Vineyard Missy - How You Stand, How You Move, How You Live: Learning the Alexander Technique to Explore Your Mind-Body Connection and Achieve Self-Mastery

ACCLAIM FOR Missy Vineyards

HOW YOU STAND, HOW YOU MOVE, HOW YOU LIVE

Missy Vineyard is an inspired and inspiring teacher, and her book about the Alexander Technique will help many people become aware of their own potential for self-mastery. How You Stand, How You Move, How You Live deserves a wide readership.

ALICE PARKER,

composer, conductor, teacher, founder and artistic

director of Melodious Accord, and board member of

Chorus America

For anyone interested in the mind-body connection and fascinated by the process of change, How You Stand, How You Move, How You Live is a gem. It is a rich addition to the Alexander literaturea book to be read slowly and savored.

JANE KOSMINSKY,

dance faculty, The Juilliard School, and president of the

Balance of Well-being, producer of pioneering videos

about the Alexander Technique

Missy Vineyard has been an Alexander Technique teacher for many years and now we get to reap the benefits of her research and work in this superb book. It is exceptionally useful as a way to enrich ones experience of the Alexander Technique.

JESSICA WOLF,

teacher of the Alexander Technique, The Art of Breathing in New York City and the Yale School of Drama

Simply by reading How You Stand, How You Move, How You Live, my mind quieted, my spine lengthened, my breath deepened. Through entertaining stories and clear directions for practice, Vineyard takes the beginning student or professional alike into the essence of the Alexander Technique. Her profound knowledge of neuroscience, years of study and teaching of the Alexander Technique, and deeply empathic and curious nature have led to a book which will serve students and teachers of anyone engaged in physical studies which investigate the physiological and psychological nature of the mind-body connection.

PEGGY SCHWARTZ,

professor of dance, chair of the dance program,

University of Massachusetts at Amherst, and former

chair, Five College Dance Department

A unique book in the Alexander literature, How You Stand, How You Move, How You Live examines in depth the mental processes needed for successful mastery of the Technique. Missy Vineyards unusual approach to the difficult subject of inhibition will give the reader many new and useful insights that significantly will enhance freedom and coordination.

PAUL GARNER,

clarinetist, Dallas Symphony Orchestra, and music

faculty, Southern Methodist University

Masterfully written and illustrateda must read for all students of the Alexander Technique.

JUDITH C. STERN, MA, PT, CTAT,

senior faculty, American Center for the Alexander

Technique, New York

An uncommonly clear introduction to the rationale for the Alexander Technique and the perfect accompaniment to hands-on Alexander lessons. How You Stand, How You Move, How You Live is an engaging invitation to explore the Alexander Technique as a way to inhabit our bodies more enjoyably over a lifetime.

FRANCES V. MOULDER, PHD,

sociologist and author of Social Problems of the Modern World

Missy Vineyard enlightens both the teacher and the student with her original thesis bridging the working principles of the Alexander Technique with current knowledge in areas of neuroscience, human behavior, performance and medical rehabilitation while bringing new meaning to the self-help book. How You Stand, How You Move, How You Live reaches beyond the typical Alexander Technique primer to shed light on the subtleties of human behavior with shrewd observation, original thinking, and rare honesty.

IDELLE S. PACKER, MS, PT,

certified teacher of the Alexander Technique and owner of

Body Sense, Inc., an integrative physical therapy practice in

Asheville, North Carolina

Having experienced Missy Vineyards teaching and read her fascinating book, I have no doubt that she has developed a most effective and insightful refinement of the Alexander Technique that all teachers and students would do well to study.

MICHAEL BLOCH,

author of F. M.: The Life of Frederick Matthias Alexander

How You Stand, How You Move, How You Live is at once an intellectual tour de force integrating knowledge from several disciplines and a practical guide to psychosomatic re-education. Theoretically informed yet thoroughly accessible, it makes fascinating reading. Contemporary interest in the representation and uses of the body will make this book very valuable to students of cultural studies as well as teachers and students of Alexander Technique. Missy Vineyard writes eloquently and from a position of mastery of her material.

MURRAY M. SCHWARTZ,

professor of literature and psychoanalysis, Emerson College

Vineyards book is particularly successful in two ways: Her description of the Alexander Technique is clear, comprehensive, compelling, and pragmatic. She has also made an important contribution to our appreciation of the value of the Alexander Technique through personal stories of challenge and accomplishment.

DAVID FELDSHUH, MD, PHD,

professor of theater, Cornell University, and artistic director,

Schwartz Center for the Performing Arts

How You Stand, How You Move, How You Live is a gem. It stands out among the growing number of books about the AT in the lucidity of presentation, as well as the precision in the discussion of the subtlety of AT. Both in the narrative and the self-experiments, the practice of AT is conveyed with clarity and immediacy.

SHIMON MALIN, PhD,

professor of physics, Colgate University

MISSY VINEYARD is one of the foremost master teachers of the Alexander Technique in the United States today. Vineyard is director of the Alexander Technique School New England (ATSNE), a three-year teacher-training program that she founded in 1987, and the author of numerous articles. In 1987 she cofounded AmSAT, the national professional society for Alexander teachers in the United States, and served as its first chairman. For the last twenty years she has devoted much of her schedule to teacher and postgraduate training, and to developing a unique, systematic curriculum for imparting the subtle hands-on skill that is the hallmark of the Alexander teacher. She maintains a busy private teaching practice, specializing in working with performing artists and children to enhance their artistic and athletic performance. Vineyard has two sons and two stepdaughters, and lives with her husband and two standard poodles in Amherst, Massachusetts.

To learn more or contact Missy Vineyard, visit her Web site at www.missyvineyard.com.

Many of the designations used by manufacturers and sellers to distinguish their products are claimed as trademarks. Where those designations appear in this book and Da Capo Press was aware of a trademark claim, the designations have been printed in initial capital letters.

Copyright 2007 by Missy Vineyard

Illustrations copyright 2007 by Matthew Mitchell

Some of the material in this book has been published in somewhat different form in AmSAT News.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publisher. Printed in the United States of America. For information, address Da Capo Press, 11 Cambridge Center, Cambridge, MA 02142.

Designed by Pauline Neuwirth, Pauline Neuwirth & Associates, Inc.

Set in 11.5 point Bembo by the Perseus Books Group