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quotes from notable pupils of the AT |
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"Mr. Alexander has done a service to the subject [of the study of reflex and voluntary movement] by insistently treating each act as involving the whole integrated individual, the whole psychophysical man. To take a step is an affair, not of this or that limb solely, but of the total neuromuscular activity of the moment, not least of the head and neck." Sir Charles Sherrington (1857-1952) Neurophysiologist Nobel Prize for Medicine 1932 |
"We already notice, with growing amazement, very striking improvements in such diverse things as high blood pressure, breathing, depth of sleep, overall cheerfulness and mental alertness, resilience against outside pressures, and in such a refined skill as playing a musical instrument." Nikolaas Tinbergen Nobel Prize for Physiology/Medicine 1974 (from his Nobel Prize acceptance speech, half of which was devoted to talking about the AT and changes that he and his family experienced from lessons) |
"Mr. Alexander's method lays hold of the individual as a whole, as a self-vitalising agent. He reconditions and reeducates the reflex mechanisms and brings their habits into normal relation with the functions of organisms as a whole. I regard his method as thoroughly scientific and educationally sound." George E. Coghill (1872-1941) Biologist, Anatomist member of National Academy of Sciences |
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"Through
the Alexander
Technique I was able to rehabilitate my running after 25 years of being
unable to run through injuries, to the extent that I was able to set
ten world records for veterans in 1982." |
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"Forty years ago, after one of my concerts, Adrian Boult told me that if I continued to conduct like that I'd become a cripple, and that I must take lessons in the Alexander Technique. Today I am still having lessons - as with music, there is no end to the learning process. It affects not only the use of the body, but also one's views of oneself and one's behavior. For the aches and ills that come with the years, the Technique can work miracles." Sir Colin Davis |
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"I find the Alexander Technique very helpful in my work. Things happen without you trying. They get you to be light and relaxed. You must get an Alexander teacher to show it to you." John Cleese Actor, Comedian Ministry of Silly Walks |
"My times became faster as I looked at the readouts on my displays while training using the AT. It was a real boost to my mental training to have the AT in my back pocket when I placed ninth in the 1999 Canadian women's Open Lightweight Erging Championships and when I rowed in the Masters Nationals (5 gold) and World Lightweight Championships (2 gold) and the Royal Canadian Henley Regatta (1 gold). I was thrilled with my placings in these events and I can definitely say without hesitation that I wouldn't have had the rowing success that I have had the luxury of experiencing in my short time on the water without finding the AT and the great teachers that I have had the privilege to work with." Valerie Thompson Williams Rowing masters gold medalist |
"I was born with no natural aptitude. I wasn't pretty. I moved with no grace at all. I auditioned for the London Academy of Musical and Dramatic Arts but was not accepted. When I was finally admitted to Central School of Speech and Drama and showed up at my first movement class with my hump back and wearing a leotard, the movement teacher said, "Oh God." He sent me to the head of the school who then sent me to study the Alexander Technique with Dr. Wilfred Barlow. That whole semester I took Alexander lessons instead of attending movement classes which helped me enormously in my training and in subsequent years in my acting work. Now I can play people who are graceful and beautiful." Lynn Redgrave Actress |
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| "Lesson "Lessons in the Alexander Technique taught me how to sit in a state of lumbrosacral poise, and my chronic low back pain gradually became cured. The Technique is true education. Compared to surgery (e.g. for low back pain or for chronic obstructive lung disease) a course of instruction is inexpensive." John H. M. Austin, MD Professor of Radiology; Chief, Division of Radiology Columbia-Presbyterian Medical Center, New York, NY |
"The Alexander Technique can help relieve pain and prevent recurrences by correcting poor posture and teaching proper patterns of movement." Andrew Weil, MD |
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"Alexander established not only
the beginnings of a far
reaching science of the apparently involuntary movements that we call
reflexes,
but a technique of correction and self control which forms a
substantial
addition to our very slender resources in personal education."
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"The Alexander Technique keeps the body alive, at ages when many people have resigned themselves to irreversible decline."  Robertson Davies Writer |
"The Alexander Technique can be sustaining; it is something that if learned well, can be carried along with you for the rest of your life. It gives you confidence to be who you are when you are up in front of an audience." Patrick Maddams Managing Director, Royal Academy of Music |
"Good acting is revealing yourself, not covering yourself up. If your body is free, your mind is free. [The AT allows] you to feel what it's like to stay open physically, and also stay fully involved in whatever you're supposed to be doing." Annette Bening |
"Personally, I cannot speak with too much admiration--in the original sense of wonder as well as the sense of respect--of the persistence and thoroughness with which these extremely difficult observations and experiments were carried out. In consequence, Mr. Alexander created what may be truly called a physiology of the living organism. His observations and experiments have to do with the actual functioning of the body, with the organism in operation, and in operation under the ordinary conditions of living--rising, sitting, walking, standing, using arms, hands, voice, tools, instruments of all kinds." John Dewey Educator and Philosopher |
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Writer |
Roald Dahl |
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| "Instead of
feeling one's body
to be an aggregation of ill-fitting parts full of friction and dead
weights pulling this way and that, so as to render mere existence in
itself exhausting, the body becomes a coordinated and living whole,
composed of well-fitting and truly articulated parts." Sir Stafford Cripps Former Chancellor of the Exchequeur |
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Jill Geiger, AmSAT, STAT Alexander Technique teacher for over 21 years Newton, MA 617 527 7373 jill@ATinstruction.com |