Gerda Alexander

Gerda Alexander (February 15, 1908 – February 21, 1994) was a German / Danish teacher who developed a body-based method called Eutony. Her parents were enthusiasts of Dalcroze Eurhythmics, passing on to her a similar interest in arts and movement. She studied in Blensdorf-Schulen in Wuppertal and was graduated in the Hochschule für Musik in Berlin in 1929.

Her studies about movement and relaxation, add to the rheumatic fever and endocarditis that she contracted when she was young, inspired her to find ways to look for a more economic form of movement. She found a way of regulating neuromuscular tone, what was confirmed later with the discovery of Gama System. [1]

By means of observation and reflection on her students, their own ailments and difficulties in mobility, and the investigation of the neuropsychological bases of human movement, she molded her own method. The name, "eutony" (from Greek Eu: good, - and of Latin Tonus: tension, the grade of tension or elasticity of muscle fibers) was coined with the help of the Dr. med. Alfred Bartussek to express the idea of a harmoniously balanced "tonicity in constant adaptation to the state or activity of the moment". She postulated that "it is important, in treatment, not to give and do more than is necessary, so that the other can rely on himself. It is not that I am a great master who gives you help. Rather, I can introduce you to my work for your own self-discovery."[2]

She died on February 21, 1994, six days after her 86th birthday.


Further reading
  • Alexander, Gerda (1981). Eutony; The holistic discovery of the total person. New York: Felix Morrow.
  • Vishnivetz, Berta (1994). Eutonía; La Educación del Cuerpo hacia el Ser. Buenos Aires / Madrid: Paidós.


gollark: BEE eugenics.
gollark: It's the ME network in our bee eugenics machine.
gollark: Interesting idea. What were Hitler's other policies? Did he have many?
gollark: I may have to bias its "value of bee life" function.
gollark: It seems that the eugenics machine is accidentally selecting for the more common bees instead of the ones we need for cocoa and such.

References
  1. Knaster, Mirka (1996). Discovering the Body's Wisdom: A Comprehensive Guide to More Than Fifty Mind-Body Practices. Bantam. pp. 222–6. ISBN 9780307575500.
  2. Reza Leah Bat Pinchas. (January–February 1986). ""The Energy is in the Bones": Eutony's Gerda Alexander". Yoga Journal (66): 21–24.


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