Alexander Technique

What is the Alexander Technique?

“The Alexander Technique is an educational method used worldwide for well over 100 years. By teaching how to change faulty postural habits, it enables improved mobility, posture, performance and alertness along with relief of chronic stiffness, tension and stress.

People study the Technique for a variety of reasons. The most common is to relieve pain through learning better coordination of the musculoskeletal system. Another reason people take lessons in the Alexander Technique is to enhance performance. Athletes, singers, dancers, and musicians use the Technique to improve breathing, vocal production, and speed and accuracy of movement. The most far-reaching reason people study the Technique is to achieve greater conscious control of their reactions.

Most of us have many habitual patterns of tension, learned both consciously and unconsciously. These patterns can be unlearned, enabling the possibility of new choices in posture, movement and reaction. During lessons you’ll develop awareness of habits that interfere with your natural coordination.  You’ll learn how to undo these patterns and develop the ability to consciously redirect your whole self into an optimal state of being and functioning. Through direct experience you’ll learn how to go about your daily activities with increasingly greater ease and less effort.”

-American Society for the Alexander Technique
Amsatonline.org
Acting and The Alexander Technique
Innovations and Results
Performers must be vulnerable and expansive; they must be private in public; they must be sensitive and tough enough for the business. Oh, the duality of the actor! The Alexander Technique is a clear system for teaching actors how to become aware of and shed physical patterns of tension, so they can reveal their vulnerability and fill a space with their presence. Becoming aware of a habit through self-observation and the hands-on contact of an Alexander teacher is a vulnerable place to be, and the releasing of a place of persistent tension puts the actor in the present moment, creates ease, and allows them to be able to make different choices based on character and circumstances. This allows for a more expressive and truthful performance. Therefore, Alexander Technique is not purely a movement skill, but rather a foundation that supports and illuminates the craft of acting.
 
My research interests are at the intersection of acting and the Alexander Technique. They aim to explore how the body and breath are our most powerful storytelling tools, and how Alexander Technique can be a system of self-care for the actor. Alexander Technique teachers are trained in the use of gentle, hands-on direction, so we work with the body not through the muscles or bones, but rather the nervous system and the student’s thinking, creating greater availability in body and mind so they can better manage their responses to stimuli.
 
Below are examples of how I have made innovations in teaching Alexander Technique at University of Alabama. As seen in the syllabi below, I devised a sequenced three-semester curriculum that each MFA graduate student takes while at UA. Each semester of instruction builds upon the next, with the student gradually developing awareness and skills, and learning to apply them to various aspects of acting and text work. Also below are examples of the results of the curriculum, including two student research papers, and testimonials from spring 2020 student evaluations. The first research paper is from Semester One: Awareness and Self; the second research paper is from Semester Two: Breath, Voice & Body, posted with permission.
Kelley Schoger, MFA, M.AmSAT

Kelley qualified for her certification in 2014 through the American Society for the Alexander Technique (AmSAT, amsatonline.org), the largest professional organization of Alexander Technique teachers in the United States. Certified teachers complete 1600 hours of coursework, and she trained at Alexander Technique Training Center in Charlottesville, VA.
She is currently working toward advanced certification in Art of Breathing with Jessica Wolf, Yale School of Drama (completed 30 of 60 hours).

Where would any of us be without Kelley Schoger? Her adaptability, fluidity, and tenacity for approaching the student in the present moment is nothing less than inspiring; especially when she achieved the same level of connection in a virtual manner! This class, as with all others she teaches, was invaluable. 

Anonymous

Student Evaluation Comment

Kelley is a commodity at UA – she is an expert in her content, but also in her pedagogical knowledge. She understands diversity in learning so the experience of her class involves imaginative exercises, practical constructive rest, movement and respiratory re-education through breathing procedures, writing journals, and formal essays. The required reading was also affordable and truly supported the learning outcomes of the class – The Art of Breathing by Jessica Wolf and Dr. Breathing were great follow-ups to the first year TH 540 learning the basics of AT with the Gelb text. Kelley is a mentor, facilitator, guide, and has improved my graduate training immensely. While I am in the directing program, not the acting cohort, Kelley has still made me feel included and welcomed. She enters class every day with a smile on her face and a very clear, creative lesson plan and calming words of affirmation like “arrive exacting where you are on the mat without judging yourself,” “imagine your neck as a hammock,” “become aware of all of the air and space beside and behind you in your 3 dimensionality.” While Kelley has high, professional expectations, she provides constructive feedback with grace. The learning activities she designed around Jessica Wolf’s The Art of Breathing were illuminating and fascinating and life changing. How lucky is The Department of Theatre and Dance to have a professor with the experience of training under the renowned Jessica Wolf? I do not believe there is another Art of Breathing instructor in the state of Alabama, and the procedures have really improved my voice and respiratory health. I am breathing easier and more effectively because of this semester. Kelley has provided the kind of knowledge that I came to Grad School for… and more than that, the principles of her classes are helping ME become my own teacher as a self-sufficient artist with many tools. 

Anonymous

Student Evaluation Comment

There aren’t enough positive things to say about Kelley Schoger, but I was constantly in awe of how diligent she was in ensuring each student was accommodating well to the new learning experience. She was always accessible and found new ways to bring our “normal” learning experience to an online platform. She handled this transition with ease and made sure we got the most out of the remaining days of the semester. 

Anonymous

Student Evaluation Comment

Art of Breathing

I was honored to be accepted into Jessica Wolf’s The Art of Breathing Advanced Training Course for Alexander Technique teachers. It is a pedagogy that combines Alexander Technique and the respiratory re–education work of Carl Stough. The synthesis of these two techniques was created and led by Jessica Wolf, master teacher of the Alexander Technique and tenured professor at Yale School of Drama. The training was held in residence at The University of Oklahoma School of Drama in July 2019. This was an invaluable opportunity for professionals already teaching and researching in the area of Alexander Technique, as I believe as teachers we must continue to be students ourselves, always expanding our knowledge and skills. We taught and presented work as part of this training and it served as the first 30-hour module toward a 60-hour certification. We were encouraged to teach this work before returning in the summer of 2020 to finish our certification. I successfully incorporated this work into my graduate-level course in the Alexander Technique in Spring 2020 (see Curriculum Design above). Due to Covid 19, part 2 of this module has been postponed until next year.