Moving Meditation: The Alexander Technique for Performing Arts Students...and the Rest of Us!

Moving Meditation: The Alexander Technique for Performing Arts Students…and the Rest of Us! explores the intersection of creativity and the mind-body relationship through the Alexander Technique, an educational method by which individuals can increase creative thinking, live with greater levels of consciousness, and decrease physical pain and tension. The book begins with a chapter about creativity, habitual behavior, and transformation. The chapters that follow explore the mind-body relationship, introduce the Alexander Technique and its major principles, and provide strategies for embodying and practicing the work. Readers are challenged to explore basic procedures, including Body Mapping and breath work, in order to heighten awareness and increase safety and efficiency. In later chapters, actors, musicians, and dancers learn how they can benefit from the Alexander Technique. The closing chapter describes how readers can continue to develop their skills as they apply the Alexander Technique in their daily life. Moving Meditation is a critical resource that teaches performing arts students how to deepen their creativity, care for themselves, and practice daily intentionality. It is suitable for courses and programs spanning all areas of the performing and creative arts, as well as courses in communication and healthcare. Ellen Melamed is an artist-in-residence in the College of Fine Arts at the University of Arizona, where she teaches the Alexander Technique. At the UA College of Medicine, she is a lecturer in family and community medicine, director of the Medical Humanities program, and teaches narrative medicine to medical students at the UA Poetry Center. She holds a M.A. in theatre education from Teachers College, Columbia University. Melamed’s work aims to bridge the divides between practitioners, patients, and caregivers by exploring how performing and visual arts can encourage compassionate communication in healthcare. She has taught the Alexander Technique for more than 25 years and currently has a private practice in Tucson, Arizona.