What I love about the Alexander Technique is how it solved a problem I had as a young performer—I could do things great in the studio, but when it came to doing them live onstage, I frequently failed to do what I knew I could do.

Luck and Sidney Friedman (who was my Acting Professor at Washington University in St. Louis) gave me Marjorie Barstow as my first Alexander Technique teacher.  As a result, I learned the whole process of the Alexander Technique in direct relationship to what I did in life and art.  I can’t remember the details of my first workshop—I know that I walked, I would guess that I did a monologue.   I know the changes in my fellow students as they were applying the work to their acting was a big part of convincing me that I wanted to continue to study.

I was quite surprised when I heard that not everyone taught Integrative Alexander Technique.  I believe that teaching from the perspective of the desires, activities, and interests  of the learner is a more accessible and practical way to reach people with this  effective tool.  Plus if you teach the process in an already integrated form, then there is no extra step between learning the process and applying it.

Here are two videos with integrated approaches:

The first is a video about Glenna Batson and Sarah Barker’s work with senior citizens.

The second is a video choreographer Louis Gervais made for a final project in one of my Alexander Technique classes at the University of Washington.

An active area of inquiry has to do with how our involvement with 2-dimensional media (tv, video games, phones) affects our coordination and our ability to embody 3-dimensional ideas.    As I started investigating this, I included myself.  I did experience television as a child.  How did I interact with the medium when I was small?  When I asked myself this question, I laughed.  What I remember is that I never sat down to watch television.  I stood up and acted it out with the actor on the screen.  And my favorite was Annette Funicello.  If she wasn’t in the piece, I was watching, I would find someone else to act it out with…and I was always happiest if it was Annette.  I moved with her. (I wonder what my siblings thought!)  In retrospect, and in celebration of her life, I am grateful that she inspired me to move rather than passively receive my “tv”. I am also constantly grateful that the Alexander Technique provides a tool that helps us make choices about how we interact with the screens of our life.

(For an article on this topic, click the articles tab for the issue of Direction called "Paradigms of Self.)

Last week at the University of Georgia , my daughter, Alyssa-Lois Madden Gehman  (who is in the Ph.D. Program at the Odum School of Ecology), and I taught the inaugural version of this workshop-in-development. The participants’ ideas and responses to what we did is already creating the “1.5” version. Alyssa described this program in a grant proposal this way:

There is a clear issue with miscommunication between scientists and the public. This comes not just from what is said, but how it is said. This has been recognized as a key issue at the University of Georgia and I am on a committee working to enhance research communication. I am also collaborating with Principal Lecturer Catherine Madden from the University of Washington School of Drama to develop a program; Science and the Art of Communication. The goal of this program will be to train scientists to use acting techniques to communicate their science in a way that will engage their audiences. Catherine will provide the acting/directing/movement expertise, while I will be an active science translator. Much of the language of acting can be used in the context of science communication, and the combination of experience with this terminology and scientific terminology will aide in assimilation of the techniques.

The workshop was Alyssa’s idea because some of the ideas I offered her when she started to do science presentations were working well for her and she wished that more of her cohort had those tools. The scope has become broader in focus.  As I talk to Ecologists, their need to be able to communicate what they are learning is very high. We need to understand more about how our everyday interactions affect our global home. 

Ecology is the study of relationships between organisms and between organisms and their environment.  Science and the Art of Communication could be considered, in a more focused way, the study of relationships between people and between people and their communication environments. In a few hours, we offer a systematic repeatable process comprised of research about presenter/scientists themselves, their audience, and the environment of the intended communication.  From that we develop the individualized active approach that suits each scientific storyteller so they “feel like themselves. “ Once they have a structure for analysis, they can adapt it to each new iteration of their talk—each time building their own experience and deepening their understanding of the communication environment.  The Alexander Technique, though not taught directly, is in the fabric of the design.

As it happened, we also saw Sting in concert at Centennial Park in Atlanta.   I appreciated that his approach to performance “seconded” what Alyssa and I were talking about in scientific communication.  It was an honor to teach with her and to offer ideas to this deeply committed group of scientists.

(More about Alyssa's work at     http://gehmana.myweb.uga.edu/Site/About_Me.html )

Zero Balancing Northwest You are cordially invited to join Zero Balancing, NW on Monday, April 22 for a Review Day with special guest, Cathy Madden, an internationally-acclaimed instructor of Alexander Technique and a Professor at University of Washington in the Theatre Department.

Cathy and Kate will help you practice Zero Balancing with more ease via Alexander Technique principles that include Constructive Conscious Kindness to Yourself, Cooperating with Your Design and Supporting Your Dreams. I know you’ll get a lot out of it!

Specifically, you will learn:

Ways to improve your evaluations and fulcrums
More efficient ways to perform certain fulcrums
From your fellow practitioners’ feedback during exchanges

Email me at [email protected] for more information!