An educational method used to improve performance, the Alexander Technique teaches people to replace unnecessary muscular and mental effort with consciously coordinated responses, maximizing effectiveness while also relieving, if necessary, any chronic stiffness or stress. Integrative Alexander Technique Practice for Performing Artists presents the empirical research of Cathy Madden, a teacher and coach with more than thirty-five years of experience with the technique. She addresses common concerns, such as concentration, relaxation, discipline-specific techniques, warm-ups, performer/audience relationships, stage fright, and critical responses, and explores the role of the senses, emotions, learned behavior, human consciousness studies, and neuroscience in the application of the techniques.

The Alexander Technique is a specific form of mind/body practice that focusses on improving efficiency through learning and understanding movement and behavior. Galvanizing Performances applies the teachings of this practice to the performing arts. Through theatre, music, and dance, the contributors, all artists themselves, demonstrate how deliberate movement can improve an individual's art and benefit their general health and wellbeing. Using specific case examples and in-depth analysis over a range of performance arts, this book supports instruction of effective movement and the Alexander Technique within different artistic disciplines for students and teachers alike.

Thoughtful and accessible, this guidebook unpacks the teaching process of the Alexander Technique for new and more experienced practitioners. By demonstrating the pathway from learning the Alexander Technique for oneself to teaching it, Madden identifies the skill sets required for excellence in teaching the Alexander Technique, and shows readers how they can acquire and develop these skills themselves. Observation, communication and tactile skills are all covered, and particular attention is paid to group teaching, which is neglected in current literature. This is combined with discussion of current research on education and neuroscience, enabling the reader to build a truly informed and effective practice. Featuring a variety of examples and stories, it will prove a valuable resource to any teacher of the Alexander Technique, both active and prospective, and to practitioners of other modalities exploring ways to deepen their practice.

The Alexander Technique (AT) is a remarkably simple but powerful method for learning to skillfully control how your brain and body interact, allowing you to better coordinate your movements while increasing the accuracy of your mind's thoughts and perceptions. Now, in How You Stand, How You Move, How You Live, leading Alexander Technique master teacher Missy Vineyard sheds a completely fresh light on this revolutionary method and, in the process, offers path-breaking insight into the mind-body connection. Vineyard thoroughly explains and teaches the central skills of the AT through simple self-experiments, and she offers engaging stories of students in their lessons to show its effective application across a range of disciplines, including the performing arts, athletics, health, psychology, and education. How You Stand, How You Move, How You Live introduces us to a world within ourselves that we know surprisingly little about--and thereby helps us to understand why we often cannot do what we should be able to do, why we harm ourselves with chronic tension and anxiety, and why our thoughts often seem beyond our control. Vineyard is also the first AT teacher to draw on cutting-edge research in neuroscience and to synthesize those findings with AT theories and techniques. She fully illuminates the benefits to be reaped by mastery of the Alexander Technique, which include: Release from acute or chronic physical pain Enhanced mental attention and focus Reduced anxiety Improved balance and coordination Relief from tension and stress Increased ease and efficiency performing precise movement skills

A Hatful of Rain pulls no punch, of horror, tension or heroics. And it is all to Gazzo's brimful credit that the characters remain believable and sympathetic. A young man's terrible war injuries have made him rely on dope. His wife is pregnant, and he is unable to keep jobs. His simple, devoted brother has alienated their adventurous father by giving his money in secret to the victim. Neither the wife nor the father knows what is happening. The young husband is backed to the wall by the peddlers, and they both find out. THey also learn the more terrifying evidence of what it means to be a deprived addict. -- from page 3.

Introduction to the Alexander Technique, part of the brand-new Acting Essentials series, is the first textbook about the Alexander Technique written specially for undergraduates. This eight-week program can be taught over the course of half a semester, a full semester, or dipped into as needed to address students' issues with physicality, movement, breathing, voice and performance habits. The Alexander Technique has been a vital part of training for performers since the early 20th century. It is a core part of the curriculum at most acting conservatories and in many BFA programs. Sometimes considered purely a movement discipline, the Alexander Technique in fact takes into consideration the entire person-mind, body, voice, emotions, and imagination. Introduction to the Alexander Technique addresses the student's self as a whole and is suitable for beginning acting students in any academic setting, including those who take performance classes as an elective. The book also includes more than 150 practical, easy-to-follow exercises that help students reduce tension and improve their alignment, flexibility, and poise. The textbook is supported by a range of online videos demonstrating key exercises described throughout the book.

This practical book with illustrations links Alexander technique to acting, dancing and singing by the trainer of performers on The Lion King The Alexander Technique is a method of physical relaxation that reduces tension and strain throughout the body. It promotes a beneficial use of movement that is stress-free by learning to free-up the body. It teaches an individual to use their body efficiently in order to avoid damage or loss of control. Kelly McEvenue has been teaching the Alexander Technique to performers for nearly twenty years and is a world expert on the system. In this book she draws on her considerable experience and sets up a series of set-by-step warm-ups and exercises that anybody can follow. The exercises are linked to accurate anatomical drawings, showing where stress is most pronounced in the body. The Foreword is by Patsy Rodenburg, Head of Voice for the Royal National Theatre and author of Methuen titles The Right to Speak and The Actor Speaks.

What Every Singer Needs to Know About the Body, Fourth Edition gives singers and teachers a Body Mapping resource—from anatomy and physiology to body awareness—that helps them discover and correct misconceptions about how their bodies are designed and how they function. This book provides detailed descriptions of the structures and movements necessary for healthy and efficient body awareness, balance, breathing, phonation, resonance, articulation, and gesture. Many voice books focus on the anatomical facts, but leave singers asking, "How can I apply this to my singing?" What Every Singer Needs to Know About the Body helps to answer that question, providing practical exercises and detailed illustrations. New to This Edition: * Updated and revised content throughout the text * Bulleted review sections for each chapter * New and updated links to recommended videos * Information on Biotensegrity and how it pertains to Body Mapping, along with helpful links to resources on the subject * An expanded glossary What Every Singer Needs to Know About the Body includes audio and video recordings of the exploratory exercises. This book provides the technical foundation for singers of all styles. The authors do not espouse a single method or attempt to teach singing techniques or styles. Rather, they describe the movements of singing with accuracy and detail so that singers may experiment on their own and communicate with each other in a common language.

A tight throat; held breath; stiff muscles; stage fright: impediments to performance come in many guises, but they all spring from the same source-tension. In Physical Expression on Stage and Screen Bill Connington, a renowned teacher of the Alexander Technique, shows you how to recognize and release the tension that keeps you from performing at your best. If you're ever not certain of what to do with your hands or how to make a meaningful gesture, or if your movement feels fine in daily life but then you suddenly become self-conscious when onstage or in front of a camera, this book is here to help. More than one hundred clear, accessible exercises-including many filmed tutorials available online-will enable you to • Move more naturally and easily • Breathe more freely • Speak more clearly • Free your creative impulses • Play a character with an unfamiliar physicality