Voice Portfolio: Alexander Technique and Posture

Development of the Voice Portfolio:

Alexander Technique and Posture

Wednesday 1^st October 2014

Previously

     In our previous lesson, in developing our voices as actors, we were introduced to the ‘Alexander Technique’, and how this can have an effect on an individual’s bodily posture and vocal cords.  We were introduced to this technique and we looked at some detailed effects it can have on the human body.  We learnt that it is often used by actor’s, in their assistance as well, so it allow them to fully embody a different body posture and vocalised presentation, so they can embody their production character.   Having looked at what the aftereffects of this technique is capable of, I was eager to give the ‘Alexander Technique’ as try. 

     So as a class we all lied on the floor of our class room, while our teacher spoke to us throughout the entire experience.  Our teacher spoke to use in a matter where we could fully understand what we were meant to be feeling, and rectify any unnecessary within our body.  The purpose is to simply gain total relaxation and focus, so to achieve the feeling of infinity, so our minds can wonder and we can gain new feelings to embrace a new formation for our bodily posture.

     Now from previous work in college, I understood how to deliver a standing posture that “isn’t telling a story”.  By this I mean I wouldn’t be standing with a ‘straightened’ or ‘hunched’ back, or with ‘locked’ or ‘unlocked’ legs.  With these key elements in an individual’s standing posture it can tell the story of what they’ve been through and what type of life they live.  An example of a story would be, if the individual was standing with relaxed shoulders, and knees unlocked, and chin near to the chest, then that could emphasis as story of this character being a person who doesn’t take life to seriously, and likes to be relaxed.  That is one example of many stories someone could extract from someone’s standing posture, but there is another technique, which I learnt in the past and still comes in handy today, is what many performers and performing lecturers call ‘Actor’s Neutral’. 

Actor’s Neutral

     ‘Actor’s Neutral’ is where the individual take their standing posture, but takes it to a slightly emotionless outcome.  By this, the individual stands with their legs and feet in parallel link with each other, as well as keeping them hip width apart.  But most importantly is to keep your knees slightly unlocked.  By having knees only just unlocked it doesn’t give off as much of a story.  This, however, would be the complete opposite if their knees were locked, that way it could give off a story telling about their possible personality.  By this I mean, having locked knees, could tell observers/audiences that they might have a polite, and rather posh, storyline to their personality, linking to their posture.  So within ‘Actor’s Neutral’ keeping your knees slightly unlocked, gives off a good effect and doesn’t tell a story. 

     So that is how to achieve ‘Neutral’ in the lower half of your body, but the next step into achieving a full ‘Neutral’ effect, is through your upper body formation.  So, to begin with, your arms have to remain by your side, totally relaxed and have to give off nothing.  Even the shoulders have to stay relaxed and give off nothing, completely relaxed so, similarly to the ‘Alexander Technique’, it doesn’t result in any tension around the body.  Now, my personal favourite part in standing ‘neutral’ is, when it comes to the chest and the back.  When first being introduced to ‘Actor’s Neutral’, we were told to imagine that we had grown a pair of large, heavy, angel wings.  The reason being is because it gives off a grand effect of our upper body being pulled backwards to the ground, yet we could still maintain control over our standing formation.  So the end result for your chest should have a formation of coming out, and back only slightly leaning towards the back, but still maintaining your current standing form. 

     But the final step to achieving ‘Actor’s Neutral’ is the positioning of the head.  Now similarly to the chest and back formation, you would have to imagine that there is a piece of string attached to the top of your head and is pulling upwards, giving off a good effect of trying to stand upright, but the lower half of your body wants to move downwards slightly.  But to finish it all off, you have to have an expressionless/emotionless look in your facial features, to once again not deliver any story.  But of course you eye sight has to have a focus point, looking dead ahead of you locked onto that specific point, and ensure nothing distracts you and you achieve a full bodily posture, known as ‘Actor’s Neutral’.

Gaining a New and Unique Posture

     Going back to achieving a new standing posture, that wasn’t through the means of ‘Actor’s Neutral’, we could all achieve this through the ‘Alexander Technique’.  So whilst we lied on the floor, still expanding our imagination and wonder as to how we could achieve something new and unique.  I personally found the ‘Alexander Technique’ to be a really unique experience, I could really feel the change of mood, with not just my own, but the entire class room, as we could sense the relaxation changing to the focus of our key goal.  I could sense this through our breathing; we all began with heavy breathing, this really emphasised our desperate need for relaxing.  But once the element of focus was needed, and our teacher began the tutorial towards achieving a new posture, we could hear the breathing slowing down and we knew we achieved a decent amount of concentration. 

     Now linking back to the ‘Actor’s Neutral’ technique, once we returned to our newly found standing posture, ‘post-Alexander Technique’, and I could seriously feel the difference.  There was little to no tension around the body, and returning towards a similar ‘Actor’s Neutral’ position almost felt natural.  How we went from on the floor, to a new standing posture, was achieved through the use of a ‘spinal role up’.  A ‘spinal role up’ is achieved through the individual going on their hands and knees, then focusing on the base of their spine and rolling upwards to come to a standing position.  But what I liked the most, as I mentioned before, was when I came to a standing the standing position going into ‘Actor’s Neutral’ felt natural, and it instantly dawned on me that I had achieved in gaining a new standing posture.

     This new standing posture felt different and unique towards my own because I couldn’t feel any previous tensions.  Tensions in which I had gained through carrying my college bag, containing various amounts of equipment, which causes one shoulder to drop.  Without my shoulder dropping I could seriously feel a difference.  The difference was I was slightly out of my comfort zone.  My comfort zone consists of habits I have gained throughout my entire life.  One thing I thought was very clever, and interesting, when discussing as a class about the human beings posture is how we gained habits towards our posture.  I also learnt that to begin with, when were all in our infant years, as babies we all a perfect, polite, posture, but it over the years we gain habits which emphasis our key personality characteristics.  Some examples of posture habits would be an individual’s positioning of their feet and legs depending on how they walk, or the way they keep their shoulders and move their arms, either when walking or standing still.  While many people can gain skills into changing their standing posture at will so to emphasis their current state of emotion; but it takes real skill and practice towards fully embodying another individual, or type of character with similar posture characteristics, movement and reflect their specific type of character.  This is where the ‘Alexander Technique’ comes in handy for an actor.  

     Used professionally the ‘Alexander Technique’ can vastly assist an actor’s portrayal of a different character.  Without any elements of their own characteristics included in their performance, and can also allow them opportunities to succeed without having to go to extreme measures to achieve a realistic/convincing performance.  I for one strongly agree, should there be an argument stating that the ‘Alexander Technique’ is the best method used by actor’s to embody their specific characteristics of their specific character.  Because when I experienced the technique our goal was to use our imagination and achieve a completely neutral posture.  But with the right tutorial and more time to memorise the exact end result, post the technique, I do believe we could achieve the characteristic, and if lucky the characterisation, of our characters.

Summary

     So in summary I feel that the ‘Alexander Technique’ was a truly unique and extremely handy for future reference.  I do feel proud in gaining absolute relaxation and concentration towards this particular method.  Plus I do feel the end result, the newly standing posture, was a success and it linked my past experiences and further expanded my understanding towards to future of my acting abilities and techniques.