Who Was F. M. Alexander?
Frederick Matthias Alexander was a Shakespearean actor, born in Australia in 1869. As a young man, he developed a recurring hoarseness that threatened to end his acting career. He consulted doctors and vocal specialists to no avail, so he set out to find the cause of the problem on his own. After years of careful self-observation, he discovered that subtle movement patterns were 
causing excess strain on his vocal mechanism and interfering with the proper functioning of his voice. When he became conscious of these habits and learned to change them, his voice problem went away. Alexander resumed his acting career, and began teaching other actors what he had discovered. He found that verbal instructions alone were insufficient for explaining his experiences, so he began to use his hands to guide his students. His pupils enjoyed an improvement in the quality of their voices, and also noted improvements in their appearance and overall health. Today the Technique is recognized as being beneficial to anyone, no matter their profession.
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