Why do so many musicians and dancers take lessons in the Alexander Technique?
Frank Pierce Jones wrote in Collected Writings on the Alexander Technique
There are musicians—some say there were more of them in the past—who get as much pleasure from a performance as they give, who always perform easily and well, and who use themselves so efficiently that their professional lives and their natural lives coincide. There are others, however, with equal talent and training, to whom performance and even practice are exhausting, and whose professional lives are cut short because they lose the mastery of the skills they have acquired. They put forth more effort in solving technical problems than the results warrant, and ultimately discover that they have used up their reserves of energy. If they understood the use of themselves as well as they understand the use of their instruments, such breakdowns would be far less frequent…
It is imperative for musicians and dancers, perhaps more than any other group, to possess a conscious understanding of how they use themselves in performance, as well as in everyday life. Their work demands the most refined and delicate or movements performed an infinite amount of times on a daily basis. The physical demands placed on the musicians body to produce a resonant sound--or the dancer's body to produce fluid movement and a stunning line--coupled with the pressure of audition and performance can be enough to compromise the function of even the most healthy performer.
With the help of an Alexander Technique Teacher...
You can learn to use your whole self in the most efficient way possible, not only to help sustain your health over the course of a long career, but to alleviate performance anxiety and allow for more creativity and freedom.
What Programs include training in the Alexander Technique?
The Juilliard School of Performing Arts
Los Angeles Philharmonic Training Program
The Royal Academies of Music and Dramatic Arts, London
California Institute of the Arts
The Manhattan School of Music
The Royal Conservatory of Music in Toronto
.... and many more.
For the full lecture from Frank Pierce Jones and more articles for musicians, visit http://www.alexandertechnique.com/musicians.htm
Click here to watch a short video featuring Lori Schiff, discussing training musicians at Juilliard with the Alexander Technique.
Click here to listen to a podcast with Ann Rodiger, an Alexander Technique teacher in New York City, who talks about dance and dance training and the Alexander Technique.
Click here to review and listen to other podcasts dedicated to musicians and the Alexnder Technique.
Contact us today to schedule an appointment - 424.259.2545 - Jenn.Schneiderman@gmail.com
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