Course Structure and Content

Best experienced and learned in a studio setting, with room to move and hands-on instruction, the Technique is a somatic (of the body) practice and is defined in OSU course listings as a laboratory. Each 90-minute laboratory (class) has three components: Constructive Rest, AT Talk, and Thinking-in-Activity -- approximately 30 minutes each.

Constructive Rest develops kinesthetic perception and body awareness, AT Talks present Body Mapping concepts and understanding of Technique principles via lectures, and Thinking-in-Activity is an application of concepts and principles.

For the beginning seven to eight weeks of the semester, Thinking-in-Activity includes: standing, sitting, moving in-and-out-of-chairs, reaching for objects, walking, talking using computers/cell phones/devices and walking stairs. During the second half of the 14-week term, a Master Class format is used. Students sign up for a 15-minute Alexander Technique lesson with the instructor, selecting the activity of most interest to them: dancing, singing, playing a musical instrument, walking, skateboarding, use of a computer, conducting, runway modeling. The possibilities are varied and many.  Each Master Class has two lessons, with all students taking part in the lesson, providing the student being coached with feedback.

The first year of teaching the course, students had to submit weekly written responses, and were instructed to: reflect on daily life use of the Technique principles, analyze class experiences and record thoughts about the required readings.

During the next academic year, with delivery mode 100% online, additions were made to the weekly assignments. In-person studio classes supply a rich, multi-faceted somatic experience, and a year of flat-screen learning made it imperative to find other resources that could supply as full an experience of the Technique as possible. Readings, podcasts, blogs and videos were posted, with writing prompts and ways to engage with the resources and think about the content.

Now returned to in-person classes, enhanced assignments and updated resources have been kept, with new ones added as discovered.

"What could have been an onerous and difficult academic year (2020-2021) turned into something quite different, thanks to students willing to make the best of it, and an international collegial community rallying around the challenges," McCullough explains. "Opting for synchronized classes, we were able to approximate the important community-building essential to learning the Technique.  The extra week of spring break in 2019 was spent attending online meetings, planning sessions and training workshops. Colleagues of Alexander Technique online instruction offered their services free of charge, a great boon to my preparations for the rest of the semester, and as it turned out, the following academic year, as well. (Thank you, Mio Morales and Jennifer Roig-Francoli.)"