Contact:

Laurie Currie
16 Red Brook Road
Mahopac, NY 10541

845 621 4677
LCurrie@aol.com

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About Laurie

My Qualifications
I received my training at the American Center for the Alexander Technique in New York City, a 3-year, full-time program requiring 1600 hours of study. I obtained my teaching certification in 1993. I am also certified by the American Society for the Alexander Technique, the national organization for Alexander teachers.

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I started dancing at an early age, and I have explored many different forms of dance and movement over the years. I encountered the Alexander Technique in 1987 by way of modern dance and my own personal curiosity. My first Alexander teacher had absolutely no dance experience, yet she understood how the body worked - or could work - better than anyone I had ever met. The lessons were enormously helpful and the process was fascinating. She taught me simple, practical tools that brought out the best in me, in terms of dancing, and in many other unexpected ways. I became better equipped to meet a variety of stressful situations in a more balanced, light and free way in myself. That capacity kept improving with each lesson.

I learned that this capacity was innate, that it was built into my system. It had been working quite beautifully in me when I was a small child, as it does in all of us, but I had unknowingly been interfering with it since then, as we all do. I was actually learning how to restore that capacity - to get it back again, as much as possible. I could dance pretty well before my lessons, but little did I know the extent to which I was still working against myself, preventing myself from being as good as I could be.

What I was learning seemed important, not just for dancers, but for anyone who wants to feel balanced, light and free as they go about their daily activities. Let's be honest - how many of us actually experience that on a regular basis? I wanted more of that for myself, and I wanted to be able to share it effectively with other people. I decided to go through the 3-year, full-time training required to become a qualified Alexander teacher, and I obtained my certification in 1993.

Since then a lot has changed. I moved myself and my teaching practice from New York City to Mahopac, NY several years ago. I met a wonderful man named Joe and married him. I discovered the wonderful world of contra dancing. I have become an avid quilter. I have a vegetable garden. I'm even learning to play the piano accordion (at the age of 50-something).

The Alexander Technique continues to be the most valuable and practical method I have found for helping me engage in all of those activities in the most effective and comfortable way possible. It allows me to dance with ease and freedom of movement, to sit at my sewing machine and computer without neck, shoulder or back discomfort, to think more creatively, and to manage a 20-pound accordion strapped around my body without it dragging me down. It helps me to approach the process of learning to play music with more of a sense of calm, rather than with tension or fear of making mistakes. It assists me while walking, gardening, mowing, and kayaking. It helps me to be more in touch with myself - to know my limits, to know when I am unnecesarily limiting myself, and to know the difference. I am certain it has helped me prevent injury to myself.

How can one technique do all that, especially without exercises? The Alexander Technique is different from any other method because it teaches the fundamental principles that govern all good posture and movement. Those principles apply to virtually all activity. They can be easily learned. They are simple. They are practical. They have scientific backing. I have seen them make a huge difference in people's lives over the years.

I can help you learn how to apply those principles in your life. All it takes is a willingness on your part to step into the adventure of discovering what they can mean for you.