Alexander Technique- First Lesson

How to Learn the Alexander Technique: A Manual for Students A primer for students of the Alexander Technique, a well-known method for improving freedom and ease of movement and physical coordination. This book provides the first authoritative account of William Conable's concept, Body Mapping, the study of how our ideas about our bodies a...	Body Learning: An Introduction to the Alexander Technique This new, fully revised and updated edition confirms Body Learning's status as the classic work on the Alexander Technique for maintaining the health and efficiency of the body.	Voice and the Alexander Technique Are you an actor who routinely loses his voice before the end of a run? As a serious student of singing, do you wish those high notes would come more easily? Do you need courage to sing outside the shower? In this book, designed for both teachers and students of the speaking ...	The Alexander Technique Manual: Take Control of Your Posture and Your Life The Alexander Technique is a simple yet profound way to release muscular tension throughout the body. It teaches us new ways of sitting, standing, and moving that put less stress on the bones and joints and help us move more gracefully. Developed by Fredrick Matthias Alexan...	Awareness Through Movement: Easy-to-Do Health Exercises to Improve Your Posture, Vision, Imagination, and Personal Awareness Thousands have found renewed health and increased sensory awareness through the Feldenkrais method as explained in Awareness Through Movement. Here is a way for people of every age to integrate physical and mental development into a new, invigorating wholeness. Feldenkrais provid...
The Use of the Self First published in 1932, the landmark work by the originator of the Alexander Technique.	The Alexander Technique: A Complete Course in How to Hold and Use Your Body for Maximum Energy The Alexander Technique is a proven process of mind and body reeducation that reduces stress and muscle tension, and revitalization those who practice it. Used by many actors, athletes, and dancers, the technique can help anyone increase his or her energy and achieve a more dyna...	Uta Hagen's Acting Class: The DVDs	Alexander Technique: From Stress to Freedom From Stress to Freedom is an introduction to the Alexander Technique. Written and presented by Anthony Kingsley, one of UK's leading Alexander Teachers, it outlines how you can achieve poise, focus and wellbeing in your everyday life. This technique is	What Every Musician Needs to Know About the Body: The Practical Application of Body Mapping & the Alexander Technique to Making Music The practical application of Body Mapping and the Alexander Technique to making music. Body Mapping is the study of how our concepts of our bodies affect our experience and movement. The Alexander Technique is a method for improving freedom and ease of movement and physical coord...

Back pain? get this now! AT lessons? Go to a certified AmSAT/STAT teacher first, THEN get this!
The second segment with Deborah Caplan is laudable: pragmatic and practical, plus demonstrating with people who have real back pain how they can achieve functionality again and get their life back. One reviewer here was amused that Caplan shows how to eat soup, so obviously that reviewer is an ignoramus who does not have severe lower back pain: the eating the soup does not cause the pain, but there are people who cannot lean over to eat soup because of the excruciating pain that it leads to. Anyone who has had a medically certifiable bad back will understand how this can be. So, if you have a bad back, I do recommend watching this second segment, as well as buying Caplan's book. AND finding your nearest AmSAT or STAT certified Alexander Technique teacher to give you the experience of how to do these things. Just watching the video will not be enough. But it is a good supplement to one-on-one lessons. I recommend not going to people certified by ATI, as they in general have far less hours experience and teacher training than those certified by AmSAT or STAT (I know there is a vast difference, from my own experience of seeking instruction). As far as the first segment with Kosminsky, it is beautifully shot, but she seems a bit nervous or unsure in front of the camera, and this detracts. The explanations and demonstrations are good but incomplete. The guided lie down procedure can be very useful to follow along with. But again, watching something, one is tempted to do it, whereas in the Alexander Technique one has to get the experience first that one should not do it, for reasons to delicate to go into here. So go get a lesson! My recommendation is: If you are in dire need (back pain) get this and watch the second segment only to help you get a healthy lifestyle for your situation. But get an Alexander lesson as soon as possible from a certified teacher. If you are interested in the Alexander Technique as, say, a performing artist, then have your lessons FIRST and THEN consider getting this video. The danger of this video is that some people will get an opinion of the Alexander Technique, like the reviewer here who found the first part "boring." If you get a good teacher, then there is nothing at all boring about it, even if it LOOKS boring.

Pretty good.
I tried reading a few books about the Alexander Technique but I couldn't grasp it from the books. The DVD allowed me to understand what the Technique was about. But even with the DVD, there are still a lot of aspects of the Technique that are not that clear. I suspect a live teacher would be better than the books and this DVD. The DVD is a good introduction. I liked the hosts.

Breathe, Move, Be: "The Balance of Well Being"
"The aim of this technique is not to teach you to do what is right, but to help you stop doing what is wrong, through a series of practical procedures which awaken your awareness and allow you to develop your innate potential." If I wanted to introduce the initiate to the Alexander Technique, I would suggest that they: 1. Locate a qualified teacher and begin working with that teacher (see end of this DVD for information & see below **); 2. Watch this DVD and begin doing the exercises of the "self lesson" outlined at the end of Lesson 1; and, 3. Read "Indirect Procedures: A Musician's Guide to the Alexander Technique", by Pedro de Alcantara, for a greater understanding Indirect Procedures: A Musician's Guide to the Alexander Technique (Clarendon Paperbacks) When I started studying the Alexander Technique, I was very fortunate to find a teacher very close to my home who had studied with Walter Carrington, who, in turn, had studied directly with F.M. Alexander. About six months after starting this study, I watched this DVD one night with my husband who knew nothing about the Alexander Technique. As the "innocent eye" he took from just one viewing the thought that it was a common sense approach to awareness of your body and being mindful of how you use your body to perform certain tasks. He felt this technique would be of great value not only to musicians and artists and athletes but anyone who needs to depend on their body and wants to function at an optimum level for balance and efficiency. That would include office workers, computer users, etc. My feeling was that this DVD takes what can seem like an esoteric subject and makes it extremely understandable for a general audience. Jane Kosminsky's explanation, direction and pace are very straightforward and logical. In the initial months of my Alexander study, I wanted to read everything I could about the technique. At first, however, it seemed that the more I read, the less I understood, until I came upon "Indirect Procedures." Maybe because it is written by a musician (cellist), it spoke more directly and effectively to me, thereby "lifting a veil" on what seemed elusive in the writings of Alexander and others. This, then, is what I would recommend to anyone with an interest in knowing more about the Alexander Technique. Final thoughts (from packaging information): "This DVD introduces a system that integrates the head with the heart . . . it frees the mind, opens the voice, releases the body and nurtures the imagination." - Ben Donenberg, Artistic Director, Shakespeare Festival, LA **To find a teacher in your area, search online: American Society for the Alexander Technique and/or The Society of Teachers of the Alexander Technique. Sites for both organizations provide information on how to find a teacher as well as further information on obtaining materials to aid in study and practice.

well meaning but not terribly useful
I bought this to supplement my Alexander Technique lessons, which I was doing once per week in a private one on one session. While this video does a nice job of explaining the nebulous technique, I was unimpressed. I did get some use out of the "constructive rest" segment, with her talking me through it, but I was hoping for something a bit more concrete and usable. Even as a seasoned student I felt a little unguided in this, for lack of a better word. I would imagine someone who has never taken a class or has only done group sessions might find this even more befuddling. Great idea, mediocre execution.

Overview of Alexander Technique principles
I am new to the Alexander Technique, and was curious to learn more about it... This DVD is primarily LECTURE (like a talk show demo). but there are a few segments that involve demo/doing. The instructor Jane talks very very sloooow(boring), but I overcame this problem by running my DVD in fast forward 1.4x speed which made her speech more normal paced. The DVD divided into chapters that you can select. Here's a summary of the lessons I learned: INTRO: Can't talk when tighten up neck and push head back. Can't breathe when stick ribs out FREE THE NECK: Free the neck - Loosen neck, tilt head forward & up, and let spine rise Observation --Think about our anatomy & movements Ex: Think of dangling hand/arm as an arrow... Inhibition - choosing not to respond habitually Direction 4 concepts of good use: To let the head be free, to let the head be forward and up from the spine To allow the torso to lengthen and fan into it To allow the legs to release away from the hip joints To allow the shoulders to release out to the side and float on the rib cage Makes you feel very light and boyant CHAIRWORK: Awareness of body's movement. Use mirrors. Feel neck & back while getting in & out of chair. (e.g. don't thrust head forward or arch back) (Allow shoulders to release out to the side and float the rib cage.) Organization of movement and balancing point MONKEY: Free neck, bend knees, point head up while pivot at hip joints. (Saves the back by using the joints) WALKING: Allow head/neck to be free and to move up, and allow torso & hip to come up with it. Let arms dangle and swing (spine twists). No no's while walking: Shifting to side and down, tigthening neck, hunching shoulders, push into lower back SELF LESSON: Lying down lesson based on table work.