The Alexander Technique is a practical educational method to achieve physical well-being and improved health. It is an effective method for recovering the free mobility of childhood, walking more upright, performing more effectively on stage, or playing a musical instrument with greater comfort and freedom.

 

The gentle hands of a skilled, certified Alexander teacher guide the student to rediscover balance and ease of movement without force or required exercises. The Alexander Technique helps students to identify those habitual patterns, repeated unconsciously in daily life, which may lead to muscular tension, compression, pain, fatigue and stress. With a new awareness of how to use the body, a new pattern is established which encourages ease in breathing and speaking, flexibility of movement, a renewed sense of vitality and a more natural upright posture.

 

The Alexander Technique is derived from scientific principles to optimize human functioning. It is not derived from a philosophy or belief system or other system of values. It is unlike chiropractic, physical therapy or yoga, where  exercises are prescribed or required. Here, the skilled hands of the Alexander Teacher gently guide the body to return to its natural state of balance and good use, forming new habits of natural carriage and function that carry over into the student's life outside the studio. This gives him or her new poise and confidence while reducing or eliminating pain which is the result of poor body usage.

 

F. Matthias Alexander, an Australian Shakespearian orator, systematically studied the causes of his own oratorical difficulties early in the last century, and he learned how to overcome them through a new understanding of the use of his body. These principles were thoroughly developed during his lifetime by him and others who recognized the power and usefulness of what he had discovered. Professional understanding continues to be developed and taught today by teachers of the Alexander Technique in their practices and through teacher training schools, seminars, professional journals, books and other literature. Today in the United States there are more than six hundred certified Alexander teachers who have completed the rigorous three-year, full-time course of training required for certification by the American Society for The Alexander Technique.

 

The Alexander Technique is now part of the curriculum at such well-known schools of the performing arts as the Julliard School of Music, the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama, and UCLA, among a large number of other schools and academic departments throughout the world. 

 

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