The Alexander Technique is a systematic method to relax the mind and body and organize for optimal alignment in movement using only the necessary amounts of muscular activity, rather than tension. It works in any activity you do. You are designed to function efficiently and move with ease…to enjoy the lightness of being alive and aligned. As an Alexander teacher I look at movement and help undo patterns and beliefs that interfere with efficient, graceful fluid action. I teach you to undo habits of tension and contraction that limit you and are largely unconscious. After all, if people either knew what they were doing or could feel it clearly enough, they’d fix it on their own and be mindfully perfect in movement already.
What do I do?
I help dancers find freedom in the body, control without tension, and dance without limits.
I help you get your head right, helping you line up physically, mentally and emotionally – because if you don’t, you’re never going to be your best.
And that is one thing that simply mustn’t be off – Alexander’s discovery about the head weight in dance. Knowing how to use that connected with your spine and without mental or physical tension helps address those things that limit your dancing.
F.M. Alexander discovered an overriding organizing principle of movement.
He developed a method based on this discovery, of how to organize your self…your alignment, your thoughts, and your beliefs for optimal movement by coordinating the head and spine in dynamic balance. He worked out a process that can be taught, an essential skill for efficient movement without tension.
I began experimenting on myself, applying Alexander’s discovery to myself in dance. Read my story here. I began using what I’ve learned with all my students, dancers and non-dancers alike, and it works.
As a dancer, you know how important your head weight is, but it’s often so hard to feel where it is! And then it’s even harder to control without tensing up.
This is what I do – I teach you how to coordinate your head and spine dynamically while moving through space and how to integrate this into your whole self as you dance. I teach you how to control your body through freedom rather than tension.
How to calm your nervous system, to think differently, and connect your thinking and your body to a much higher degree.
As a result my students say they feel an inner sense of expansion and flow. You can live in your body with grace. You are centered, calmer when you need to be, more in control but with less tension. Performance improves!
Everything you do improves – balance – how clearly you can feel your feet – energy flow – the lines of your body.
Height! Some students have regained an inch to inch and a half in lost height. One student phoned from the doctor’s office; he was an inch taller. He was 40 years old at the time. Another, over 60, said he had to move the mirrors in his car higher. It’s not too late and you are not too old!
I have taken dance lessons for over 30 years, but only really started on a journey for mastery in dancing in 2012. I have been aware of Alexander Technique for a long time, but never followed up on it until my current teacher recommended working with Dana Ben-Yehuda a few months ago. It has… brought about fundamentally powerful changes in how I stand, sit, exercise and (most important for me) dance. Alexander Technique has shown me how to break bad habits of many years standing, and find the natural movement essential to maximize my potential as a dancer.
~ Su Murdoch
We are creatures of habit in many ways, but ultimately we are free. We are free to pause and reflect, and to learn a powerful way to move at a much higher level of grace and poise.
I love teaching you to move your energy rather than muscling through and forcing your body. I love solving dance problems with you and helping you know your body from the inside, out.
Click here to read posts in Dana’s Dance Diary
“I am a ballroom dancer, and have been a pilates teacher, and was inspired to try Alexander Technique (AT) a few years back. It is a discipline all its own, offering benefits that I’d never experienced from any other discipline (dancing, pilates, yoga, exercise, massage, etc.). It taught me how to release muscles that you not only don’t need to use, but that cause unnecessary strain when they are used in the wrong way. I strongly recommend AT to anyone, and certainly any dancer, who’s never experienced it before. AT truly allows your body to be free. You suddenly become aware of all the micro-flexing in your body that you have no idea is going on. And once you are aware of all the little muscular pulls that are going on, AT then teaches you how to release them, giving your body a freedom of movement you can’t get any other way. I hadn’t done AT for a couple of years, and recently had the pleasure of reminding myself about the value of AT by attending a workshop with Dana Ben-Yehuda, and all the wonders of AT came rushing back to me! You really just feel a freedom that reminds you of the joy of being in your body and putting it to its best use — dancing!
~ Ayelette Robinson
National Champion, Pro/Am Latin, United States Dance Championships 2011
World Finalist, Pro/Am Latin, Ohio Star Ball 2011
Photograph by Ken Hall.