£45.00 GBP / $60.00 USD
The Alexander Technique
Twelve fundamentals of integrated movement
£45.00 GBP / $60.00 USD Free delivery in the UK and USA. Canadian customers please order from from Login Canada or Amazon.ca.
Claim 10% discount off your copy of The Alexander Technique when you preorder using coupon code eastenprepub
In this comprehensive text and manual on The Alexander Technique, Penelope Easten offers a broad, new theoretical framework of how integrated movement occurs, including ideas from recent science and practical explorations. The explorations are simple techniques that build on one another, to enable practitioners both to look after themselves in life and practice, and for use with clients to help them understand and integrate what Alexander Technique offers them.
The book emerges out of lessons taken by Penelope Easten between 1990 and 1994 with Miss Goldie, who worked alongside Alexander for thirty years and was closest to him. It presents a new interpretation of how Alexander developed the technique, and what happened next. Taking an evolutionary theme, Penelope Easten considers what movement capacity we have lost in Western culture and how we can re-access it by reawakening older, more balanced movement patterns. The twelve fundamentals of integrated movement described are all practical: biomechanics is one structural fundamental, while many others are aspects of perception and thinking. These are much more part of movement than is mostly realised, because optimal movement is organised around our awareness, focus and goals.
Part 1 introduces the twelve fundamentals, and how natural breathing emerges when they work together. Part 2 uses body-play, conscious guidance and control and physical pulls to bring all the musculature back into play. Part 3 explores how to let previously unknown integrated movements emerge out of a quiet system. The new scientific theories described and woven together explain how we can live in a flow of dynamic balance and help the reader accept these very different physical experiences.
Penelope Easten joined Elizabeth Larkam for Moved to Learn! in February 2021. Watch her fascinating presentation here.
Foreword
Preface
Acknowledgements
Part 1 The basics of fundamental movement
What has been lost and the twelve fundamentals of movement
The fundamentals of structure
The fundamentals of awareness and thinking
The autonomic nervous system – why we need to work from quiet presence and awareness
Finding the innate movements of breathing and walking
Part 2 Linking brain and body with explorations of physical integration
The Initial Alexander technique, and a new model of postural alignment
Single leg balance
Spatial relationships and use of the upper body and arms
Toned sitting – integrating the core muscles
Walking as you’ve never walked before
Alexander’s biomechanics for expansion of the upper body
Precise, springy alignment in sit to stand and “monkey”
Freeing the neck, and Alexander’s primary directions
Part 3 Living in a flow of dynamic balance
Catching a ball – inhibition in action
New models of coordination and learning
Embodied speaking
Relating and attuning to people for putting hands on others
References
Index
What Alexander Technique teachers say about Penelope Easten’s skills and approach:
“Penelope is a humble genius with an incredible depth of knowledge and creative flair, making her innovating work exciting and irresistible!”
Chris English Bristol, UK Alexander technique teacher and classical dressage rider and coach
“Penelope´s deep understanding of functional anatomy and complex brain processes are explained candidly and many anecdotal stories enliven the book making it easy and enjoyable to read.”
Sara Robledo, Mexico. Teacher of AT, Yoga and Pilates, singer/dancer
“An experiential, dynamic re-framing of FM Alexander’s principles, rooted in biomechanics, neurophysiology, decades of experience, and PLAY!”
Rebecca Poole c.AmSAT, m.ACAT, New York, NY.
“Alexander’s concepts of direction are taken to a new level, bringing about an incredible coordinative strength in carrying out activities. No other course of study has influenced me more in how I approach teaching my trainees, groups, and private students.
Brian McCullough, Director, Minnesota Center for the Alexander Technique and faculty Alexander Technique teacher at the University of Minnesota
No musician should be without this book. Read and study it and you will have the keys not only to wellness and reduced performance anxiety but also to enhanced musical technique and performance through an integrated and responsive body.
Alison P. Deadman PhD, teacher of the Alexander technique, Professor of Music at East Tennessee State University
This will become the modern encyclopaedia for Alexander Technique teachers, bodywork practitioners of any kind, for the performing arts and for anyone interested in human nature.
Annedore Kleist. Berlin. Actor and Alexander Technique teacher
£45.00 GBP / $60.00 USD Free delivery in the UK and USA
Now available for pre-order at Handspring Publishing
Buy eBook >
Penelope Easten has been teaching Alexander Technique internationally since 2004.
Read More ›
for course
instructors Ordering for
your class? Get in touch >
You may also be interested in:
The Alexander Technique
Twelve fundamentals of integrated movement
£45.00 GBP / $60.00 USD Free delivery in the UK and USA
Now available for pre-order at Handspring Publishing
Buy eBook >In this comprehensive text and manual on The Alexander Technique, Penelope Easten offers a broad, new theoretical framework of how integrated movement occurs, including ideas from recent science and practical explorations. The explorations are simple techniques that build on one another, to enable practitioners both to look after themselves in life and practice, and for use with clients to help them understand and integrate what Alexander Technique offers them.
The book emerges out of lessons taken by Penelope Easten between 1990 and 1994 with Miss Goldie, who worked alongside Alexander for thirty years and was closest to him. It presents a new interpretation of how Alexander developed the technique, and what happened next. Taking an evolutionary theme, Penelope Easten considers what movement capacity we have lost in Western culture and how we can re-access it by reawakening older, more balanced movement patterns. The twelve fundamentals of integrated movement described are all practical: biomechanics is one structural fundamental, while many others are aspects of perception and thinking. These are much more part of movement than is mostly realised, because optimal movement is organised around our awareness, focus and goals.
Part 1 introduces the twelve fundamentals, and how natural breathing emerges when they work together. Part 2 uses body-play, conscious guidance and control and physical pulls to bring all the musculature back into play. Part 3 explores how to let previously unknown integrated movements emerge out of a quiet system. The new scientific theories described and woven together explain how we can live in a flow of dynamic balance and help the reader accept these very different physical experiences.
Penelope Easten joined Elizabeth Larkam for Moved to Learn! in February 2021. Watch her fascinating presentation here.
Foreword
Preface
Acknowledgements
Part 1 The basics of fundamental movement
What has been lost and the twelve fundamentals of movement
The fundamentals of structure
The fundamentals of awareness and thinking
The autonomic nervous system – why we need to work from quiet presence and awareness
Finding the innate movements of breathing and walking
Part 2 Linking brain and body with explorations of physical integration
The Initial Alexander technique, and a new model of postural alignment
Single leg balance
Spatial relationships and use of the upper body and arms
Toned sitting – integrating the core muscles
Walking as you’ve never walked before
Alexander’s biomechanics for expansion of the upper body
Precise, springy alignment in sit to stand and “monkey”
Freeing the neck, and Alexander’s primary directions
Part 3 Living in a flow of dynamic balance
Catching a ball – inhibition in action
New models of coordination and learning
Embodied speaking
Relating and attuning to people for putting hands on others
References
Index
What Alexander Technique teachers say about Penelope Easten’s skills and approach:
“Penelope is a humble genius with an incredible depth of knowledge and creative flair, making her innovating work exciting and irresistible!”
Chris English Bristol, UK Alexander technique teacher and classical dressage rider and coach
“Penelope´s deep understanding of functional anatomy and complex brain processes are explained candidly and many anecdotal stories enliven the book making it easy and enjoyable to read.”
Sara Robledo, Mexico. Teacher of AT, Yoga and Pilates, singer/dancer
“An experiential, dynamic re-framing of FM Alexander’s principles, rooted in biomechanics, neurophysiology, decades of experience, and PLAY!”
Rebecca Poole c.AmSAT, m.ACAT, New York, NY.
“Alexander’s concepts of direction are taken to a new level, bringing about an incredible coordinative strength in carrying out activities. No other course of study has influenced me more in how I approach teaching my trainees, groups, and private students.
Brian McCullough, Director, Minnesota Center for the Alexander Technique and faculty Alexander Technique teacher at the University of Minnesota
No musician should be without this book. Read and study it and you will have the keys not only to wellness and reduced performance anxiety but also to enhanced musical technique and performance through an integrated and responsive body.
Alison P. Deadman PhD, teacher of the Alexander technique, Professor of Music at East Tennessee State University
This will become the modern encyclopaedia for Alexander Technique teachers, bodywork practitioners of any kind, for the performing arts and for anyone interested in human nature.
Annedore Kleist. Berlin. Actor and Alexander Technique teacher
Claim 10% discount off your copy of The Alexander Technique when you preorder using coupon code eastenprepub
Penelope Easten has been teaching Alexander Technique internationally since 2004.
Read More ›
You may also be interested in:
for course
instructors Ordering for
your class? Get in touch >