Alexander Technique Classes Chicago - Introduction to the Alexander Technique

Introduction to the Alexander Technique

ABOUT THIS EVENT

Event Category

Fitness & Wellness

Event Overview

Join teacher Andrew McCann for this introduction to the Alexander Technique. Learn how the Alexander Technique brings our attention to the unconscious patterns of mind and body that shape our everyday behavior and impact our sense of well-being. We will begin with a brief talk on the main ideas informing Alexander lessons, look at some of the scientific research behind the Alexander Technique, and then demonstrate how Alexander lessons help raise awareness and give you helpful, constructive strategies for change.

Why the Alexander Technique?

Whatever its other benefits, the modern world is hard on our bodies. And while our activities are often stimulating to point of overstimulation, there's a repetitiveness that drills in poor habits of posture and movement. We consider it natural to develop discomfort as we age—though the age at which people complain of back, neck, arm, or wrist pain seems to get younger and younger.

The body doesn't change without the mind changing as well. When we sit all day, the body is neglected. The mind is on other things. Postures that are objectively terrible become familiar and strangely comfortable. Then when we try to change, even objective improvements feel weird. How do you change if you know what you're doing is bad for you, but everything else feels worse?

Come to this introductory class to find out!

Minimum age

All ages welcome

Prerequisites

The workshop is intended for ages 16 and older.

Cancellation Policy

Location

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MORE ABOUT YOUR HOST

Andrew McCann

I'm a professional violinist and teach the Alexander Technique privately. I have been certified by the American Society for the Alexander Technique since 2003. I live and teach in Andersonville, a north-side neighborhood in Chicago.

I have maintained a private Alexander Technique teaching practice in Chicago since 2004. I have presented Alexander Technique workshops at Monmouth College, Wheaton College, the University of Chicago, the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, Richmond University, Florida State, and the Tainan National University of the Arts in Taiwan, among others, and ran the Alexander Technique program at the Music in the Mountains Festival Conservatory, a training program for high school and college-age classical musicians, in 2014 and 2015.

I began studying the Alexander Technique in 1999 with the violist and Alexander teacher, Carol McCullough. Carol's dissertation examined the links between the Alexander Technique and Paul Rolland's Teaching of Action in String Playing. From 2000 to 2004, I trained as an Alexander teacher with Joan and Alexander Murray at the Alexander Technique Center Urbana. Joan and Alex Murray are known for developing the Dart Procedures, an innovative process that explores developmental movement as it relates to the Alexander Technique. In 2013-2014, I was assistant faculty at the Alexander Teacher Training in Chicago (ATTiC).

As a violinist, my theater credits include Aladdin (2017) and Newsies (2014 & 2016) for Broadway in Chicago, the Chicago Shakespeare Theater’s productions of Sense and Sensibility (2015), Gypsy (2014), Sunday in the Park with George (2012), and Follies (2011), and Victory Gardens Theater’s Signs of Life (2013), and A Little Night Music (2012) at Writer’s Theatre.

I'm a tenured member of the Festival Orchestra at the Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music in Santa Cruz, CA. I have performed in a duo with Grammy-award winning and founding eighth blackbird violinist Matt Albert, including an appearance at the 2009 Ojai Music Festival. I have performed with the New Millennium Orchestra of Chicago, Matt Ulery, ensemble dal niente, Spektral Quartet, the International Contemporary Ensemble (ICE), Contempo, eighth blackbird, and the International Chamber Artists. And I have appeared as a back-up musician with Susan Boyle on the Oprah Winfrey Show, and in concert with Marco Antonio Solis, Jay-Z and Mary J Blige.

I received a Masters of Music from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, studying violin performance with Sherban Lupu. I spent two years studying privately with Jorja Fleezanis, former Concertmaster of the Minnesota Orchestra. I earned my Bachelor of Music and Bachelor of Arts (history, highest honors) from Oberlin College and Conservatory, where I studied with Gregory Fulkerson. The first teacher to mention the Alexander Technique to me was my wonderful high school violin teacher, Lee Snyder, at the Settlement Music School in Philadelphia, PA.

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