Biographical entry
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Bright Sparcs
Biographical entry
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Alexander, Frederick Matthias (1869 - 1955) |
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| Educator and Therapist | |||
| Born: 20 January 1869 Table Cape, Tasmania, Australia. Died: 10 October 1955 London, England. | |||
| Frederick Matthias Alexander, initially trained as an actor, developed the 'Alexander Technique' in the early 1900s to solve the vocal problems that continually hindered his stage career. This Alexander technique is now used by many people around the world to rid of their bodies of tension and stress. Alexander never obtained any formal medical or scientific training. |
Career Highlights | ||||||||||||||||||
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With a strong love of the theatre and Shakespeare, Frederick Matthias Alexander left his Tasmanian mining job to take up acting lessons in Melbourne. It was here he learnt the importance of controlled breathing, proper posture and voice projection. Alexander spent a few years in New Zealand in the early 1890’s improving his skills and further developing his belief that correct posture was the key to maintaining top physical, emotional and spiritual health. He returned to Melbourne in 1894 to teach stage skills as well as his posture theories and moved to Sydney in 1899. As his beliefs were gaining support in Australia, Alexander moved to London (1904) to reach a wider audience. In 1910 he produced his first major publication "Man’s Supreme inheritance" which outlined what is now known as the Alexander technique. Alexander’s reputation grew and soon he had many pupils, often famous ones including Aldous Huxley and George Bernard Shaw, in Europe and in the United States of America. When World War II broke out Frederick Alexander moved his school to Massachusetts and continued to teach and write books on the subject even as its popularity began to diminish slightly. Alexander’s achievements were praised by the 1973 Nobel Prize (Physiology/Medicine) winner, Professor Tinbergen as "one of the true epics of medical research and practice".
Chronology
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Published by The University of Melbourne eScholarship Research Centre on ASAPWeb, 1994 - 2007 Originally published 1994-1999 by Australian Science Archives Project, 1999-2006 by the Australian Science and Technology Heritage Centre Disclaimer, Copyright and Privacy Policy Submit any comments, questions, corrections and additions Prepared by: Acknowledgements Updated: 26 February 2007 http://www.asap.unimelb.edu.au/bsparcs/biogs/P000993b.htm |