstow, and subsequently trained in London with Misha Magidov in the 1980s, qualifying in 1985. She has maintained a private practice since that time, first in Iowa and then in Marshall, North Carolina where she now lives.
She has attended many international Alexander Technique congresses and many AGMS, and loves the camaraderie among worldwide teachers and the ideas she has been able to glean from these contacts. In the year 2000 she became chair of the Board of Directors of AmSAT (the American Society for the Alexander Technique), heading AmSAT’s first all-women Board of Directors. After 20 years of practice, she officially became a Senior Teacher.
After qualifying as a Pilates instructor in 2005, Mary began teaching classes in Alexander-informed Pilates. She has devised Alexander Technique workshops for puppet theater, for focus groups on fibromyalgia, and for high school chorus groups. As a folk singer and musician herself, she often works with people on their singing and instrument use. But she doesn’t focus on any particular population in her practice, and loves the challenge of helping whomever comes across her doorstep to become empowered by the functional principles of the Alexander Technique.
