Introduction to the Alexander Technique

A Practical Guide for Actors

Bill Connington

• Publisher: Methuen Drama
• Year: 2020
• Print ISBN: 9781350052956
• eBook ISBN: 9781350052963
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Media & Performing Arts
• Subtopic: Acting & Auditioning

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.

1 YOUR BODY

The beginning is the most important part of the work.

PLATO, REPUBLIC, BOOK II

In the beginning, there was your body. As a newly born child, you were all body, movement, and emotion. Formulated thoughts came later. Newborns and young children move naturally and freely as an expression of who they are and what they want. For the actor, it is the same: motivation leads to action. Your physicality and movement are an expression of who you are and what you want as the character you are playing. Fortunately, you already have experience connecting with your body in this way from early childhood.

A bit later in life, maybe after the age of seven or eight, many of us begin to develop tension habits. Those habits can interfere with movement, functioning, alignment, and even the mind–body connection. But I’m getting a little ahead of myself. I’ll come back to this in a bit.

If you’re reading this book sequentially, this is another kind of beginning: the first week of an eight-week program. We’ll consider a different aspect of your self each week.

If you’re skipping around the book nonsequentially: great. You’ll be reading about various parts of yourself, but in a different order. However you go through this process, at the end you’ll be putting all the components together to form a whole: an integrated you.

For the actor, as for any performing artist, your body is like a canvas on which you paint—a physical manifestation of an inner state of mind that makes creative expression possible. Without your body, you cannot act.

But what is your body? Of course it’s a number of parts: your torso, arms, legs, head, hands, and feet. But how are the parts integrated? How does it all work together in a harmonious whole to create the performance you want?

Many actors have no idea. Answer the three questions in the box below as a first step toward finding out. Write your answers on a piece of paper, or in your phone. There are no right answers—just the answers that are right for you.

QUESTIONS FOR YOUR INNER SELF

1 What are you aware of right now in your own body?

2 What do you think a “good actor’s body” is?

3 What is the central coordinating system for your body and your movement?

Sensory Awareness and a “Good Actor’s Body”

To answer the first question, you must make use of your sensory awareness. We all understand the physical senses of sight, hearing, smell, taste, and touch. Sensory awareness is a bit different. It gives you a sense of your inner and outer environment. It helps create your understanding of your body in space, its positioning and movement, and how much effort it takes to create that movement. As you train as an actor, you’ll find that sensory awareness will become one of your most valuable tools.

The more you use your sensory awareness effectively, the more accurate it becomes. If you’re not used to using a sense, it gets a little rusty. For example, if you’re not used to looking closely at things, you might have a little trouble distinguishing between subtle shades of green and blue. But the more you’re aware of your visual sense, the easier it is to discern differences. It’s the same with sensory awareness. The more you use it, the more accurately you’ll be able to track where your body is in space and what it’s doing.

You will have your own answer to the second question. Of course it’s always desirable for the actor to have a strong, flexible body. But a “good actor’s body” doesn’t necessarily have to mean muscular. And by “good body,” I don’t mean a specific body type. There are so many types of characters to play. My personal definition of a “good actor’s body” is one that is well integrated, balanced, flexible, and ready to act. You might consider this a new definition of what a good actor’s body is. This book will show you how to develop that.

The Central Coordinating System

In the Alexander Technique, the key to central coordination is called the head–neck relationship—i.e., the way your head is balanced at the top of your spine. When it’s well balanced, it helps organically coordinate your whole body. When your neck is free and released, your head can be poised and balanced. This helps everything below it—torso, arms, hands, legs, and feet—work more gracefully and efficiently as well as in unison. This is called constructive coordination.

But what does this all have to do with acting? Well: everything. The way you walk, run, sit, stand, bend, talk, and breathe is affected by your sensory awareness and your head–neck relationship. If you are tight, tense, or stiff, this will decrease your ability to access an accurate sensory awareness, and it will tend to tighten your neck and contract your head down onto your spine. This in turn puts downward pressure on your whole body, so it gets tight. Alignment is thrown off, and all your movements are affected—often getting heavier, jerkier, and less efficient.

To make things a bit more complex, if you’re used to being tight, tense, and stiff, then it becomes harder to feel. Tension starts to feel normal. But other people can see it. Your acting, singing, and movement teachers are trained to discern tension and other physical issues in their students, and sometimes they may mention it to you. It’s always easier to see habits in someone else. You, too, may notice physical mannerisms in your friends, classmates, or people on the street. Once you pay attention to it, it’s easy to spot people who have:

• slumping posture,

• a neck that juts forward,

• arching in the lower back,

• raised shoulders,

• a body that pulls to one side or the other, or

• a head that retracts back.

Tension Habits

But don’t worry: if your body has learned to be tight, it can also learn to release. The main objective is to target your tension habits. We all have them. Even the simplest physical activities—sitting at the computer, reaching for a cup of coffee, driving a car—can have strong habits associated with them. In fact, the simplest movements and activities often go along with the strongest tension habits. Tension gets ingrained in these habitual movements because we “don’t need to think about them.” In some way the body comes to feel that it needs to tense in order to carry out a movement. Of course this is not true. Your body may overwork itself when it’s trying to help you carry out various simple activities.

QUESTIONS FOR YOUR INNER SELF

1 How do you define tension?

2 What are your personal manifestations of tension?

3 How might it be possible to change your tension habits?

I bring this up because tension may be the actor’s number one problem. It may stop your creative flow, get you locked in your head, and even contribute to performance anxiety. But when you effectively address tension and its domino-like side effects, you are well on your way to being “in the zone.”

You can define “tension” in many different ways. My definition is simple and easy to remember. Every action in the body takes a certain amount of muscular effort. Any effort that is more than necessary I would define as tension. For example, to lift your arm takes the coordinated action of muscles in your arm and supporting muscles in your shoulder and back. But if, like many people, you stiffen your neck, tighten and lift your shoulder, and maybe even squeeze your breath a bit as you lift your arm, I would call that tension.

There is a nearly infinite variety of possible physical habits born of tension. Some people slump down when they raise their arms. Some stiffen the back and lift the shoulders. Others do a combination of both. As you begin to become conscious of your movement using your sensory awareness, you’ll notice all kinds of patterns—some subtle, others less so. There will be much more about this in the movement chapter.

Allowing for Change

How might it be possible to change? This all relates to your mind-set, which is essentially a series of ideas, concepts, and assumptions that influence the way you see yourself and the world. We all have a mind-set: there are as many of them as there are individuals. But some people think they must do this or that to change their way of viewing things.

My theory of change is different. I believe it’s not desirable to force change but rather to allow it. If you try to force your body to do something, it may rebel. This goes for the mind and emotions, too.

In my view, the way to allow change to happen is to set an intention and to stay with that intention gently yet persistently.

Further, it will make your work much easier if you maintain a constructive, growth-oriented mind-set. It will open the door to all kinds of creative impulses and will let you approach each new acting challenge with openness and flexibility.

QUESTIONS FOR YOUR INNER SELF

1 How would you define positive change?

2 How do you start on and follow a path of constructive change?

3 Where does change lead you?

When I’m looking to make any kind of change in myself, I find it valuable to go through the following steps:

• Take stock of where I am at present.

• Get clear about what it is I’d like to change.

• Make a pragmatic plan for change that I can actually stick to.

• Touch base...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Halftitle Page
• Title Page
• Dedication Page
• Contents 
• Foreword: To the Young Who Want To Walton Wilson
• Series Introduction
• Acknowledgments
• About the Exercises
• Introduction
• 1 Your Body
• 2 Breathing
• 3 Your Voice
• 4 Your Movement
• 5 MENTAL AND PHYSICAL RESISTANCE
• 6 The Mind–Body Connection
• 7 Classes And Rehearsals
• 8 Performance
• Conclusion
• Appendix A: Interpreting the Sound Container Exercise
• Appendix B: List of Exercises
• Appendix C: List of Videos
• Glossary
• Bibliography
• Imprint