Private Lessons
Lecture Demonstrations
Group Classes



Ruth Rootberg
Amherst, MA
(413) 687 7566
ruthrootberg@yahoo.com

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© Clive J. Mealey, www.mealey.com

 
My first lessons in the Technique were over 40 years ago with Alexander teacher and scientist Frank Pierce Jones at Tufts University. I remember standing in line at the cafeteria after a lesson and hearing my friends say: "You look taller." Although I did not continue Alexander lessons for many years, I felt I had been introduced to something very important, and that it informed all my other training.

When I left Tufts, I went on to study voice and opera. Through a series of life-changing moments, I sang in Switzerland and Chicago, and then went into clowning, puppetry, and acting. Then I became a designated Linklater Voice Teacher and Certified Laban Bartenieff Movement Analyst.

My second encounter with the Technique came while studying acting and continued while I taught voice at the Yale School of Drama. For a long time I was so enamored with the Alexander Technique as a means to improve performance that at first I ignored how it helped me to reduce my own pain and suffering. But since training to become an Alexander Technique teacher, I have resolved problems due to plantar fasciitis, chondromalacia patella, and the occasional neck and shoulder stiffness, not to mention unwinding the final vestiges of a fractured lumbar vertebra. In addition, after a prolonged respiratory illness, I discovered how I had been contributing to my wheezing. I had sufficient skill in the Technique by then and I was able to quiet my breathing, and have not had an episode like that again. To sum up, I call the Alexander Technique my personal antidote to middle age.

I teach private lessons and group classes, and have assisted people on the job in their place of work. I have given short courses in numerous music, dance and theatre departments in New England. I offer several free introductory lecture demonstrations annually, and am available to customize a lecture, master class or series of classes for your group.