| Long term effects of AT and Movement Education |
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| This Conversation begins with a post from
Helen Rea. To join in, send your response
here. I began studying Alexander Technique in the late 1970's. I was working as a professional modern dancer - performing, directing rehearsals, teaching, running a studio. I had a minor injury to my ankle which led me to a dancer/massage therapist/AT teacher. I initially went for massage and soon realized that if I didn't change my movement habits, I would need a massage a week for the rest of my life (which I couldn't afford on a dancer's salary). So, I slowly weaned myself off the regular massages - and moved into doing more and more Alexander work. Throughout this time, I taught my dance classes. I began to look at the things that I taught from a new perspective - and began to alter my teaching to explore the new outlook. I entered a teacher training program in 1981 so that I would feel more comfortable and capable doing hands-on work in my dance classes. Now, twenty years later, I find I do little hands-on work in class, and rarely talk of Alexander Technique directly in class. I have found, however, that the way in which I now think of dancing - and dance education - was greatly affected by my AT work and I believe my class reflects that. I thought I would put some thoughts about that change that I've experienced. I'd love to hear others' experiences. I learned to dance very kinesthetically. We did lots of repetition of the same movement phrases, class after class (primarily Graham Technique). There was lots of muscular effort, lots of resistance within the body in organizing the movements - lots of feeling! Later I studied other styles of dance that were less muscular - but I continued to "feel" my way through the movements as I had been taught. I woke up most days with a very achy body. I accepted this as normal (it was certainly true of my dancer friends) and I thought this is the way it had to be if I wanted to dance full time. Once I started to study Alexander Technique, I started questioning if I had to use so much effort to dance. I realized that I organized my movements according to the feeling, and not the intention of the action. For example, if the movement was a diagonal reach of my arm, the first time I did it I would feel a certain feeling of the stretching of my body. The next time I did the movement, I would look for the feeling to tell me if I had done the movement. With the repetition of the phrase, I would get a bit more stretched, so I might have to reach a bit farther to get the same feeling. The initial intention of the movement to reach on the diagonal might start to distort because I'd reach too far to get the feeling. I also realized that the feeling I usually looked for was a sense of resistance in my body. If I simply reached my arm to the diagonal, and the movement was well within my movement range without effort, I would go a bit farther to feel some effort. I didn't feel like I was dancing unless I felt that work. The big change I experienced from the influence of AT was a reorganization of this thinking. I started to look at what part of my body was initiating the action and where it was going in space. The diagonal reach would then continue to be a diagonal reach and I was then free to feel whatever I felt each time I did the movement. I didn't define the movement by that feeling. Initially, it felt far to easy and this took some getting used to. However, when I started to wake each day with a limber body that felt ready to dance right out of bed, I figured I was doing something right. I'd be curious to hear from other performers who have worked with the Technique for some time. I'm curious if others have had global shifting of thinking influenced by the work and if you'd would be willing to share your stories. |