What is the relationship between Art and the Alexander Technique?  Is the Alexander Technique an art form?  Does practising the Alexander Technique make one an artist?  Is there any truth to Alexander’s statement that his work requires ‘the eye of an artist’ or was it just wistful romanticism?  Precise answers to these questions depend on our theoretical framework.

In previous workshops and articles, I have presented an introduction to the philosophical work of Susanne Langer (1895-1985) and made the case that Langer’s Theory of Mind provides a strong modern philosophical foundation for the Alexander Technique:  what it is, how it works, why it works.  Susanne Langer gives us a modern vocabulary to discuss the most challenging aspects of the Alexander Technique and frees us from Alexander’s own idiosyncratic language.

This workshop will focus on Susanne Langer’s theories of aesthetics and art.  Here I will make the case that yes, indeed, the Alexander Technique is a unique form of art wherein the medium of the work is the artist themselves.  The workshop will begin by providing tangible, practical, actionable definitions for art, artmaking, and creativity.  From these theoretical foundations we will move on to experiential activities that explore how thinking of ourselves as artists creating images of living impulses can change the way we move through our daily activities.

Students and seasoned teachers alike will engage with familiar ideas in new ways and may discover avenues of investigation about the Alexander Technique and themselves they had not previously considered.