Who was Frederick Mathias Alexander?
The creator of the Alexander Technique.
He was born in Tasmania in 1869, the eldest of 8 children. Born premature his childhood was plagued by illness, one recurrent problem being asthma. He grew up on a farm, his education was scrappy because of his health but his village school teacher inspired in him a love of Shakespeare. His father worked with horses and they became his other passion. He rode, trained horses ( and gambled) from a child well into old age.
FM as he liked to be called left home at 17. He enjoyed amateur dramatics and playing the violin while working for a number of years in offices first in Tasmania and then in Australia. In the evenings he trained to become a recitor eventually forming his own one man touring Shakespeare Theatre Company. He began to experience problems with his voice during his beloved recitals and consulted doctors and voice specialists but to no avail. He was an independent man, slightly arrogant, his background teaching him to call on his own resources so he set out to solve the problem himself. He spent months in front of an arrangement of mirrors, observing himself at rest, talking, laughing and reciting. Because of the effect his work had on releasing the rib cage and freeing the diaphragm he was known as ‘the breathing man’.
His discoveries formed the basis for what we now call The Alexander technique. However he went on developing it for the rest of his life. Word soon got around that FM had ‘cured’ himself and others in the business with similar problems asked for his help. He started out explaining and subsequently showing them with his guiding hands how they too could help themselves.
He spent the next 6 years in Sydney and Melbourne passing on his skills before leaving for London in1904. He set off with glowing references from leading Australian doctors and the winnings of a substantial bet on the horses to pay for his passage and new life. He set up in London and taught his Technique until 1914, including starting a school, originally for children of his students ( he was a strong believer that the Technique belonged in the world of education as much or more than medicine). He then split his time between London and New York for the next few years. In 1931 he established the first training course while continuing to teach private pupils up until his death in 1955 aged 87.
During his lifetime he published 4 books:
Man’s Supreme Inheritance (1910)
Constructive Conscious Control of the Individual (1923)
The Use of the Self (1932) possibly his best work
The Universal Constant in Living (1942)