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Copyright of Mediterranean Nursing & Midwifery is the property of Galenos Yayinevi Tic. LTD. STI and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Purpose: Studies show that upper-crossed syndrome causes a decrease in health and quality of life (QoL) in affected people due to various physiological and psychological complications. Considering the high prevalence of upper crossed syndrome, this study investigates the effectiveness of the Alexander technique on physical and mental dimensions of QoL in young men with upper crossed syndrome. Methods: We assigned 24 male participants (aged between 19-25 years) into two groups (experimental and control) using a convenience sampling method. We used the short form of health survey-36 to evaluate the physical and mental aspects of their health. After measuring the desired variables of all participants in the pre-test stage, the participants of the experimental condition completed 12 training sessions of the Alexander technique over six weeks. We used analysis of covariance and correlated t-test to analyze the results. Results: There was a significant difference between the physical dimension of QoL in the experimental condition after applying the Alexander technique intervention compared to the control condition (P

Purpose: Studies show that upper-crossed syndrome causes a decrease in health and quality of life (QoL) in affected people due to various physiological and psychological complications. Considering the high prevalence of upper crossed syndrome, this study investigates the effectiveness of the Alexander technique on physical and mental dimensions of QoL in... [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Alexander Technique (AT) is a somatic method often employed by musicians, including pianists, which teaches its students to become consciously aware of their own postural behavior while carrying out various tasks. Little research has been conducted as to whether, and if so, how the AT affects the posture of pianists while they are playing the piano, and quantitative measurements of their postural angles have not yet been taken. The purpose of this study was to determine the effects of an intervention consisting of 10 AT lessons on pianists' postural angles while playing, and to find out if the effects were still evident 4 weeks later. The following postural angles were measured before and after the intervention: craniovertebral angle, head tilt, head–neck–trunk angle, trunk angle, thoracic angle, thoracolumbar angle, and lumbar angle. There were significant effects of the intervention such that the craniovertebral and head–neck–trunk angles were found to have increased, and trunk, thoracic, and thoracolumbar angles were found to have decreased both immediately post-intervention and 4 weeks later. The AT appears to be a viable method of altering postural behavior while playing the piano, as seen in an overall pattern of spinal extension. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims to show how Alexander Technique (AT) can serve as a tool in embodied learning processes. The use of AT was explored with a group of 21 students, seven teachers, and three AT teachers who were practicing and performing musical theatre repertoire. Principles of action research methodology informed the projects. The research found that AT offered increased awareness of connections between thoughts, body and environment. Knowledge in embodied learning processes empowered the students in terms of better observation and rehearsal routines. We argue that these results might have implications for the field of embodied teaching and learning. Furthermore, the results may offer an invitation towards increased focus on embodiment in learning experiences within other fields as well.

Somatic practice gives agency back to the body, allowing it to reconfigure itself, thus integrating the mind into an empowered body. Yet, I question whether the reliance on individualism, humanism, scientific study, authentic movement, and liberatory processes reinforces and normalizes racially biased behaviours, attitudes and theorization. An autoethnography of sorts, this article puts in conversation my embodied and theoretical experiences with my own internalization of whiteness. Somatics, in essence, gives me the space to explore how I make sense of those feelings of discomfort and ease, uncertainty and confusion. Does my embodied experience somehow reflect my unconscious day-to-day enactments of white vulnerability? Do I expand into, seeking and sensing stability? Or rather, do I actively and unconsciously withdraw from discomfort? Do somatics reaffirm or dismantle my whiteness? I ask within the intrapersonal, immediate and ephemeral experience, is my white American fragility revealed through somatic practice? [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Somatic education in professional instrumental teaching is an emerging field in Spanish conservatoire culture. Although we find that the Alexander Technique was included in some European institutions since the middle of the XXth Century, this was not the case in the Spanish context. By means of a qualitative study, through document analysis and fifteen in-depth interviews with somatic teachers, the statutory frameworks of professional Piano studies and teaching plans related to somatic education in Spanish conservatoires, the principles that support them and the current practices that are undertaken in professional piano studies were analyzed. We found that there are eclectic approaches and practices in correlation with the background of the teachers in charge of the courses. Four main orientations can be described: somatic education per se; ergonomics and postural technique; body communication, training and technique; and mental and concentration control techniques. Further research to explore the interrelationships between somatic approaches and instrumental teaching would greatly benefit the field. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background and Aims Studies show that individuals with upper crossed syndrome have poor balance compared to healthy people for various reasons, including displacement of their center of gravity toward forward. This study aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of the Alexander technique on the static and dynamic balance of young men with the upper crossed syndrome.Methods In this quasi-experimental study, 24 subjects were purposefully selected and assigned to the experimental and control groups. The static and dynamic balance of the subjects were assessed by the Sharpened Romberg and timed up and go tests. The experimental group underwent 12 sessions of Alexander technique training during 6 weeks in individual and group sessions. The duration of individual sessions was 40, and that of group sessions was 60 minutes. The control group did not receive any training. During the training sessions, the subjects were taught the Alexander technique via manual guidance, as well as tactile, verbal, visual, and proprioception feedback. After collecting data, the data were analyzed using the analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) and paired sample t test. Results The study’s final results showed a significant difference (P

Copyright of Bulletin of Educational Research is the property of National Taiwan Normal University, Department of Education and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Background: Low back pain has negative effects on different aspects of the live. The present study was conducted to determine the effect of Alexander technique on quality of life in patients with chronic low back pain. Materials and Methods: This study is a single-blinded clinical trial that was performed on 80 patients with chronic low back pain in Shahid Beheshti hospital in Kashan in 2020. Patients were simple randomly assigned to control and experimental groups. In the experimental group, Alexander technique training was performed for 12 weeks, three sessions per week. The control group did not receive any intervention. The two groups completed the quality of life questionnaire before, immediately and one month after the intervention. Data were analyzed using ANOVA, Chi-square and independent and paired t-test in SPSS v=22 software. Results: The mean score of total quality of life and some of its dimensions (general health, physical health, social activity, physical pain, activity limitation) immediately after the sessions and one month after the intervention were significant in the experimental group (P0.05). The results of repeated measures ANOVA showed that the mean total score of quality of life of patients in the experimental group increased significantly over time (P

This article looks at how the practice of dance improvisation and somatic movement modalities inform and transform our experience of being in our bodies (via embodied knowledge, kinaesthetic awareness). In both individual and collective practice, these modalities offer alternative means for engaging with ourselves and others that allows us to transcend individual and social constraints within certain conditions. I discuss these practices as an ongoing process or state of freedom in the performative space, in daily "non-performative" life, in the many spaces in-between, and the conditions necessary to thrive. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses how somatic practices examine how physical movement influences cognition and how the mind and cognition impact movement. Topics include holistic movement and dance classes can improve the awareness of alignment and teach everyday activities; and Somatics is a general term for a number of physical awareness practices that train participants to notice the range of physical sensations.

Instructions to exert effort to correct one's posture are ubiquitous, but previous work indicates that effort-based postural instructions can impair balance control in older adults with and without neurodegenerative disease. Although less-studied, young adults are at high risk of injurious falls. How do different postural instructions influence static balance in young adults? Single-session, counterbalanced, within-subjects design. Twenty young adults briefly practiced three different ways of thinking about their posture, then attempted to employ each way of thinking while standing on springy foam for 30 s with eyes open. Relax instructions were used as a baseline between experimental conditions. Effort-based instructions emulated popular concepts of posture correction using muscular exertion. Light instructions aimed at encouraging length and width while reducing excess tension. Postural sway was assessed with an inertial sensor at the low back. Effort-based postural instructions increased path length and jerk of postural sway during quiet stance, relative to Light and Relaxed instructions. These results are consistent with previous work in older adults indicating that thinking of upright posture as inherently effortful impairs balance. Therefore, the common practice of instructing young adults to use effortful posture may impair their balance performance. • Brief postural instructions were given to young adults in a within-subjects design. • Postural sway was assessed with an inertial sensor worn at the low back. • Effort-based instructions increased sway, suggesting worse balance control. • Postural instructions based on Alexander technique did not increase sway. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present study was performed to determine the effect of the Alexander Technique on the intensity of pain in patients with chronic low back pain (LBP). This study is a clinical trial that was performed on 80 patients with chronic LBP in Kashan, Iran. Participants were randomly assigned in control and intervention groups. To assess the participants' LBP, a visual analog scale of pain (VAS-Pain) was completed by both groups. In the intervention group, in addition to routine care for LBP patients, the Alexander Technique was performed in three 60-min sessions per week for 12 weeks. The control group participants received routine care for LBP patients. The two groups completed the VAS-Pain scale immediately after and one month after the intervention. The results showed that there was no statistically significant difference between the two groups in terms of demographic characteristics and mean pain intensity score before the intervention (p > 0.05). Immediately after and then one month after the intervention, there was statistically significant differences between the two groups regarding the mean scores of pain (p < 0.05). The results of repeated measures ANOVA showed that, in the intervention group, the mean score of pain had decreased over time (p < 0.05). The results of the present study showed that the Alexander Technique was effective in reducing the intensity of pain among the participants. We recommend the Alexander Technique as a useful and effective intervention for reducing chronic LBP. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Following Shilling's arguments on body pedagogics in sociology, we show how the negotiation of epistemic concerns is central to our understanding of practices of embodied interaction. Using conversation analytic methods, we examine audio and visual data from recordings of tuition in the Alexander Technique to accomplished amateur musicians. Our analysis builds on previous research on the body in pedagogic contexts, and focuses on embodied and discourse practices through which imperceptible changes to the body are warranted, the management of recruitment and agreement to embodied change, and the use of embodied mimicry. We position our approach as a rapprochement between the concerns of the sociology of the body and interactional studies of embodied action. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article discusses the training processes for the actor by making a dialog with the Spinoza’s concepts of affects that lower potentia to Alexander’s bad habits ideas and Grotowski’s psychophysical blocks formulations. It comprehends that Alexander Technique is a tool to self-knowledge and to muscular freedom which is one of Stanislavski’s elements. We end up the article with a personal report of perceptive changes on the way of look and its influence on vocal emission and performance. KEYWORDS: affects; muscular freedom; Alexander Technique

El proceso de enseñanza y aprendizaje de un instrumento musical se encuentra intrínsecamente relacionado con el desarrollo de habilidades procedimentales, donde la adquisición de control en la ejecución de las acciones ocupa un lugar altamente significativo. Desde este punto emerge nuestra mirada hacia la Técnica Alexander (TA), donde mente-cuerpo trabajan de forma integrada. En el presente estudio examinamos la repercusión de su implementación en aulas de violín y viola, con relación al modelaje de comportamientos relativos a la ejecución e interpretación musicales mediante una tecnología de registro. Para ello, nos servimos del paradigma metodológico cualitativo, el cual se ajusta tanto a los objetivos de nuestra investigación como también a la fundamentación teórico-práctica de la TA, caracterizada por una visión holística. El estudio parte de un curso específico en dicha materia para profesores de enseñanzas elementales y profesionales de violín y viola. Tras su finalización, distintos docentes grabaron en vídeo sus prácticas pedagógicas implementando la TA, las cuales analizamos a través de nuestra propuesta de modelo analítico de la praxis de aula. Utilizando el software Atlas.ti para el tratamiento de los datos provenientes de los registros audiovisuales, los resultados revelan que los profesores sujetos de investigación incorporan variados aspectos de la TA en su acción pedagógico-didáctica de aula. Las conclusiones apuntan hacia un conjunto de potencialidades que la aplicación de la TA presenta en relación con el proceso de enseñanza y aprendizaje instrumental. /// The teaching and learning process of a musical instrument is intrinsically related to the development of procedural skills, where the acquisition of control in the execution of the actions occupies a highly significant place. From this point we turn our gaze towards the Alexander Technique (AT), where the mind-body is assumed to function in an integrated way. In the present study we examine the impact of its implementation in violin and viola classrooms, in relation to the modeling of specific behaviors to the performance and musical interpretation through a recording technology. To do this, we use the qualitative methodological paradigm, which conforms both to the objectives of our research as well as to the theoretical-practical foundation of AT, characterized by a holistic vision. The study starts from a specific course in this subject for elementary and professional teachers of violin and viola. After its completion, different teachers videotaped their pedagogical practices implementing the TA, which we analyzed through our proposed analytical model of classroom praxis. Using the Atlas.ti software for the treatment of the data from the audiovisual records, the results revealed that the professors subject to research incorporate various aspects of the AT in their pedagogical-didactic classroom action. The conclusions point to a set of potentialities that the application of AT presents in relation to the instrumental teaching-learning process.

This article is a reflection about the role of the Alexander Technique and its application and influence in vocal pedagogy. It is based on more than seventeen years of active teaching as a qualified Alexander Technique Teacher and as a professional singer, working alongside vocal pedagogues, teachers, students and professionals. Its objective is to reflect upon the role of body awareness, psychophysical and emotional consciousness, and wellbeing in the realms of vocal pedagogy and singing.

Countertechnique, a movement methodology developed by Melbourne-based, Dutch choreographer and former Artistic Director of Chunky Move Anouk van Dijk, is a method for training performing artists to move in any direction with ease and fluency. Van Dijk started to develop her own practice and methodology in the late 1990s, and she applies this method to her own choreographies and teaches it to professional dancers and dance students worldwide. A psycho-physical approach to performer training informed by the Alexander Technique and William Forsythe's space analysis, Countertechnique had a profound impact on twenty-six third-year dance students in 2020 at the Victorian College of the Arts (VCA), University of Melbourne. Following an intensive semester of classes and workshops with van Dijk and Countertechnique teachers, students reported an enhanced capacity to experiment, the enjoyment of full-bodied dancing, increased stamina, lower levels of pain and injury, and a deeper spatial awareness. In this interview with Carol Brown (Head of Dance, VCA), van Dijk discusses Countertechnique in relation to its founding principles, the local and global context, and specific dance tools that support performing artists to sustain long careers. Two interviews were conducted: one on 24 June 2020 in the middle of lockdown in Melbourne; and a second on 7 December 2020, when restrictions had eased thanks to Melbourne's successful elimination of community transmission of Covid-19. The interviews, edited together here, sought to capture the dynamic multi-dimensional contribution Countertechnique makes to the performing arts curriculum at tertiary level, and how it moves beyond being a 'technique' to support other areas such as composition, inter-disciplinary practice, partnering, improvisation, and voice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Acting and performance programs are shifting to respond to the variety of professional areas they serve. In this article, the authors discuss their integrative practice actor training based in 'groundwork'. While attempting to address a global demand for greater intercultural exchange and new technologies, how do Australian acting institutions move forward and provide students with relevant, contemporary training methods that respond to these demands? While original methods like Frederick Alexander's technique have found their place internationally during the 20th Century, it is foreign methodologies that dominate Australian actor training institutions. Robert Lewis, Dominique Sweeney and Samantha Dowdeswell embrace Australian voices, bodies, imaginations and creativity in the Charles Sturt University Acting and Performance course. Wiradjuri elders, as advisors in appreciating country, provide the foundation to develop an integrative pedagogy we are developing fusing non-Western practices like the Suzuki Method of Actor Training (SMAT) with original training aesthetics. Traditional Aboriginal theatre practitioners of the northwest of Australia refer to the gut as the connection to country. In actor training gut-like intelligence, centre or core, is regularly used when training performers to be present and responsive to the text, action and acting partners. The pathway to connect to country, through stomping or shuffling feet, is part of Aboriginal and Tadashi Suzuki's training, where the significance placed on the 'centre', and where the core plays an integral part of connecting self to place. The integrative actor training program at Charles Sturt University gives actors power and ownership of their work located in place. In this article, we discuss how our diverse backgrounds use 'groundwork' to anchor actors in an ever-changing world. Integrative practices looks to a conversation developing a synergy between the complementary and contradictory ideas in fluctuating and constant traditions; ancient and contemporary systems as we are grounded in country. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In practice, the work of F.M Alexander can sometimes facilitate, enliven or accentuate embodied experience and awareness (Dimon, 2015; Jones, 1976). It can also provide a means whereby the 'psycho-physical instrument of self' becomes more readily co-ordinated within its own system of organisation and simultaneously, in relation to whatever it encounters in the world. McCormack's (2013) reading of Dewey's "ethology of experience" is salient here, where experience is conceptualised as open-ended, affective, and 'radically experimental'. Our interest lies in the subtle, barely-perceptible difference/s that sometimes emerge/s when we contemplate/engage a thought, an object, a connection, or an encounter with a freshly-attuned, embodied instrument. Experiencing these differences might also point to some unexplored ways of being in, and coming-to-know, the worlds we inhabit and inquire into. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Three movement practitioners, Niamh Dowling, Miranda Tufnell and Lucia Walker, colleagues for over thirty-five years, come together to find ways to articulate how their individual practices have been informed by the common roots in their training as teachers of Alexander Technique. Each of them charts their unique journey in the application of this body of somatic work to create a range of pathways into theatre, dance, music, health, arts and community, and leadership training. Their individual paths have intersected over the years as students, teachers, co-teachers and collaborators. The article starts by examining our personal motivation to join an Alexander Technique teacher-training programme. It then follows our individual journeys as we seek to define the nature and purpose of our work and where best to position it. We witness each other's progress and share with each other our personal experience of creating new pathways, opening doors to embodied learning, of setting up new contexts to test, expand and enhance our practice and work. This brings us thirty-five years later to the territory of metaphor, language, training attention and looking to access the imagined and felt world. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An interview with physical therapist Judith C. Stern is presented. She explains the Alexander Technique as a mindfulness method of enhancing mobility, posture and alignment to treat people with medical conditions like musculoskeletal diseases and Parkinson's disease. She narrates how she started using the technique to treat her patients with chronic back pain. She cites other conditions that can be treated using the technique like chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and scoliosis.