Actors take Alexander Technique lessons to:
* Let go of interfering tension patterns;
* Develop awareness of their unconscious habits and reactions;
* Do taxing things without injuring themselves;
* Move elegantly;
* Learn to embody different characters;
* Free their voice;
* Overcome stage fright;
* Push reset so they don’t drag the past into the present;
* Make all the emotions, including joy and heartbreak, ripple through their performance;
* Develop peak state.
I charge $100 per lesson (which usually lasts 45 minutes). Bring a friend or two at no extra charge. Call me at 323-528-5814 or email me at lukeisback@gmail.com. I am located half a block from Beverly Hills.
For more information, please see these links:
Here is my story with the Technique.
September, 2010
“What’s the matter, Luke?” asks the hostess at the end of the meal. “You haven’t said anything inappropriate all meal? We even have two single women here.”
I am at lunch with friends. I’m usually the king of inappropriate, but these days I’m different. I’m calm. I’m poised. I’m at ease.
“Two years of Alexander Technique,” I say. “I used to be easily triggered. I was stuck in startle response and when I’d get a stimuli, I’d go into fight or flight. My habitual reactions didn’t serve me well. I could shut up with great effort or I could interact from a disturbed place. Those were my choices. Because my head-neck relationship was disturbed, my whole self was disturbed. Now I’ve found freedom and poise.”
When I was a kid, people said I looked like a Holocaust survivor. I was that depressed.
Even after years of therapy, I was still off.
Through lessons in the Alexander Technique, however, I learned to let go of many of the unhelpful ways I responded to life. I’m no longer stuck in a 24/7 pattern of fight or flight. I’m not compressing myself, not shoving all my organs and frustrations together in a downward cycle of needless tension and reduced functioning. Because I am more competent and graceful with the tasks of daily life, I’m not as angry with myself and with others.
Because I am more at ease, I pick fewer fights and I don’t need my fists as much.
These days, I’m OK with myself. I’m OK with the way I walk and talk, sit and stand, blog and blunder. I no longer pull down when I feel awkward and hence my feelings of dis-ease are reduced. I rarely stiffen my neck these days and thereby cramp my entire body (there are more joints in your neck than any other part of your body, hence if you tighten there, you will wrap your body in a straight-jacket of bad habits).
I’ve learned to let go of the layers of unnecessary tension that cramped me for decades and consequently I enjoy more freedom and poise, peace and joy.