A Draft Version of the Daily Dozen Audio CD is now Available for Purchase. Please go to the Check UP page for details!
Today we launch the Eginton Alignment site. Welcome to everybody visiting this site to read about our work! Many of you studied this alignment technique in an actors’ workshop and some of you learned about it through individual lessons, or a workshop for ‘actors and others’. For those of you who are new to this method: Eginton Alignment is a way to educate people about their physical structure, relieve pain and injury, deepen breath, increase coordination and elegance, and learn proper use of muscles and bones so that range of motion is broader. It’s simple, it works, and ultimately, it’s about putting the student in control of his/her body. There is a workshop coming up!
Free Sarasota Daily Dozen Workshop
July 13-29– full
What is the Daily Dozen and What does it Do?
The Daily Dozen is the fundamental series of exercises in Eginton Alignment. It re-aligns the bones of the body. As a result, a person finds a deeper level of muscular support, and the heavy surface muscles of the body, which sometimes become so tight that movement is constricted, soften and lengthen. As a result of this softening and lengthening a person finds more freedom in their joints and so achieves a broader range of motion. People immediately notice that their shoulders and their backs are less tense, and that their heads turn more easily side-to-side. When practiced over time, the Daily Dozen re-aligns bones and muscles so well that people often gain height and fully release themselves from chronic pain. Regardless of a person’s age: posture, coordination, balance, and expressivity in motion always improve. The Daily Dozen helps a person move more elegantly, and develop more control over back pain, posture, tissue pain, and injury recovery.It feels good to do, it is easy to learn, and once learned, the Daily Dozen takes only 20 minutes to complete at home. For details about the Sarasota Daily Dozen Workshop see the How to Study page.
move smarter, feel more
Perhaps you studied the Daily Dozen at Atlantic Theater, FSU/Asolo, Iowa, New College, in Paris, at ART/Harvard, or you may have worked with me in my private practice. But what perhaps you don’t know is that I actually began creating and using this technique to help me to improve my dance technique, speed recovery from major and minor injuries, and to help me to develop a ‘whole body’ voice. Then, before working with other actors and dancers, I began teaching privately to help non-performers recover from and avoid injuries, defuse bodily tension, and improve their alignment. In fact, I worked privately and one-on-one with non-performers for 4 years, before creating the class format of Eginton Alignment for the Practical Aesthetics Workshop Atlantic Theater program.
I taught the first group class at Atlantic Theatre in 1990, and have been developing and refining exercises into various series targeting different areas and issues of the body ever since. The Daily Dozen, as many of you know, is a bakers dozen of exercises that helps to align the bones and muscles of the body, free the breath, and increase range of motion. It also rapidly leads people into the Alexander Technique action of “freely, forward, and up”, by releasing the muscles of the neck as well as the large muscle groups of the body (for example the gluteus maximus, rectus abdominis, and trapezius) while simultaneously strengthening the deeper, more efficient core muscles of support (namely the iliopsoas, quadratus lumborum, transversus abdominis). Once the core muscles of the body are working properly, the hips, legs, and spine become freer, and it is easier to stand upright with lightness, breathe deeper, and move without pain. After this ‘good neutral alignment’ is achieved, performers and others find it easier to be expressive, and to feel at ease and in control of their bodies.
move smarter, feel more
Over the past 10 years or so several people have asked me if they could learn to teach this work. I didn’t feel ready to train others until 2007. I felt that my exercises would always be evolving (and they will) and honestly, I wasn’t sure how to translate what, over 20 years, had become dependable yet intuitive work in private and group lessons, into an analytic and repeatable set of technical tools that others could learn and rely on.
In 2007 Julianne Kusmierczyk, an Atlantic Theater NYU graduate and former dancer with gifted eyes and hands, convinced me to train her to teach the Daily Dozen and whatever else I felt ready to pass on. I was very fortunate to have Julie as my first student-in-training because she asked me hard questions about foundational concepts, anatomy, technical moves, and teaching philosophy. This helped me to codify not only the Daily Dozen and other series, but also the ethics with which all teachers of Eginton Alignment practice.
The Eginton Alignment Teachers Pledge
We help people become pain free, or able to manage their muscular, skeletal, and tissue pain. We will do everything we can to relieve pain and to teach people techniques to manage and relieve pain at home.
We help performers achieve their artistic and technical goals. We will focus on freeing performers from holding patterns and mannerisms in our coaching, so that they can access and maintain their unique talents on their own.
We support people’s autonomy over their physical goals and training. We will incorporate people’s ideas about how they want to learn and what they want to learn into their training plan.
We recognize people’s need for flexibility in scheduling and, ultimately, independence from an alignment teacher. We will accommodate work schedules whenever possible, and always teach towards the goal of the student becoming his/her own teacher.
We make sure that our classes and lessons are always practical, economical, and yield results. Eginton Alignment exercises will always be able to be done almost anywhere. They will never need special or expensive equipment. This method of alignment truly can be learned in group classes. People will have a clear experience of how these exercises can help them feel more at ease in their body, have better posture, be taller, and feel less pain – after one class. We will help people to achieve their goals as quickly as possible.
We practice excellence and guarantee our work. Eginton Alignment teachers are prompt, fully focused on their students, and responsive to student goals and questions. If a student expresses dissatisfaction with a lesson, we will refund their fee, or schedule a free lesson.
Having gone through a rigorous training process over two years, including a lot of practice teaching, Julianne became the first certified teacher of Eginton Alignment, in January of 2010. She now works in Los Angeles and New York City, and is an excellent teacher. I hope that you will find an opportunity to study with Julianne, and to enjoy her expertise, lively imagery, and playful nature.
There are five other people training to teach Eginton Alignment, each poised to work in an area of the United States. All five already contribute to the evolving technique, and use some of it in their teaching in universities, colleges, and theaters. This post is the public announcement of our teaching group. While Julianne is fully qualified to teach all aspects of Level 1 Eginton Alignment, other Teachers-in-Training may teach labs in the Daily Dozen without charge, and practice analytic and hands-on skills with volunteers, also without charge. If you would like to contact a teacher in your area, please check the Teachers page.
move smarter, feel more
This post is dedicated to the memory of John Bennett, who suggested this site years ago.
Photograph©Devereau Chumrau 2010
