Alexander Technique

The Alexander Technique is a means of expanding self-observation in order to regain ease in movement and fluidity of coordination. By becoming aware of what we are up to and by learning how to get out of our own way, we can facilitate our own freedom and poise in both mind and body. Most of us, especially in high degrees of performance, work harder than we need to and hold an excess of tension. Changing this tends to feel like one more thing to do (“just relax your shoulders in the difficult passage”), but the AT work allows us to instigate changes in an indirect process (“by staying with the sense of presence the body is calm and the shoulders fix themselves”) Rather than changing any one habit, posture or pattern, the Alexander Technique focuses on freedom of the person as a whole where changes come about naturally as we prioritize noticing our responses to the lives we lead and the activities we pursue.

In workshops or one-on-one lessons, we will cultivate constructive curiosity about habits of thought and movement. You will learn practical observation skills, you will learn how to “do nothing,” and you learn about functional and moving anatomy. We will then take these skills into activity and see how simple tasks like sitting down or complex tasks like a Beethoven sonata can be about process instead of the end product. This work will inform your musicianship or performance and leave you with a growing sense of how you might move and live, of how you might “free up” in your music, acting, or art making process.

Class reading (purchase optional)

The Alexander Technique for Musicians by Judith Kleinman and Peter Buckoke

The Act of Living by Walter Carrington

One-on-one lessons: Package of 4

Cost:$320

Each lesson is 45 minutes long

Group Workshops

3 hour Session; will be offered once per semester (minimum of 4 participants)

Cost: $70 per student

When registering, Please click “Alexander Technique” in the instrument or class section of the form.