Frederick Matthias Alexander was born in 1869 in Tasmania, the son of a farmer and horse-farrier. His chosen career was as an actor and reciter, but within a few years he developed voice problems leading to hoarseness and occasionally to complete loss of voice. Finding doctors unable to help, Alexander reasoned that it was something that he was doing whilst speaking which was the cause of the problem, and set about finding a solution. After years of acute observation and patient experimentation on his use of his body, he discovered a set of principles that in application removed his voice problem and greatly improved his health. Alexander’s friends and associates noted the remarkable change in him, and asked if he would be willing to teach them what he had learned. Thus began a career which was to take him to England, where he eventually settled. He spent the rest of his life (until 1955)promoting his work throughout the medical and educational world in the UK and USA, whilst continuing his teaching, training others to teach and writing his four books.
“You translate everything, whether physical, mental or spiritual, into muscular tension.”
F.M. Alexander