Testimonials

Kristen McCarty, singer
I attended your workshop at UConn and I wanted you to know how much your class changed my voice. It was unbelievable. I went to the practice room on Friday and I sounded like a different person. My voice was open and free. It was beautiful. I have always had problems with tightening which created a pinched sound. Your class changed this in one hour.

Mary Hildbrand Nagler, professional puppeteer
I have discovered that moving into the areas you have shown us has helped me relieve the pain I have had for nearly two years.  By lengthening and moving into a more erect and balanced form, relief is found and I dear say, perhaps a healing. This has been great! I am getting stronger with less discomfort along the way.  I try to move into what comes naturally and it is less of a struggle and more of a co-operation with myself.  I move toward the natural state my body wants to be in.

I am ever amazed at how your hands can get my body to move into a different configuration, and relax, without a conscious act on my part!  I feel often as if I am listening in on a conversation.  If I try to help, it often hinders the operation, so I consciously step back and try to let go as I continue to listen.

Charles Dyson, competitive runner
I have been racing for many years and have had a measure of success for many of those years.  I set several varsity cross country course records, won the Manchester Road Race as a senior and set occasional age-group records in masters competitions.  I don’t consider myself a natural runner so I’ve tried to run smart.  The Alexander Technique has helped me do that.  The improvements include better form and more strength throughout the race.  Unlike in the past, I have been free of significant injuries.  I attribute this to my improved balance from studying the Alexander Technique.

Robert Reichert, lawyer
I have made a big change in my body image. I used to think of my back as pieces of fragile bone.  Now my back feels strong and solid like a beam and I feel at least one inch taller.  It’s nice to feel my body’s strength and not its fragility. 

In the gym I say to myself “lengthen and widen” and it helps me to  “resist the downward pull” of the weights.  I can feel myself standing and moving in ways that are both natural and correct. 

Heddy Lahmann, actor
Our work this semester has been so non-stressful and it has pushed me so far and changed me enormously.  I have learned things about myself I will take with me for the rest of my days.  As I continue to make the changes consistent my body is becoming more available to express the me who has been buried underneath the old tensions.

Mary Hildbrand Nagler, puppeteer

The Alexander Technique has helped me relieve the pain I have had for nearly two years. By lengthening and moving into a more erect and balanced form, relief is found and I dare say, perhaps a healing. This has been great!

Chris Hirsh, actor
The Alexander Technique has increased my ability to base my character work in my center, which is the most valuable place to begin.  I am connecting to my breathing on a much deeper level.  The AT training has greatly increased my sense of ease and balance on stage and allows me to do less.

I have been having great success with “what would it be like if this tension wasn’t there?”  It releases my muscles well and is not a command or a requirement.  I was able to release one shoulder fully last night and the size difference from side to side was remarkable.

I think I am starting to uncover yet another layer of when I am actually doing instead of allowing.  It is more muscular and quicker when I am forcing it.  More like liquid when it is allowed to happen.

Nick Dillenburg, actor
“Non-doing is not catching a ball.  It is asking your muscles to release with a certain stretch.  It is laying in constructive rest.  It is refraining from the “do” and then observing what happens in our bodies when we don’t.”

This all gets to the core of what I am working on as an actor, which is to do without trying so hard.  The audience doesn’t want to se me working hard, they want to connect.  Can I play and be happy more onstage?  Can I allow myself to be more vulnerable?  Alexander is one of the best avenues to opening up for me.

I can breathe again!  The work during my individual session was extremely helpful to find that deeper breathing.  I am starting to realize a deeper change within myself and it is reflected in my body.

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