Here are just a few celebrities who have benefited from Alexander Technique lessons…
Madonna, Victoria Beckham, Hugh Jackman, Dame Judi Dench, William Hurt, Kevin Kline, Paul McCartney, John McEnroe, Hilary Swank, Robin Williams, Julie Andrews, Paul Newman, Sting, Yehudi Menuhin, Jeremy Irons, James Galway, Pierce Brosnan, Ruby Wax
Past students of Alexander include John Dewey, Sir Stafford Cripps, Aldous Huxley, Nikolaas Tinbergen, Sir Charles Sherrington, Raymond Dart, George Bernard Shaw, Moshe Feldenkrais
John Cleese
"I find the Alexander Technique very helpful in my work. Things happen without you trying. They get you to be light and relaxed. You must get an Alexander teacher to show it to you."
Alan Rickman
“With the best intentions, the job of acting can become a display of accumulated bad habits, trapped instincts and blocked energies. Working with the Alexander Technique has given me sightings of another way... Mind and body, work and life together. Real imaginative freedom.”
Sir Colin Davis
“Forty years ago, after one of my concerts, Adrian Boult told me that if I continued to conduct like that I'd become a cripple, and that I must take lessons in the Alexander Technique. Today I am still having lessons - as with music, there is no end to the learning process. It affects not only the use of the body, but also one's views of oneself and one's behavior. For the aches and ills that come with the years, the Technique can work miracles."
Roald Dahl
Children’s author, 1.98m (6’5) tall
"The Alexander Technique works... I recommend it enthusiastically to anyone who has neck pains or back pain"
Andy Hunt
Striker for Charlton Athletic, London
“The Alexander Technique has given me a greater awareness of the way my body moves and the way tensions move through my body…It has helped me to play football with more confidence and has improved my coordination and balance.”
Medical research on Alexander Technique
Alexander Technique has been proved to help chronic back/neck pain and significantly, to maintain that improvement over time.
Click on the right to watch a short video produced by the British Medical Association about the effectiveness of Alexander lessons for chronic back pain.
After one year the trial group who had received 24 AT lessons reported an 86% reduction of days in pain.
Studies have also been conducted into the Alexander Technique for managing Parkinson’s disease. The European Parkinson’s Disease Association (EPDA) recommends the Alexander Technique as a complementary therapy.
Here is a readable article about the study: https://www.alexanderand.com/blog/2015/2/17/lighten-up-or-pull-up
Here a Parkinson’s sufferer in Toronto talks about how Alexander lessons have helped him to move better and become pain free.
“I can go and hang out the washing now without using a walking stick”
“97% of people with back pain could benefit by learning the Alexander Technique - it is only a very small minority of back pain sufferers that require medical intervention such as surgery. ”