Frank Pierce Jones (1905–1975), US professor of Classics and a teacher and researcher of the Alexander Technique.
Life
Jones was an instructor in Greek and Latin at Brown University 1937–41. In 1938 he started having lessons with A. R. and subsequently trained as teacher (1941–44), first with F. M. and later with A. R. He started teaching in Boston in 1945. Perceiving the need for more formal research into the workings of the Technique, Jones studied anatomy and physiology and received what amounted to private tuition from a number of scientists in order to undertake such research himself. Between 1949 and 1972 he carried out a number of experiments at Tufts University on the influence of the head-neck-back relationship on movement. An important summary of these studies was published in Psychological Review in 1965, ‘Method for changing stereotyped response patterns by the inhibition of certain postural sets.’ Jones also wrote an introduction to the Technique and his research which was published posthumously as Body Awareness in Action (1976).[1]
Writings
Jones wrote extensively on the Technique and his research of the Technique which were published mainly in academic journals. Two articles, ‘Learning How to Learn’ and ‘A Technique for Musicians’, were later published as booklets. A selection of 40 scientific and humanistic papers on the Technique was published in 1999 as Collected Writings on the Alexander Technique (edited by Theodore Dimon Jr.).[2] His Body Awareness in Action (1976), later republished under Jone’s intended title, Freedom to Change (1996), [3] is an introduction to the Alexander Technique by way of relating Alexander’s history and development of the Technique.
Descriptions
- ‘Frank Pierce Jones’s life and work’ by Missy Vineyard provides an overview of Jones’s life and his most significant work.[4]
- ‘The research contributions of Frank Pierce Jones’ by Richard A. Brown provides a history and an overview of Jones’ investigations of the Alexander Technique.[5]
- ‘Frank Pierce Jones’s views on the Alexander Technique’ by Tommy Thompson on the Technique’s practical application in ‘pursuing the possibility of changes of mental atttiude and the extension of the range within which free will can operate’.[6]
- A description of Jones’s teaching can be found in the article, ‘Reflections on my work with Frank Pierce Jones in light of my other experiences with the Alexander Technique’ by Joe Armstrong (2016).[7]
Video
There is a silent black and white film footage of Jones teaching which is in private ownership and has not been published.
Annotations
- Escape From the Monkey Hatch by Donald L. Weed is an annotation of the first 21 pages of F. P. Jones’ Freedom to Change.[8]
See also Frank P. Jones’s research.
