What’s the Use…of the Alexander Technique?

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There’s not a lot of jargon in the Alexander Technique, but the word “use” – as pronounced in the title above – has a special meaning that’s worth thinking about because it relates directly to just about everything we do.

Use, in Alexander parlance, is a kind of shorthand word for the quality of how well, or poorly, we use (rhymes with loose) ourselves in all our daily activities.*  Putting it another way, how efficiently we perform those activities and how little, or how much, unnecessary tension we create while doing so.

Helping our students learn to improve the overall quality of their use is one of our major goals as Alexander Technique teachers.

One of the most important discoveries of F. Matthias Alexander, the developer of the Alexander Technique, is that our use patterns tend to manifest across a range of activities.  For example, someone who over-tenses their neck in order to speak is very likely to doing something similar while walking, or chopping vegetables, or working at a computer.  Helping a student improve their use in one activity often carries over into others.

I’ve found it’s helpful for my new students to be on the lookout for examples of good use and poor use.  Sadly, examples of poor use are all to easy to spot these days – hunched shoulders, shallow breathing, clenched jaws are a kind of modern day epidemic.

What about examples of good use?

My personal favorite is the late actor, dancer and singer, Fred Astaire.  His movies are always available on TV and I urge my students to record one or two and then make a point of watching Astaire in scenes where he is not doing his spectacular song and dance routines – ordinary scenes where is just walking, or talking or doing other mundane activities.

I suggest they turn the sound off, so as not to be distracted by the plot, and gently focus on how he moves.  If you try this yourself, you’ll soon see just how smoothly and effortlessly he carries himself, with absolutely no wasted energy.  You may find, as have many of my students, that just watching him in this way actually triggers a bit of release in your own tension level.  You may, for example, sense your breathing becomes a bit easier or your body feels a bit lighter.

Here’s a nice clip you can watch right now to give this a try.  Notice how seamlessly Astaire transitions from walking and talking into singing and dancing and how he makes those transitions without adding any unnecessary tension to his body:

Let me know what you experience – I’d love to hear from you!

*There’s a bit more to be said about the term use and if you’d like to explore the topic further, What’s the Use is a good place to start.

Devils, Tigers, a Hollywood actor and Alexander

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Quick – what do you think of when someone mentions Tasmania?

For a lot of people it’s the Tasmanian Devil, popularized by cartoons and comic strips.  Characterized by its pungent odor, extremely loud and disturbing screech, keen sense of smell, and ferocity when feeding, it’s probably not Tasmania’s best ambassador to the world.

For others it might be the now extinct Tasmanian Tiger or the island’s famous native son Eroll Flynn, a movie actor known for his romantic swashbuckler roles in Hollywood films and his flamboyant lifestyle.

So who’s the Tasmanian Alexander?

Well definitely not Alexander of Macedonia, aka Alexander The Great! India was the closest he ever got to Tasmania.  No, it’s F. Matthias Alexander, developer of what’s become known as the Alexander Technique and one of the great mind/body thinkers in modern times.

He was born in 1869 in Wynyard, Tasmania, the son of two convicts who had been transported to Tasmania from England. Through years of personal self-observation and experimentation, Alexander developed a number of very important insights into human posture and movement, and how we can learn to use those insights to improve our physical and mental functioning.

Alexander’s origins were humble, but over time his work came to be lauded by famous scientists, writers and intellectuals – and by many thousands of other students of his work.  Aldous Huxley based a character in one of his books in part on Alexander.  The famous American educational reformer and philosopher John Dewey wrote the introduction to three of his books.  He was the subject a Nobel Prize acceptance speech in 1973.  The Alexander Technique has received numerous other medical and scientific endorsements.

It is my intent to use this blog to help promote greater awareness of Alexander’s work, and of the Alexander Technique.  And to popularize – in the best sense of that word – Alexander’s discoveries, and make them accessible to anyone who wants to explore them.

(I would also love to see greater recognition of Alexander in Tasmania itself.  I was amazed to see no mention of him on Tasmania Top Ten or any of the Tasmanian information sites.  Perhaps an Australian Alexander Technique teacher or student will bring this omission to the attention of the the right people in Tasmania? )

I welcome your comments and suggestions.  You can use the comment form below and/or subscribe to the blog using the form near the top of the right-hand column.

This is my very first blog! I would be remiss not to thank my Alexander Technique colleague Imogen Ragone for setting up the site for me, and for providing much-needed help in navigating WordPress software.  She’s definitely the go-to gal for anyone who wants to get started with social media, a website or anything else to do with the web.