Hurdles to Good Use
Monday February 22, 2010 • Filed in: Alexander Technique
track athlete, ashley lodree. photo: copyright ingrid pape-sheldon
A photo my wife, Ingrid Pape-Sheldon, made of hurdle athlete Ashley Lodree a few years ago for Seattle Woman Magazine. The remarkable thing from the viewpoint of the Alexander Technique is how relaxed Ms. Lodree seems. The head and neck in particular show none of the unnecessary stress and strain that often occurs in a race like this, which begins and ends in the space of seconds. Granted, this was done during a photo shoot, yet Ingrid tells me that she did take off fast and ran a while before returning to try it again. Essentially, she was practicing her start while Ingrid made photos.
It is no accident that the Alexander Technique places such strong emphasis on leaving the head and neck free before we begin something and then continuing to leave the head and neck free as we do something. If we have any hope of shifting the quality of an act, the beginning is where we must start, because it is there where the pull of ingrained habits are most likely to take over.
More photos from this series can be found on my wife’s blog.