Learning to optimize their instruments  – sound, breath, movement and imaginative processes – is just one of the many ways Alexander’s discoveries serve performing artists. Using this process only happens in the “now”, hence it lends an immediacy to fuel stage presence. The accumulation of benefits facilitates the connection between what a performer intends to do with the actual outcome. Using the Alexander Technique as a means to welcome the audience and the necessary energy for performance replaces any mistaken notions around anxiety. Moreover, performers who use this work to develop new skills augment their artistic growth.

A plenary discussion, chaired by Sarah Barfoot and Cathy Madden, explores how practitioners use the Alexander Technique to work with the Performing Arts. The discussion features Sarah Anne Barfoot ((MSTAT BACP, Group Therapist and Artistic Director of the Brighton based theatre company Tanglehead), Korina Biggs (MSTAT, Acting faculty at RADA in London, and The Performers College, Brighton.), Gemma Bodinetz (Director of the Lir Academy of Dramatic Art at Trinity College Dublin and Artistic Director of The Liverpool Everyman and Playhouse Theatres), Michael Frederick (Trained as an actor at The Bristol Old Vic Theatre School and since 1984, on the faculty at the Baron Brown Studio in Los Angeles—a Sanford Meisner-based acting school), Cathy Madden (University of Washington Professional Actor Training Program, Director of the Integrative Alexander Technique Studio of Seattle, Creative Collaborator for Lucia Neare Theatrical Wonders), Geordie MacMinn (Kristen Linklater-designated Voice Teacher and Alexander Teacher at the University of North Carolina School of the Arts).

The Alexander Technique is taught in all the major Performing Arts Institutions internationally. This panel brings together experts in the field for the first time to share ideas and knowledge from their respective practices.