Alexander Technique Teachers

in St.Albans

 

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Portrait of Alexander

Alexander (right) giving a lesson to Professor John Dewey, the philosopher, sometimes known as "the father of American Education"

The Technique is:

  1. *a route to  improving balance and poise


  1. *an excellent way of improving all aspects of bodily use


  1. *a way out of many aches and pains


The Technique is not:

F M Alexander in later life


  1. *a medical process


  1. *complicated but is challenging to use


*  a long list of dos and donts

1869-1955

Frederick Mathias Alexander quite a time to develop his technique, having had aspirations to be an actor in his teens but who had to stop to deal with problems of hoarseness. He left his native Australia for  London in 1904 and died there in 1955.


His ‘pupils’ included many well-known figures of their day including George Bernard Shaw, Aldous Huxley and Stafford Cripps . More recently  William Hurt, Sting, Madonna, James Galway, and Jeremy Irons have publicly acknowledged the benefit of lessons.

The Alexander Technique works by bringing the relationship between different parts of the body into correct, natural alignment.Many regard this a improving 'posture'. But good posture is the result of having correct muscular pulls in the body rather than pulling ourselves out of shape. When we do things 'as nature intended', we need less effort and are much more efficient in what we do.We learn how to disengage unhelpful habits, which are often subconscious in action. And how to bring other muscles into play to do what they were designed to do.


The ‘reeducation’ involved is not a process of adding something that isn’t there: it is a process of restoration to a  natural state that remains in all of us.