Luke Ford writes: Alexander Technique teacher Robert Rickover interviews fellow A.T. teacher and yoga instructor Thomas Cook, a resident of Vienna.
Thomas: “People who live without furniture tend not to have back trouble.”
“The hands of an Alexander teacher bring the awareness of what we are doing to the neck or the shoulders or the ribs or the hip joints or along the spine and seeing if we can do the same amount of work, say, in sitting or standing, with less effort.”
“The hands of an Alexander teacher are directly connected to how the Alexander teacher is thinking. If I lay my hands on someone unconsciously without observing how I am using myself, then the information transferred from teacher to student is of a different quality than if I take a moment to inhibit my own habits of movement.”
“Alexander Technique is a study of sitting, standing and lying. There is nothing that human beings do that isn’t a form of one of those three postures. When you apply the Alexander Technique to music or singing, it doesn’t mean the Alexander teacher is an amazing singer or musician but the Alexander teacher has a method for teaching ease that the musician or swimmer or yogi can find useful. “
