Often, students
must unlearn as much as they learn. In her
article, Tension And The Actor, Joyce Wodeman
writes, "Before I came across the Alexander Technique
I used to be aware of bad habits in some of my drama students
without understanding what was wrong or what to do about
it. . .I mean those deep-seated tensions and constrictions
that one sees to be typical of the person's activity as
a whole and of which he is largely unconscious: what
in Alexander terminology is summed up as someone's 'manner
of use.'"
The Alexander
Technique is a method of self-discovery which explores
the basic impulses of human movement, how we interfere
with our own coordination, and, it offers a means
to change. Alexander's method directly addresses
basic performance problems:
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student should learn that in whatever he does,
however small the gesture he uses, a kind of current,
life, must go through the whole body. He
will gradually discover that his entire body takes
part in the gesture even if it does not move with
it...All exercises should aim at producing a state
of balanced physical well-being, a state of poised
relaxation which leads to an agile control of timing. This
physical well-being is important to an actor's
imaginative growth and is essential to the development
of his means of expression.
This is why, at the Juilliard School, we have
added the Alexander Technique to our training
of the body. . .a method by which the student
can free himself of postural bad habits and become aware of the meeting
point of his body and mind. At the same time the Technique
corrects the alignment of his body and his coordination in general.
Michel
St. Denis,
Training for the Theatre
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Alexander's own history tells
of a young Shakespearean orator and actor whose career
in the late 1800's was threatened by recurring hoarseness. Through
a long period of self-observation and work he not only
cured his problem but pioneered a whole new way of learning.
In following Alexander's steps we begin with the detailed
observation of the habitual ways we use ourselves in
everything we do. Wodeman says, "no
amount of 'showing how' or instruction imposed from the outside can achieve
a desired result as long as a person's deepest habits are pulling against
it." Though many habits are useful, helping us get though life
without pondering every action, habits that limit our choice of movement
can develop without our noticing.
Performers are unfortunately encouraged to adopt the habit of 'end-gaining.' End-gaining
is the term used by Alexander to describe our concern with being right,
and with goalskeeping the juggling clubs in the air no matter what, projecting
to the balcony, holding the handstand, mastering a difficult instrumental
passage, and so on.
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We
are trained and conditioned to be 'present' only in relation to the
goal. When I go from my house to the grocer, I'm
not present until I'm back at the house. Going from
point A to point B we are in a kind of non-life, and from
B to C the same. This is one of our earliest lessons.
. .to be in relation to the goal. This teaches us to
live in 'absent time.'
Joseph Chaiken,
The Presence of the Actor
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Alexander discovered
that performance habits reflect as in a magnifying mirror
the habits of everyday activities. 'Absent time'
on stage is wasted opportunity for creation; but how can
we expect performers to eliminate 'absent time' on stage
unless we train them to do so in the daily life where most
of our hours are spent? As Aldous Huxley noted, "An
education which allows you to use yourself wrongly is almost
valueless."
Once observation reveals habits we wish to change, the
Alexander student learns to prevent these habits in movement
and in rest, and to consciously
direct the body in lengthening relationship between her head, neck and
back that allows the entire organism to function with more ease. Because
this direction, or 'thinking-in-activity,' works in movement, there is
no need to stop activity, close our eyes, or do special exercises, in order
to develop good use.
What is good use? "Good use" implies economy and availabilityto
the moment, to the partner, to the emotion, to the unexpectedthe essence
of improviso and the enemy of rigidity. Good use implies choice in
deciding to go into action, what action to do and how to do it. Good
use means we are capable of delicacy and subtlety as well as thrust and
force. These are qualities of movement that the Alexander student
learns to distinguish, since all movementpicking up a pencil, a sprinter's
burst, the exquisite conservation of energy in a resting cat becomes a
source of observation and constructive possibilities.
Joan Schirle is a Senior Teacher of the FM Alexander
Technique and a professional actor. She alternates
her roles as Co-Artistic Director of the Dell-Arte Players
Company
and as a teacher.
J. Schirle
PO Box 305, Blue Lake
Ca. 95525
(707) 668-5253
