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"We must cultivate...the deliberate habit of
taking up every occupation with the whole mind, with a living desire to
carry each action through to a successful accomplishment...."
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The Performance School was begun in Seattle,
Washington, USA in 1986 by seven Alexander Technique teachers who trained
primarily with Marjorie L. Barstow of Lincoln, Nebraska, USA. Ms. Barstow,
who was the first graduate of F. M Alexander's first teacher training
program, has long been recognized as a master teacher of the
Technique.
Marj developed an approach to the Technique that
emphasized students taking the responsibility for organizing their own
learning. She clearly and consistently presented the principles of the
Technique, while providing a framework that allowed students to find their
own path to understanding and embodying those principles. We began The
Performance School in part because we felt the direction Marj brought to
the Technique was vital to its continued growth. We wanted a way to
combine teaching the Technique with our own interests in exploring the
"new field of inquiry" that Alexander believed his work opened up. We
designed the training course to provide students a broadly based education
in the Alexander Technique, with a special focus on working with
performance, both professional performers and people performing their
everyday activities. We also wanted to provide a place where performers
and others who did not necessarily intend to become Alexander Technique
teachers could study intensively, and a place for continuing education
where students, teachers and teachers in training could explore the
special challenges of teaching the Technique in a performance
context.
Currently The Performance School provides
teacher education
in Seattle. The faculty also offer
classes and workshops in the Alexander Technique and related fields.
Through this web site we hope to continue to study the nature of human
performance from the perspective of the work of FM Alexander.
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