Music

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Being able to play a musical instrument is a skill set I have always wanted to master. I began learning music when I was five years old. Like most children my first instrument was the recorder.  Not long after I began though, my recorder was confiscated by one of the teachers at my school and I was completely turned off from continuing to learn.  I was not turned off from music, just me learning. I am not alone in this experience. Many of my students have shared similar musical stories about learning with me. Now I enjoy listening to music and continue to appreciate the expertise of others playing.

There are many aspects to learning music and becoming an accomplished player. From becoming familiar with the instrument you have chosen, to mastering the sounds it can make, and everything in between. With this learning we adopt mannerisms of use, that help us initially adapt to playing our chosen instrument. In this process of learning, we may learn about the best ergonomic placement for our bodies in relation to our instrument.  Marvelous, because it helps us to take care of ourselves. 

So how can Alexander work help? The Alexander work is concerned predominately with learning a set of skills that help us to recognize the relationship we have with our self and how we interact with the world around us. As a teacher I may start your learning process by asking you to stand in front of the chair and then work with you to stand and sit. When you develop the ability to recognize how you are working with an object, that you use daily, throughout your day and also learn how to make changes as needed, it is an easy transition to work with more complex skills like playing an instrument.

The chair is a really great tool for invoking unconscious habits we have collected over the years.  The action of sitting or standing is something very familiar to us. We have become so adept at sitting and standing that its banal routine eventually means we “don’t have to pay attention”. So much so that even the mention or thought of a chair starts an unconscious chain reaction.  The body begins to implement a sitting or standing response.  Cool right?  We really don’t have to get caught up with “insignificant tasks”. 

It could be cool but the bit where we don’t pay attention, is the bit where we get stuck.  This is the bit where Alexander work excels.  

The wonderful thing about Alexander work is that it is actually intended as a method for prevention. That is to say, you don’t need to have something wrong with you to take lessons.  Many performers use the technique to help prevent injury and to enhance their performance. 

Take an individual lesson or join one of the group classes and start your journey towards a more free and expressive working and performing experience.

Click here to book.

• Wednesday morning Moving mindfulness Class: Live-stream only, 8:00am-9:00am.  4 sessions for $40/month. Or $105 for four classes plus and an individual session.
• AT Group Class: ATMC Live Stream 8:00am and 7:00pm-7:30pm. 4 classes for $40/month. Or $105 for four classes plus and an individual session.

Between the ages of 12 and 13, I developed a deep interest in theater. So much so that I started an after-school theater club. At the end of each school day, we gathered in the school hall, and tasks were assigned to everyone. The core group stayed with me, and we worked on pieces that I had written or choreographed. It was a blast—until the day when the deputy head of the school put a stop to it all.

In the uproar that followed, I managed to negotiate an end-of-year talent event. The talent show had to include something for everyone in the school, not just those signed up for the theater club. We had a bake-off for budding bakers, a sew-off  for aspiring designers and dressmakers, a woodworking showcase, and a metalworking showcase. Finally, there was a talent variety show, where anything from singing and dancing to ventriloquism, poetry recitations, and musical performances was allowed. The teachers and staff judged the whole event. It was so much fun, and our year group was buzzing as we prepared for the big event. 

The following year, the Oxford Playhouse in Oxford, U.K., offered a summer theater program. My sister and I joined, and this time I wrote a whole play about robots taking over human civilization. The play involved everyone in the group and included audience interaction. It was such a great experience.  Afterward, I was asked to participate in several theater projects at the Pegasus Theatre.

This continued until I began working with Barclays Bank, where the hours didn’t allow me to stay involved. However, I did manage to perform in a couple of shows with the Abingdon Drama Club at the charming Unicorn Theatre.

While I enjoyed performing, I also found it to be an intense and raw experience. On stage, hundreds or even thousands of eyes are searching for authenticity, which means you have to be available to—but not consumed by—that gaze every single moment of every single performance. I also struggled to switch off from the character, even when I wasn’t on stage. Whether I was at the pub, on the street, or in the office, I didn’t know how to stop being "in character." Part of me feared that if I switched off, I might forget my lines.

This is where I found the Alexander Technique to be invaluable.

The Alexander Technique can assist with many aspects of acting, which is why it’s taught in theater and performing arts programs around the world. From injury prevention to performance enhancement, the skills learned can help actors with vocal production and control, performance anxiety, character development, and presence, to name just a few.

Join one of the group classes below or book an individual lesson by clicking here.

• Wednesday morning Moving mindfulness Class: Live-stream only, 8:00am-9:00am.  4 sessions for $40/month. Or $105 for four classes plus and an individual session.
• AT Group Class: ATMC Live Stream 8:00am and 7:00pm-7:30pm. 4 classes for $40/month. Or $105 for four classes plus and an individual session.

Dance is often seen as the perfect union of strength, flexibility, and grace.  The fluidity of a performers ability lies in the constant challenge of maintaining balance, alignment, and the perception of effortlessness.

The Alexander Technique helps individuals develop their sensory feedback system. Unconscious body perception plays a key role in the sensory field of awareness and when this perception is allowed to unduly influence movement it will affect the outcome.  By developing a means of greater sensory awareness and a skill that helps regulate its connection to the whole,  the dancer can have a better sense of when the movement is off, and too make changes to their use while in mid phrase. Providing the ability to maintain, refine and adjust while working as a dancer, or in performance, while walking down the street, or while preparing food at supper.   For dancers, it offers a powerful tool to deepen the mind body connection, enhance movement efficiency, and reduce the risk of injury. Rather than pushing the body to perform, the technique teaches dancers to work in a different way to effect change, working with the natural coordination and poise of their body system. By bringing attention to how they initiate and carry movement, dancers can begin to recognize patterns that create stiffness or strain. Through this conscious integration of the Alexander work, dance becomes not just a physical act, but a psycho-physical exploration where clarity, freedom, and expression can flourish.

Join the Wednesday morning class  or take individual lessons. Click here to see your choices.

• Wednesday morning Moving mindfulness Class: Live-stream only, 8:00am-9:00am.  4 sessions for $40/month. Or $105 for four classes plus and an individual session.
• AT Group Class: ATMC Live Stream 8:00am and 7:00pm-7:30pm. 4 classes for $40/month. Or $105 for four classes plus and an individual session.

There are many different styles of yoga. In Western culture, most yogic practices focus on asana (poses). Practices like Iyengar, Vinyasa Flow, and gentle or all-level yoga are examples of styles that emphasize asanas.

The definition of yoga is "Unity." It is meant to be a practice that creates a sense of oneness.

I was first introduced to yoga through my dance training. Many choreographers used asana sequencing to help improve the ability to move fluidly between the floor and standing positions, or to transition smoothly between the hands and feet. It was a genius way to integrate movement. However, because of how it was taught, I was often encouraged to "let go" or "relax into" poses, rather than being guided to find the equilibrium between yin and yang in the movement, coupled with breathing coordination.

Now, as a yoga instructor, I’ve come to understand how time, along with the balance of yin and yang, plays an integral role in movement coordination and breathing. My classes are a mix of slowly paced and short moving sequences. I encourage and support participants in finding their way through the class, stopping to clarify moving  patterns. It is also a place to practice inhibition and direction and to develop psycho-physical unity through the asana's.

• In-person Class:  In person. Friday morning at 10:00 am through the CCBA. 
• Saturday Morning Class: Live-stream only. Saturday’s 8:30am-9:00am. $40/month - four classes.

We place an enormous daily pressure on the eyes to see.  Reading, artificial lighting, and screen time are just a few examples of the current demands placed on our visual system. 

Our vision, like our overall use and functioning is in perpetual motion. The eyes move at a rate of 80-120 moves per second.  Vision is a dynamic, responsive process that involves the whole self and uses roughly one-third of the brain. The eye ball is a receptor for light.  An amazing and complex receptor but it is not the only part of our visual system involved with seeing. 

We tend to brush our teeth regularly, to prevent cavities and other issues that affect our oral, and sometimes overall health.  Natural vision methods, inspired by pioneers like Dr. William Bates, offer a similar personal daily practice.  These daily practices can help prevent issues with the eye itself, while also reeducating the psycho physical connection between the brain and eye. This restores ease to the act of seeing, helping the eyes and mind function without strain. The process can become a journey towards restoring sight, where colors appear more vibrant, night vision improves, and seeing becomes not only clearer, but more present, and more alive. It also helps with interrupted sleeping patterns, stress levels, and other non eye related issues.

• The Art of Seeing: No Classes available until the fall.

Running, climbing, starting a new workout, losing weight—there are countless ways to improve athletic ability. Once you choose to make a change, it’s incredible how quickly the body begins to adapt to new demands. Whether you’re starting something new, returning to an activity, or deconditioning, there’s always an adjustment phase where you adapt to the new way of working.

The Alexander Technique offers skills designed to help you recognize what you’re doing with your body and provide tools to create change. The work is simple, effective, and doesn’t require complicated methods. It’s almost like a way of life. Life is constant and ongoing—there’s always something requiring your attention, whether it's gravity, hand-eye coordination, or eye-foot coordination. Developing the skill to recognize and regulate your overall use and functioning helps you become more able to recognize how you’re moving and engaging with the world at all times.

From starting a workout to managing deconditioning and everything in between, having a strong sense of self-awareness and the ability to initiate change naturally is a powerful addition to any fitness routine.

When you begin a new workout program or athletic practice, the feeling of effort often feels different from your usual routine. This quickly becomes your perceived understanding of how the body should be working—“no pain, no gain,” right? However, nothing could be further from the truth. Trying to replicate the “felt” experience of previous workouts can actually undermine your body’s ability to adapt. You may unintentionally impose an idea of how the work "should feel," and the body responds by shifting its movement pattern based on the information you’re providing, even if it’s not accurate or unconscious. This can lead to overworking, initiating unnecessary stress, and possibly hindering progress.

The key here is that once you begin, the body has already started adapting. What’s needed is not more effort, but maintenance—both through active work and through integration with your resting state. This is different from simply cooling down after a workout. It involves increasing the overall conditioning of your body’s use and functioning throughout your day, which helps it adapt more efficiently and with less strain.

For avid athletes with a regular workout regimen, the Alexander Technique can add nuance to your approach. One of the skills the technique helps develop is the ability to be both “within” (aware of your internal state) and “without” (attuned to external factors) simultaneously. This balance of introspective and extrospective awareness—or what might be called “multisensory perception”—enables you to recognize key touchpoints within your body’s overall use and functioning. These points can help you identify when your movements have shifted in a way that might lead to compensatory patterns or stress.

Once you acquire this skill, you’ll be able to make real-time adjustments during your workouts, recognizing when changes are needed. This helps you decide if you need to back off from your workout, and/or if a more detailed process of change and adjustment is required.

Deconditioning is often overlooked in workout programs, but it plays an important role. Deconditioning refers to bringing the body to a more sedentary state, and it's a process that can be especially relevant for athletes or individuals who have been in an intense training phase. For example, actors who have played physically demanding roles may want to transition to a more relaxed, sedentary lifestyle after their performance. In these cases, it’s important to recognize how the body is changing and adjust accordingly.

The ability to effectively inhibit certain patterns of movement, while recognizing the body’s shifting needs, is crucial during deconditioning. It’s not just about reducing physical activity, but about learning how to manage and adjust to the body’s evolving state.

Join a group class online or take an individual lesson in person or online. Click here to find your options.

• Wednesday morning Moving mindfulness Class: Live-stream only, 8:00am-9:00am.  4 sessions for $40/month. Or $105 for four classes plus and an individual session.
• AT Group Class: ATMC Live Stream 8:00am and 7:00pm-7:30pm. 4 classes for $40/month. Or $105 for four classes plus and an individual session.
• Personal Training available through the CCBA. Tuesdays and Wednesdays.

The Alexander Technique in Daily Family Life

The Alexander Technique isn't just about improving posture—it's about developing a deeper awareness of how we move and interact with our environment. In the context of family life, this method can have a transformative impact. 

When we first arrive in the world we experience many things for the first time. We begin to learn how to move through our sensory experience and increase our sensory perception of the world around us.  The head is one of the first things that we are able to recognize that we have conscious control over and can choose how to move it. Sounds can influence how we attend to the world beyond ourselves. Slowly we learn how to move in gravity wordlessly.  Children, despite what we might think, have a much better sensory awareness of themselves both within and without than adults.  Simply because adults have over developed, and practiced other skills deemed to be more important.  

There are many skills learned in an Alexander lesson. Including to reestablish sensory perception. To be more in tune with how you are experiencing ourself  within and without. But more than this, skills to allow the neck to take care of itself in relation to the whole, rather than short cutting the work that should be done in other areas.

In a busy household, with constant demands and activities, it's easy to fall into habits of rushing or carrying physical stress without realizing it.  Alexander work provides a simple means whereby parents can effectively "stay with themselves" helping family members change unnecessary strain, whether it’s from lifting groceries, sitting at the dinner table, or even managing the everyday hustle of getting ready for school. Recognizing how to make self changes on the go and to create and take a moment to be more detailed.

For parents, this means having more energy to engage with their children without the burden of physical discomfort. It also models self-care and body awareness for younger family members, fostering a more relaxed environment where everyone can thrive. By incorporating simple principles of the Alexander work into daily routines, families can experience greater harmony, improved communication, and less stress.

• Wednesday morning Moving mindfulness Class: Live-stream only, 8:00am-9:00am.  4 sessions for $40/month. Or $105 for four classes plus and an individual session.
• AT Group Class: ATMC Live Stream 8:00am and 7:00pm-7:30pm. 4 classes for $40/month. Or $105 for four classes plus and an individual session.

The Alexander Technique, a method that seeks to reestablish the bodies natural poise. This skill set will help improve posture, movement, and overall body awareness, can play a crucial role in management and leadership. 

In today's fast-paced, high-pressure work environments, managers often face stress, long hours, and physical discomfort that can hinder their effectiveness. The Alexander Technique helps individuals recognize and direct habituated movement patterns that may contribute to strain and fatigue.

By learning how to manage your own self reagulation, you will move with less over-tension, which translates into improved mental clarity and focus. The technique encourages mindfulness and conscious not cognitive decision-making, promoting a more thoughtful and balanced approach to leadership. Additionally, as managers become more aware of their body language, they can communicate with more presence, fostering better relationships with their teams.

Integrating the Alexander Technique into the management toolkit can lead to improved productivity, enhanced well-being, and stronger, more engaged leadership.

Work place group classes are available. Organize your group classes with individual support to your work force and for yourself.  Click here for more information.

• Wednesday morning Moving mindfulness Class: Live-stream only, 8:00am-9:00am.  4 sessions for $40/month. Or $105 for four classes plus and an individual session.
• AT Group Class: ATMC Live Stream 8:00am and 7:00pm-7:30pm. 4 classes for $40/month. Or $105 for four classes plus and an individual session.