Pat Brown MSTAT Alexander Technique Teacher
Leeds Yorkshire 

The use of Alexander's technique by actors and musicians has spread rapidly since F.M. Alexander developed the technique over a hundred years ago.

It is now a fundamental part of actor training in many major drama schools and music academies: RADA, LAMDA, The Guildhall, the Royal Academy of Music, the Royal College of Music, and the Trinity College of Music. It is also central to the training of actors at Juilliard in New York and ACT in San Francisco.

The relationship between the Alexander Technique and the performing Arts has several aspects:

• efficient use of the arms and hands is dependent on an overall efficiency in the body's upward response to gravity.

• there are many habits accumulated during the time when one learns to play a musical instrument which are often counter-productive; Alexander work provides a reliable methodology for working out what is necessary and unnecessary.

• an improved sensory awareness and capacity to attend are important tools for a musician.

• sitting or standing for long periods whilst playing an instrument is a complex feat of co-ordination which demands a right understanding of the mechanisms involved.

• improved physical well-being and respiratory control can help to approach the challenge of stage-fright in a useful way.

• Every instrument has its unique demands and many of us have habits that interfere with musical development.

• Dancers will learn specific principles of movement which will enhance their way of working. Making movement lighter, freer, and help produce a fuller, more open stage presence.

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

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