What is Contemporary
Alexander Technique?
Contemporary Alexander Technique is a practical, kinesthetic, hands-on study of our innate design for movement and support, our habits of awareness and response, and our ability to make new choices. It teaches you how to relieve pain, tension, and habitual life patterns, and rediscover excellence, ease, strength, flexibility, grace, joy, and choice in every activity of life.
We will help you do whatever you love to do.
HOW ALEXANDER ALLIANCE
TEACHERS CAN HELP YOU
You can bring any activity, skill, or practice you would like deepen your relationship to and find ease in. It could be singing a song, playing the cello, becoming a new character, or simply relating to other people.
Together we observe how you do what you do, and explore what is interfering. Gently, we help you become aware of what you are doing. Often we use our hands as we teach you how to undo what's getting in your way. Comfort, ease, and new choices reveal themselves in this process.
Because habits are powerful, it's often difficult for students to feel what they are doing. That's why it's helpful to work with teachers who know how to recognize the ways you are interfering with your body’s innate coordination.
You will learn an incredible amount about your body and being. Your relationship to your body will change for the better, forever. You will leave our retreat more deeply in touch with yourself, your craft, and the world around you.
Why Study Contemporary Alexander Technique?
We learn to replace habitual life patterns with new, more conscious choices. Through study, we become capable of redirecting excessive effort into useful energy, and creating the experiences we desire.
Regaining deep structural support, we can relieve chronic pain, restore balance flexibility and strength, refine the use of our bodies as an instrument of artistry, regain conscious awareness within our daily life, and rediscover the sheer pleasure of movement and life.
The Alexander Technique teaches us how to be relaxed and ready, soft and strong, light and substantial, firm and flexible, awake to ourselves and to the world.
Looking Back
Frederick Matthias Alexander
(1869 - 1955)
FM, as he was known, was the eldest of 8 born on a farm in Tasmania, and had an affinity for horses and theater. As a young actor, he had difficulty with his voice, which he eventually resolved through long and careful observation of his habits. This led him to a deep and lifelong exploration of human movement and the nature of habit and thought. He moved to England and began to help others with his discoveries. In 1931, he began to teach his unique observations and skills to others. Marjorie Barstow, a young dancer from America, was in that first training class and was the first person he trained to teach his Work.
Marjorie Barstow
(1899 - 1995)
Marj, as we called her, was a rancher and dance teacher from Lincoln, Nebraska, who traveled to England to become the first 'Alexander Teacher' other than FM himself. Returning to her ranch, she took Alexander's principles and applied them to real activities of everyday Midwestern life - walking the land, doing the chores, and mucking the barn. As her popularity as a teacher grew, she developed a method for teaching the Work in a group setting, allowing students to learn by collective observation and exploration. Bruce and Robyn were longtime students of Marj in Lincoln.
Bruce Fertman
Alexander Alliance - Germany
In 1982, Bruce Fertman and Martha Hansen Fertman created the Alexander Foundation, an Alexander Technique teacher training program in Philadelphia, PA, based on Marj's model of teaching in groups. They added their own innovative and cutting-edge style to the way we think about the Work, with an emphasis on working in activities of all kinds. As their work developed and spread to Asia and Europe, the Alexander Alliance International was born; now having training programs in Germany, Switzerland, Austria, UK, Japan, and the USA. Robyn studied with Marj and Bruce, and is now Co-Director of AAI and Director of the AAI-USA school, Contemporary Alexander School.
For more information about Bruce, click here.
ROBYN AVALON
Alexander Alliance - USA
Robyn has been studying FM Alexander's Work for over 45 years. She is the Founding Director of the Contemporary Alexander School, the USA branch of Alexander Alliance International, offering Alexander Technique Teacher Training in NYC, Santa Fe, New Mexico, and Portland, Oregon; as well as being on the Core Faculty of the AAI schools in Germany, Switzerland, Austria, France, Japan, and South Korea. Lyra, Linda, Rosalia, and Wendy are all graduates of Robyn’s AAI training program.
For more information about Robyn, click here.
Looking Forward
Today this core teaching team continues to pass on FM's basic principles, as influenced by Marj's group style, through Bruce and Martha's application to activities. We are a collective of independent schools in the US, Germany, and Japan. We teach together as much as possible, and once a year, we come together to renew and reconnect. We encourage our graduates and trainees from all of the schools to join us, so that we can continue to explore the next realm of Alexander's Work. We teach in groups, through activities, using FM's principles, in a setting of astounding natural beauty.