As an introduction to Cathy Madden’s perspective on teaching, here is an excerpt from her discussion of workshops she presented for the International Congress of the Alexander Technique 2011 in Lugano, Switzerland.
My Continuous Learning sessions at the Congress built on the theme I introduced in 2008 – deep play variations. The title reflects my preference for creating a learning situation that calls on the desire to learn, inviting curiosity to lead the enquiry. Deep play is full of trial and error, full of finding out that one thing accomplishes desire better than another. The teacher provides the learning environment, the feedback, the information, the model, etc.; and the emphasis of deep play is on the joy of discovering the new, more skilled way to do what you intend.
Here is an excerpt from my 2008 Congress paper:
Diane Ackerman’s book Deep Play synthesizes research on the characteristics of play. Play is how we – and many other animals – learn to perform our daily tasks. It is how we learn to survive, to socialise and to improve skills. In her book, she quotes the Dutch Historian Johan Huizinga who was interested in the play element in culture:
Play ‘is an activity which proceeds within certain limits of time and space, in a visible order, according to rules freely accepted, and outside the sphere of necessity or material utility. The play mood is one of rapture and enthusiasm, and is sacred or festive in accordance with the occasion. A feeling of exultation and tension accompanies the action’ (Ackerman 1999, p. 3).…
If we use this definition of play … every Alexander Technique class, workshop and lesson is play. (Madden 2009, pp. 82–83)
Ackerman’s designation of “deep” play emphasises that play can facilitate significant, i.e. deep, change.
Cathy’s joy and fascination with the Alexander Technique is with its practicality and effectiveness. With the clear information it offers on how we organize our responses, and a repeatable step-by-step learning process that increases our ability to carry out our ideas, it is a simple and potent tool. On learning how effectively this learning process is, one of Cathy’s students exclaimed, “Why didn’t they give us a manual when we were born?!!”
A favorite quote of Cathy’s comes from A.R. Alexander, brother of the man who developed this process, “The hallmarks of the Alexander Technique are creativity, spontaneity, adaptability to change.”
(Note: Photo Credit :Joanna DeGeneres)
Biographical Information
Cathy Madden is Principal Lecturer for the University of Washington’s Professional Actor Training Program, Director of the Alexander Technique Training and Performance Studio in Seattle, and Associate Director/Research Director for BodyChance (Japan). She is a regular guest teacher for Alexander Technique training schools and Arts organizations in Australia, England, Germany, Japan, Scotland, Switzerland, and the United States. She was a founding member of and is a former Chair of Alexander Technique International. She has been featured as a Congress Teacher at International Congresses of the Alexander Technique multiple times, most recently in Lugano in 2011.
Madden studied the Alexander Technique with Marjorie Barstow (first graduate of F.M. Alexander’s first training course) for nearly 20 years and served as her assistant in workshops in the U.S.A. and Europe. She has a B.A. in Theatre Arts from Penn State, and an M.A. from Washington University in St. Louis in Drama and Literature, with additional graduate study at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Her published articles on Alexander Technique pedagogy appear in Congress Papers, Direction Magazine, and Theatre Topics.
Cathy’s well-known abilities to observe and analyze movement in relationship to artistic performance has made her a popular coach in Seattle and internationally for musicians and dancers, speakers and teachers as well as actors. She was a featured presenter at Freedom to Act 2012, an inaugural conference on Acting and the Alexander Technique in New York and will present for Freedom to Act 2013. She was Keynote Speaker for the Alexander Technique and Performing Arts Conference in Melbourne in September 2012. With the former Chairs of the organization, she presented the Keynote Address for Alexander Technique International’s 20th Annual General Meeting.
She remains active as a director. While studying with Marjorie Barstow in Lincoln, Nebraska, she was Founder and Artistic Director of Washington Street Players Place, a theatre company that devised new work, and explored the application of the Alexander Technique to acting training and performance. She is currently Theatrical Director for Lucia Neare Theatrical Wonders, 2012 recipient of the Seattle Mayor’s Office Arts Awards(http://www.lucianeare.org/). Her most recent productions at the University have been At the Inland Sea, Lear’s Daughters, The Mill on the Floss, The Portrait The Wind The Chair, The Mischiefmakers, Mother Teresa is Dead, Far Away, Bold Girls, and Two Sisters and a Piano. She has recently been working with playwright Connie Amundson on the development of her new play, Mr. and Mrs.
New projects for her include developing a workshop, Science and the Art of Communication, with University of Georgia Ph.D. student Alyssa Gehman and the development of a Corporate Coaching Package.
Bibliography
Ackerman, D. (1999). Deep Play. Vintage Books: New York.
Madden, C. (2009). Teaching as deep play and teaching in activity. The Congress Papers: From Generation to Generation, Proceedings of the 8th International Congress of the F. M. Alexander Technique, Lugano, Switzerland, 10–16 August 2008, Volume 2, pp. 81–94. STAT Books: London.
FOR FULL CV, PLEASE CLICK HERE
.
My Continuous Learning sessions at the Congress built on the theme I introduced in 2008 – deep play variations. The title reflects my preference for creating a learning situation that calls on the desire to learn, inviting curiosity to lead the enquiry. Deep play is full of trial and error, full of finding out that one thing accomplishes desire better than another. The teacher provides the learning environment, the feedback, the information, the model, etc.; and the emphasis of deep play is on the joy of discovering the new, more skilled way to do what you intend.
Here is an excerpt from my 2008 Congress paper:
Diane Ackerman’s book Deep Play synthesizes research on the characteristics of play. Play is how we – and many other animals – learn to perform our daily tasks. It is how we learn to survive, to socialise and to improve skills. In her book, she quotes the Dutch Historian Johan Huizinga who was interested in the play element in culture:
Play ‘is an activity which proceeds within certain limits of time and space, in a visible order, according to rules freely accepted, and outside the sphere of necessity or material utility. The play mood is one of rapture and enthusiasm, and is sacred or festive in accordance with the occasion. A feeling of exultation and tension accompanies the action’ (Ackerman 1999, p. 3).…
If we use this definition of play … every Alexander Technique class, workshop and lesson is play. (Madden 2009, pp. 82–83)
Ackerman’s designation of “deep” play emphasises that play can facilitate significant, i.e. deep, change.
Cathy’s joy and fascination with the Alexander Technique is with its practicality and effectiveness. With the clear information it offers on how we organize our responses, and a repeatable step-by-step learning process that increases our ability to carry out our ideas, it is a simple and potent tool. On learning how effectively this learning process is, one of Cathy’s students exclaimed, “Why didn’t they give us a manual when we were born?!!”
A favorite quote of Cathy’s comes from A.R. Alexander, brother of the man who developed this process, “The hallmarks of the Alexander Technique are creativity, spontaneity, adaptability to change.”
(Note: Photo Credit :Joanna DeGeneres)
Biographical Information
Cathy Madden is Principal Lecturer for the University of Washington’s Professional Actor Training Program, Director of the Alexander Technique Training and Performance Studio in Seattle, and Associate Director/Research Director for BodyChance (Japan). She is a regular guest teacher for Alexander Technique training schools and Arts organizations in Australia, England, Germany, Japan, Scotland, Switzerland, and the United States. She was a founding member of and is a former Chair of Alexander Technique International. She has been featured as a Congress Teacher at International Congresses of the Alexander Technique multiple times, most recently in Lugano in 2011.
Madden studied the Alexander Technique with Marjorie Barstow (first graduate of F.M. Alexander’s first training course) for nearly 20 years and served as her assistant in workshops in the U.S.A. and Europe. She has a B.A. in Theatre Arts from Penn State, and an M.A. from Washington University in St. Louis in Drama and Literature, with additional graduate study at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Her published articles on Alexander Technique pedagogy appear in Congress Papers, Direction Magazine, and Theatre Topics.
Cathy’s well-known abilities to observe and analyze movement in relationship to artistic performance has made her a popular coach in Seattle and internationally for musicians and dancers, speakers and teachers as well as actors. She was a featured presenter at Freedom to Act 2012, an inaugural conference on Acting and the Alexander Technique in New York and will present for Freedom to Act 2013. She was Keynote Speaker for the Alexander Technique and Performing Arts Conference in Melbourne in September 2012. With the former Chairs of the organization, she presented the Keynote Address for Alexander Technique International’s 20th Annual General Meeting.
She remains active as a director. While studying with Marjorie Barstow in Lincoln, Nebraska, she was Founder and Artistic Director of Washington Street Players Place, a theatre company that devised new work, and explored the application of the Alexander Technique to acting training and performance. She is currently Theatrical Director for Lucia Neare Theatrical Wonders, 2012 recipient of the Seattle Mayor’s Office Arts Awards(http://www.lucianeare.org/). Her most recent productions at the University have been At the Inland Sea, Lear’s Daughters, The Mill on the Floss, The Portrait The Wind The Chair, The Mischiefmakers, Mother Teresa is Dead, Far Away, Bold Girls, and Two Sisters and a Piano. She has recently been working with playwright Connie Amundson on the development of her new play, Mr. and Mrs.
New projects for her include developing a workshop, Science and the Art of Communication, with University of Georgia Ph.D. student Alyssa Gehman and the development of a Corporate Coaching Package.
Bibliography
Ackerman, D. (1999). Deep Play. Vintage Books: New York.
Madden, C. (2009). Teaching as deep play and teaching in activity. The Congress Papers: From Generation to Generation, Proceedings of the 8th International Congress of the F. M. Alexander Technique, Lugano, Switzerland, 10–16 August 2008, Volume 2, pp. 81–94. STAT Books: London.
FOR FULL CV, PLEASE CLICK HERE
.