Resources

Suggested Books

• The Use of the Self, F.M. Alexander
• Constructive Conscious Control of the Individual, F.M. Alexander
• Indirect Procedures: A musician’s Guide to the Alexander Technique, Pedro de Alcantara
• The Alexander Technique, A Skill for Life, Pedro de Alcantara
• Thinking Aloud, Walter Carrington
• The Act of Living, Walter Carrington
• Freedom to Change: The Development and Science of the Alexander Technique, Frank Pierce Jones
• Body Learning, Michael Gelb

Articles

• National Public Radio broadcast about the Alexander Technique, March 28, 2011
• PRNewswire-USNewswire, October 2010, Artistic Discipline Meets Modern Technology to Enhance Surgical Proficiency, Study of surgeons using AT to improve their own comfort and efficiency during surgery
• New York Times, June 24, 2011, Sit Up Straight. Your Back Thanks You.
• BMJ, Aug 2008, Randomised controlled trial of Alexander technique lessons, exercise, and massage (ATEAM) for chronic and recurrent back pain
• MS Focus, for the Multiple Sclerosis Foundation, Jan/Feb 2006
• Better Nutrition, Jan 2006, Silent Stress Relief – How the Alexander Technique opens a path to better living
• The Hindu, Sep 2005, Hope for people with RSI
• Washington Post, Mar 2003, “Tuba Lips, Guitar Nipples, and Other Musical Maladies”
• Prevention, Jun 2002, “Gotta Try It, Try posture rehab with the Alexander Technique”
• The Strad, Jun 2002, “Freedom to Breathe”

Quotations

The Alexander Technique is worth every moment it asks, and those once committed to it may well find that they cannot do without it. It is an enlargement of whatever life may be yours.

Robertson Davies, writer

The Alexander Technique makes sense in that appropriate use of the body will lead to reduction of various musculoskeletal disorders and remediate others which are established. No equipment is needed, just the skill and training of the teacher. This technique is very worthwhile as a primary preventative therapy. It is especially useful when posture is a key factor in back injuries while lifting and for workers who perform repetitive tasks while sitting.

Robert D. Greene, MD, Emergency Department, Norwalk Hospital, Norwalk, CT

The many obvious benefits that the technique afforded us as actors included minimized tension, centeredness, vocal relaxation and responsiveness, mind/body connection, and about an inch and a half of additional height. In addition, I have found in the ensuing years great benefits in my day-to-day living. By balancing and neutralizing tensions, I’ve learned to relieve as well as to avoid the aches and pain caused by the thousands of natural shocks that flesh is heir to.

Kevin Kline, actor

Together with improved physical and mental health I have found that the AT has brought about a general heightening of consciousness on all levels.

Aldous Huxley, writer

Many types of underperformance and even ailments, both mental and physical, can be alleviated by teaching the body musculature to function differently.

Scientist Nicolaas Tinbergen, discussing AT in his Nobel Prize Address

The Alexander Technique bears the same relation to education that education itself bears to all other human activities.

John Dewey, philosopher

I relearned how to play the violin through studying the Technique. There were things I had always been convinced that I was unable to do… As I learned to integrate the physical freedom and muscular flexibility from the Alexander Technique with information I already had about how to play the violin, a potential in me started coming out – like talent that had been held back.

Jorja Fleezanis, Concertmaster, Minnesota Orchestra

Of all the disciplines that form the actor training program, none is more vital, enriching and transformative that the Alexander Technique.

Harold Stone, Associate Director, Theater Department, The Juilliard School

The Alexander Technique helps to integrate the individual dancer plus all the systems that he or she has been exposed to… It is important to tell a student that there is a different way of moving free of grit force, interruptions, [and] habitual patterns of tension.

Trisha Brown, choreographer

The Alexander Technique remains the best of the self-care strategies to prevent the sequel of poor posture and poor breathing.

Harold Wise, MD, PC, New York, NY

International Affiliated Organizations

• USA – American Society for the Alexander Technique
• Australia – Australian Society of Teachers of the Alexander Technique
• Belgium – Association des Enseignants de la F.Matthias Alexander Technique de Belgique
• Canada – Canadian Society of Teachers of the Alexander Technique
• Denmark – The Danish Society of Teachers of the Alexander Technique
• France – Association Franciase des Professeurs de la Technique F.M. Alexander
• Germany – German Society of Teachers of the Alexander Technique
• Israel – Israeli Society of Teachers of the Alexander Technique
• Netherlands – Netherlands Society of Teachers of the Alexander Technique
• New Zealand – Alexander Technique Teachers Society New Zealand
• South Africa – South African Society of Teachers of the Alexander Technique
• Spain – Asociacion de Profesores de la Technica Alexander de Espana
• Switzerland – Schweizerischer Verband der Lehrerinnen und Lehrere der F.M. Alexander-Technik
• United Kingdom – Society of Teachers of the Alexander Technique

Links

• Alexander Technique Center Urbana – Urbana, IL
• John Dewey and the Alexander Technique – Washington D.C.
• Pedro de Alcantara – Paris, France
• Jill Geiger – Boston, MA
• Robert Rickover – Lincoln, NE
• Mornum Time Press – Berkeley, California
• Laura Klein – Berkeley, California

Special thanks to Richard Keeling, photography, and AT students Sheila Browne, Mary Frances Lyons, Susan Ramming, Jason Traubough, Sally Van Doren, Mary W, and Michael.