“The mind has not been taught to register correctly the tension or, in other words, to gauge accurately the amount of muscular effort required to perform certain acts, the expenditure of effort always being in excess of what is required (F.M. Alexander 1910: 83)
Summary of the Alexander Technique in class
1. Active participation: The student must have a clear understanding of his or her misuses, as demonstrated by her teacher and be willing to participate in the process of recovering her good use.
2. Inhibition: The student must understand the erroneous idea the result in her misuse be they conscious or unconscious. He must teach the student to eradicate these pre-conceived ideas and inhabit her habitual way of directing her actions.
3. Self-direction: the student must learn to send consciously the correct mental orders and distinguish between giving an order and carrying it out in her habitual way
4. Attention to the process: the teacher must teach the student to overcome her habitual movement pattern, it is important to consider the means more than the result.
5. Guided sensory education: the teacher must guide the change, bringing about the use of muscles in a coordinated and non-habitual way. (Alexander, c. 1908 p 16-19)
What differentiates the Alexander technique from other somatic techniques is the casual relationship between faulty sensory perception and the deterioration of the primary control mechanism. The establishment of a reliable sense register is dependent upon the ability consciously inhibit habitual impulses while directing the activation of primary control.
Some fundamental points to guided sensory education in the Alexander technique
· The activation of the primary control is fundamental to all functions of the human being in activity: posture, movement, voice and breathing.
· The kinesthetic system is dependent upon the proper and efficient functioning of the primary control, is the basis for registering the amount of tension used to carry out any activity
· Education for the conscious activation of the primary control, which brings about an improvement of coordinated use of the psychophysical self is a prerequisite for improvement in the use of the parts involved in any activity.
· Sensory education in the Alexander technique should be somatic in nature ( a first-person experience). It should be guided by a person who has consciously learned to reactivate the primary control as a basis for efficient and coordinated use of the self in any activity
Reference:
Netti-Fiol, R (2006) Alexander Technique and Dance Technique Application in the Studio. Journal of Dance Education 6 (3) 78-85. Available at: http://web.a.ebscohost.com/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?sid=ca1648a1-32bc-4985-8ed6-4c340e5c0b05%40sessionmgr4001&vid=15&hid=4101 [15 January 2015].
1. Active participation: The student must have a clear understanding of his or her misuses, as demonstrated by her teacher and be willing to participate in the process of recovering her good use.
2. Inhibition: The student must understand the erroneous idea the result in her misuse be they conscious or unconscious. He must teach the student to eradicate these pre-conceived ideas and inhabit her habitual way of directing her actions.
3. Self-direction: the student must learn to send consciously the correct mental orders and distinguish between giving an order and carrying it out in her habitual way
4. Attention to the process: the teacher must teach the student to overcome her habitual movement pattern, it is important to consider the means more than the result.
5. Guided sensory education: the teacher must guide the change, bringing about the use of muscles in a coordinated and non-habitual way. (Alexander, c. 1908 p 16-19)
What differentiates the Alexander technique from other somatic techniques is the casual relationship between faulty sensory perception and the deterioration of the primary control mechanism. The establishment of a reliable sense register is dependent upon the ability consciously inhibit habitual impulses while directing the activation of primary control.
Some fundamental points to guided sensory education in the Alexander technique
· The activation of the primary control is fundamental to all functions of the human being in activity: posture, movement, voice and breathing.
· The kinesthetic system is dependent upon the proper and efficient functioning of the primary control, is the basis for registering the amount of tension used to carry out any activity
· Education for the conscious activation of the primary control, which brings about an improvement of coordinated use of the psychophysical self is a prerequisite for improvement in the use of the parts involved in any activity.
· Sensory education in the Alexander technique should be somatic in nature ( a first-person experience). It should be guided by a person who has consciously learned to reactivate the primary control as a basis for efficient and coordinated use of the self in any activity
Reference:
Netti-Fiol, R (2006) Alexander Technique and Dance Technique Application in the Studio. Journal of Dance Education 6 (3) 78-85. Available at: http://web.a.ebscohost.com/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?sid=ca1648a1-32bc-4985-8ed6-4c340e5c0b05%40sessionmgr4001&vid=15&hid=4101 [15 January 2015].